The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, is a deportation sector you might have heard about recently. This article serves as a brief overview for people new to the concept of ICE’s mission and what they’ve done so far in the US.
Why was ICE created?
ICE was formed as a result of the tragedy on September 11th, 2001 as a way to remove illegal undocumented immigrants from the country and prevent any more disasters from happening. They were heavily reinforced after Trump’s 2025 reelection to carry out his mass deportation initiative and can be found even in major cities in Canada today such as Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.
What rights does ICE have?
Agents are allowed to arrest and detain people who are suspected of illegal immigration, but these suspects are protected from detainment as long as they don’t interfere with an arrest, assault an agent, or “ICE suspect the person of being in the US illegally.”
Furthermore, law enforcement “can only use deadly force [such as gunfire] if the person poses a serious danger to them or other people, or the person has committed a violent crime.”
ICE reports they have detained 605 000 people between January 20th to December 10th 2025.
When a person is detained, they are either released after questioning or sent to a larger detention facility. During this process, their location is often unknown to their family and lawyers for a matter of days.
What Has ICE Done?
Many people have been severely affected by ICE’s administration under ambiguous adherence to law enforcement.
Renee Good
In Minneapolis on January 7th 2026, ICE agents surrounded Good’s SUV and demanded her to exit the vehicle. After an angry exchange with the officers and refusal, Good began to drive away before Jonathan Ross, an agent, released fire. Good was shot three times and didn’t survive.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Renee of being a terrorist with no evidence to justify that her coworker’s shooting was correct. The US department of justice agrees with her saying that the ICE agent was “justified” in shooting, killing Renee Good.
Alex Pretti
Pretti and a female were ordered to move out of the roadway, to which they refused. An ICE agent was ordered to pepper spray them and attempted to detain Pretti. After realizing Pretti had a gun on his legally gun-licenced person, agents proceeded to shoot him ten times in defense for his gun being “dangerous and unpredictable.”
Later on national TV, treasury secretary Scott Bessent was asked if he wanted to retract his take on Pretti’s death being “justified because he had a gun on him.” Bessent said no, proceeded to change the topic, and started to deny his original claim after being interrogated more.
Liam Conejos Ramos
While leaving preschool with his dad, 5 year old Liam was stopped and detained by ICE agents and used as “bait” as more officers pursued his father.
Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tristia McLaughlin says that ICE did not target the child, but rather was performing a “targeted operation” on his father, who was referred to as an “illegal alien from Ecuador.”
Despite having multiple families who offered to take custody of Liam while his father was away, ICE arrested the preschooler anyways.