ICE Won’t Come for You — But You Could Still Be Its Victim
There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that reads:
“Hang one to scare a hundred.”
Donald Trump is no scholar. But he knows instinctively how to govern by that pearl of wisdom.
Whether it’s menacing the national media, stripping security clearances from major law firms, or ending political careers with a single tweet, Trump understands the power of fear.
Nowhere is he using that power more chillingly than through the agency known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement — ICE.
Too many Americans are sleeping on how ICE might become the secret police they never thought possible in this country.
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For the first 227 years of American history, there was no such thing as ICE. Not even close.
The agency was established in 2003 as part of the War on Terror. In the fear that gripped Americans after 9/11, a newly vulnerable people were willing to err in the direction of maximum police power to identify, pursue, and eliminate perceived terrorists and other threats.
ICE was born out of a legitimate concern for national safety. It was also born out of panic — and that panic gave way to a federal law enforcement agency with unprecedented power, almost no guardrails, and a shocking lack of accountability.
Civil libertarians warned from the start. And though they were often vindicated over the next two decades, it’s only now — in 2025 — that their worst fears are becoming reality.
Today, ICE answers to no one but Donald Trump and his feared enforcers. Its agents act with broad immunity and no meaningful oversight. No other law enforcement agency in the U.S. has anything resembling its unchecked power.
That’s why Todd Lyons, acting ICE director, had the audacity to say the following last week to a national audience:
“Politicians need to stop putting my people in danger. I’m not asking them to stop. I’m demanding that they stop.”
When a no-name bureaucrat can “demand” fealty of the nation’s politicians, we’re in a dark place. ICE isn’t bluffing.
Think Lyons’ despicable rhetoric was just bluster?
Tell that to Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Mary Triggiano, who was charged with obstruction related to ICE activities. Despite serving as a sitting judge, she was surrounded and handcuffed by six FBI agents outside her courtroom. (ICE usually does its own storm trooping.)
Tell it to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, arrested by ICE agents at a peaceful protest. Yes, the mayor of a major American city was detained for several hours and charged with trespassing by ICE agents. The charges were dropped, but Baraka has filed a federal lawsuit for malicious prosecution, as he should have.
Tell it to Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), arrested for allegedly assaulting and interfering with officers at the same protest. No word on how badly the ICE agents were injured.
Tell it to the aide to Rep. Jerry Nadler, handcuffed after ICE or DHS agents entered Nadler’s office uninvited and accosted her. The agents claimed they were there to protect his staff. Some protection.
Tell it to David Huerta, SEIU California president, who was peacefully recording ICE raids in downtown Los Angeles when, according to witnesses, he was pepper-sprayed, violently pushed to the ground, injured, handcuffed and detained.
All of these previously unthinkable acts of repression have happened at the hands of ICE in just the past two months — in the United States of America.
The through line: ICE stands more than eager to execute its marching orders for mass deportations by expanding its reach far beyond undocumented immigrants. Now, anyone who dares to get in its way — including elected officials — can expect jack-booted thug treatment as well.
ICE has embarked on a mission to expand its footprint every day. Now, more than ever, with men like Lyons (and Tom Homan and Stephen Miller) at the helm, cruelty is the point. And in turn, that’s the means of spreading fear and terror.
Carol Mayorga, a beloved "soccer mom" in conservative Kennett, Missouri — a 20-year resident and devoted parent — was arrested by ICE after complying with what she thought was a routine check-in. Her detention sparked widespread protest. She was released, but despite having lived a model life in this country, she still faces deportation.
Heidy Cifuentes was separated from her three U.S.-born children (one of whom has autism) despite having no criminal record.
An 18-year-old student in the Midwest was arrested by ICE on his way to volleyball practice — not for anything he did, but because they were targeting his father.
A Connecticut high school senior with no criminal history was arrested just days before graduation. He missed his ceremony. His classmates were terrified. His administrators said they’d never seen anything like it.
A 3-year-old child was arrested during a sweep in San Francisco. ICE has offered no public explanation.
During his video statement, Lyons tried to dress up ICE’s actions in patriotic garb:
“My officers and agents walk into danger so other people can sleep safely at night,
so kids can make it to school safely and play outside.”
Unbelievable.
No, it is “his” officers and agents who pose the danger. Todd Lyons’ ICE is taking on all the traits of a secret police force — not unlike the ones the world has seen before.
To those who say it cannot happen here, remind me of that other time in American history when a sitting judge was handcuffed and arrested outside her courtroom by federal agents after failing to see things the federal government’s way. Remind me of other instances of the feds raiding Congressional offices and busting mayors for protesting peacefully against, yes, the feds.
It’s not certain Trump’s ICE will be linked in history with Putin’s KGB. Or that it will join the ranks of notorious secret-police forces like Castro’s G2, Mao’s Red Guard or even that one called the Gestapo.
But for the first time in our history, it’s not certain that it won’t be. And there’s no denying that ICE has decided to employ the same organizing principle that fueled the power, and the terror, of the world’s worst:
“Hang one to scare a hundred.”
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