Don't forget about ICE
- Andrew Meunier
- 17 hours ago
- 4 min read
Renée Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens, were killed by federal agents in the winter of 2026 during Operation Metro Surge. In response to the public backlash, President Trump eventually made personnel changes at the Department of Homeland Security, including reassigning Customs and Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino and replacing DHS head Kristi Noem with Markwayne Mullin. These actions may have led the average news consumer to shift their focus away from ICE and CBP. However, the behavior of these agencies in the intervening months remains extremely concerning. Here are a few facts and stories that are worth keeping in mind as we enter crucial midterm elections this fall.
No justice for Minneapolis killings
As of August 2026, no one has been criminally charged with the killings of Renée Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal agents. In one positive development, federal prosecutors have finally shared evidence from the killings with Minnesota investigators (after withholding it for 6 months).
More DHS killings
Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was shot by an immigration officer in Biddeford, Maine in July. No body camera footage was recorded by the officers on the scene. Guerrero was not the target of an immigration action, had done nothing illegal, and was shot while he was inside his vehicle. Guerrero had a 3-year-old daughter.
At least nine people have been killed by immigration officers since increased enforcement actions in 2025. No criminal charges have been filed.
More unprofessional and dangerous behavior
An ICE officer drew his gun on Carolina Molina as he accused her of trying to run them over. Molina recorded dashcam and phone footage during the interaction that clearly disputes this. Molina is a U.S. citizen, was unarmed, and hasn’t been charged with any crime. The officer was masked and had no visible identification.
Pointing a gun in the face of an unarmed person is an extreme and dangerous act (not to mention highly unprofessional from a law enforcement standpoint). There must be
accountability for violations like this.
Deportations
Past policy of DHS has been to focus on deporting active criminals. As the agency is trying to satisfy the administration’s demands for higher deportation numbers, they are serving very old deportation orders on nonviolent persons, some of whom have been U.S. residents for decades. Many are taken into custody during routine immigration check-ins that they have been dutifully attending for years.
One Venezuelan family, including a pregnant mother and her 7-year-old daughter, tried to follow the administration’s guidance around self-deportation and submitted documents via the CBP app. At their next check-in, they were detained and moved to the Dilley Detention center on July 7th. After over a month of detention, the 7-year-old is suicidal. As of this writing, they are still detained.
Afghans who supported U.S. troops and are living in the U.S. on green cards (“Special Immigrant Visas”) are increasingly concerned that they could face deportation. Although there has been no action yet, there has been an uptick of notices being sent to Afghan green card holders stating that the basis for their visas has been revoked. The Trump Administration has suspended refugee programs and ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 300,000 Haitians early this summer, leading some to worry that Afghan green card holders may be targeted next.
Detention centers
About 88,000 people are currently being held in DHS detention facilities, with the number of people being held in ICE detention on any given day increasing by 58% between 2025 and 2026. Large private contractors such as CoreCivic and The GEO Group run many detention centers. Federal agencies that are tasked with providing oversight of detention centers (e.g., The Office of Detention Oversight at DHS and the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties) have suffered budget cuts and layoffs. A federal judge recently found that immigration detention centers such as the Dilley facility were housing detainees in dangerous conditions. Another judge in made a similar ruling regarding the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California.
On a positive note, the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility in Florida will be closing after facing challenges from legal groups over rushed environmental reviews (the facility sits in the Everglades) and allegations of horrendous conditions there.
DHS funding
The Department of Homeland Security has almost unlimited funds when compared to many other U.S. agencies. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act increased the agency’s funding from around $6 billion to about $85 billion. According to the law, ICE has $75 billion to spend over four years (in addition to a base annual budget of around $10 billion). For reference, the FBI’s budget in 2025 was about $11 billion and the U.S. Marine Corps' 2026 budget proposal is about $57 billion.
The incredible funding levels of ICE are a major concern going forward. Supplementary funding to ICE in 2025 has led to dangerous pace of hiring ICE agents, obviously at the expense of quality vetting and training. Money is being spent on detention centers at furious rate and most of it is going to private contractors with minimal oversight.
If Democrats succeed in winning control of the House of Representatives in November 2026, perhaps ICE will finally get some real oversight. As for the post-Trump era, leaders must plan for what to do with an agency like ICE, bloated as it is with agents of dubious character who seem to be only accountable to the President. "Abolish the police" was always a horrible slogan and a worse idea. "Abolish ICE" might make more sense. DHS itself is only about 24 years old and ICE is even younger. It may not be possible to reform this agency, in which case we need to think seriously about how our government can carry out the essential missions of ICE and CBP with the rigorous accountability we should expect of any U.S. law enforcement agency and without the runaway spending, unnecessary violence, and disregard for human rights.
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