MELT THE ICE!

ICE should be defunded and disarmed.

Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency responsible for enforcing immigration laws and investigations related to customs and trade. It has been around since 2003.

Under Trump, it has gone rogue. It is poorly led; agents are poorly trained, poorly behaved and — as we have seen repeatedly — quick to shoot; they are masked, nameless goons assaulting whomever they wish. The agents should be disarmed immediately. ICE should be defunded, killed off as soon as possible. Its functions should be transferred to Customs and Border Protection CBP (also established in 2003). That ICE has been allowed to run amok in the mushrooming autocracy Americans now live in is a disgrace with profound ramifications on our civil rights and liberties. A large number of us, perhaps a majority, believe ICE performs a critical function. A large number, but perhaps still a minority, do not agree.

We live in a world of the possible, not the perfect. Merging ICE into CBP is not ideal but politically possible, if not now, then when Trump is gone. He now seems to realize the  big mess he created in Minneapolis makes for really bad TV and is squarely on him. CBP also has a police function but seems to carry it out more capably. It has 58,000 employees; ICE about 22,000.

Melting the ICE — right now — requires:  [1] new top leadership — Bovino was pulled out of Minneapolis, a start — but Trump then sent in Tom Homan, his border czar, to replace him; [2] no matter ICE's future, new police training protocols should be up and running within six months: we have many capable police training facilities in our large cities, e.g., the NYPD under Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mayor Mamdani; [3] the masks must come off immediately; [4] the use of tear gas and other irritants is forbidden without a court order; 5] agents will not carry guns; [6] numbered  badges will be worn visibly; [7] every agent will wear a visible name tag on the front of his bulletproof vest; [8] body cameras will be on at all times during an agent’s shift; [9] ICE may enter a home only with a judicial (not an administrative) warrant.

The allegation that revealing identities will result in doxxing or other threats to their persons is a tolerable risk, probably overblown at best and mostly unlikely if ICE agents conducted themselves as peace officers and not poorly led jack-booted thugs.

Melt the ICE!