Now, in an effort to push agents to achieve his mass deportation agenda, Trump has granted the agency a massive, record-breaking cash infusion, while in the same stroke, he eliminated the oversight bodies that are supposed to regulate ICE’s actions. One former top ICE official says that there’s a worryingly real possibility that the incoming agents will be seeded from “Proud Boys and other insurrectionists.” Whether or not that nightmare scenario is realized, the results of Trump’s agent expansion and oversight contraction will likely spell disaster for civil liberties across the country.

For years, ICE has been accused of using problematic tactics when enforcing immigration law, a trend that has skyrocketed since Trump took office again this year. By March, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had announced that the three oversight divisions within DHS were effectively shutting down: the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman. These were established by Congress as a way to implement oversight of DHS and focused on protecting detainees’ civil rights and ensuring they were receiving immigration-related benefits. Noem fired a majority of their staff by claiming their work was creating “roadblocks” to immigration enforcement.

The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights group sued, forcing the oversight bodies to remain open, though key positions are either empty or being held by Trump-aligned figures—Troup Hemenway, a former leader on Project 2025, was appointed acting officer for the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

However, the Trump administration’s approach to immigration, manipulating existing laws and often straight-up violating them, is not exactly new. Disturbing reports of abuse at immigration detention centers surfaced under the Biden administration, problematic family detention tactics were used by the Obama administration, and Trump’s first administration pursued a notorious zero-tolerance policy that resulted in thousands of parents being deported while their children remained in the U.S. “Our system makes no sense whatsoever and serves nobody’s interests,” Shuchart said. “The only thing that’s ever going to work is legislation.”

Shuchart believes the Trump administration’s solution, which has thus far included firing staff, eliminating guardrails, and throwing billions more dollars at an overwhelmed agency so it can meet the president’s mass deportation goal as quickly as possible, is pure fantasy. The situation facing DHS and all the agencies it oversees is begging for a policy intervention that outlines real leadership and a plan, something money cannot buy.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Who do they think they’ve already been hiring? Ice or border patrol or whatever you want to call them have always hired from the worst of our nation. Truly the dregs of our society work on the border. There’s a reason why at the school of the Americas when they were teaching fascist kill squads to rape nuns systematically that border patrol agents were some of the instructors.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    former racist is worried that his former employer might hire even bigger racists

    Uh, okay.

    • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      4 days ago

      I think people are kind of missing the point here. As bad as things have been, they’re about to get way worse. Like how people thought they would be prepared for Trump’s second second term bc they already lived through his first term.

      The budget they have given ICE bc of the BBB is insane. They’ve basically thrown money at a problem bc they don’t know how to solve an issue of poor leadership. So not only will they be expanding, they might even be definitely are getting access to all kinds of military toys and surveillance tools.

  • PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au
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    4 days ago

    “When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.” -Tim Snyder

    For as much as I respect Snyder I don’t think that’s actually true. People fighting for our own freedom against the US government has been a very frequent feature of US history. But, something has definitely come when we reach that point, yes.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      “when small people begin to cast big shadows, it means the sun is about to set” --Lin Yutang

  • Asafum@feddit.nl
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    4 days ago

    It’s really something else how these fucks manage to make every day worse than the last…