On October 22, progressive members of the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security, claiming that “at least 170 U.S. citizens have been unlawfully detained by the agency.”
Within hours, other politicians and media figures quickly piled on, repeatedly accusing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers of breaking the law by wrongfully arresting American citizens, rather than illegal aliens. The message they sent was clear: President Donald Trump and DHS are acting as rogue authoritarians, callously arresting those who oppose their political agenda.
This narrative is nothing new. Smearing DHS and the president, especially with respect to immigration policy, is designed to score political points whilst ignoring public safety. But their claims collapse under basic scrutiny.
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Here are the facts.
The Oversight Committee’s letter cites a ProPublica report published on Oct. 16, which claims to identify “more than 170 cases this year where citizens were detained at raids and protests.” As usual with the media outrage machine, they failed to read the full report — and federal law.
First, the report states that, of the 170 arrests, 130 were due to “interfering with or assaulting officers” during protests and riots designed to impede ICE’s ability to enforce immigration law. Many of these charges were ultimately dropped, but the unconscionable and defiant targeting of ICE agents is much larger than the arrest numbers suggest. According to DHS data, ICE officers are experiencing a historic 8,000% increase in death threats and a 1,000% increase in harassment, assaults, and doxxing incidents targeting them and their families.
Second, ICE officers are federal law enforcement officers and have clear legal authority to detain individuals who violate any federal law. Title 8 of the U.S. code gives ICE officers the ability “to make arrests for any offense against the United States, if the offense is committed in the officer’s or employee’s presence.” When ICE agents detain an American citizen who commits a federal crime — such as assaulting an officer — that is not overreach; it is the lawful exercise of federal authority.
Third, ICE officers are simply carrying our immigration laws as passed by both parties of the U.S. Congress. The Homeland Security Act of 2002, which created ICE as we know it today, passed the U.S. Senate with a strong bipartisan majority of 90 votes. The dangerous and reckless idea that ICE officers are mere pawns of Trump’s immigration crackdown belies the law, history, and common sense. The laws that ICE is currently enforcing are decades old – and were the same when President Barack Obama was labeled the “Deporter-in-Chief.” Nonetheless, activists and the media erroneously decry the Trump administration as acting illegally and immorally.
And finally, when will the men and women of ICE get the credit they deserve for their heroic work? In nine months, they have removed nearly 550,000 illegal aliens, including cartel members, rapists, murderers, drug traffickers, and child sex offenders.
Do politicians and media figures want these dangerous criminals to remain in the United States? Do they want them to live in their neighborhoods? Do they want them in their schools, at their workplaces, or in the pews of their churches?
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To move forward as a country, our politicians and media figures must operate in the realm of reality — because the lives of our sworn federal agents are at stake. Despite repeated lies to the contrary, ICE is operating with clear legal authority under laws passed by both parties.
Dishonest public figures need to do better.
Cooper J. Smith serves as Director of Homeland Security and Immigration at the America First Policy Institute. He previously served at the Department of Homeland Security and White House during the first Trump administration.
