How Trump’s ‘private’ police force is putting US democracy on Ice

South Korea has said it will launch an investigation into possible human rights violations after hundreds of its citizens were detained in a US immigration raid.

So what? Good luck with that. The incident at a Hyundai plant in Georgia earlier this month caused a diplomatic rift with a key US ally and shone a spotlight on the tactics employed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice): racial profiling, detention without trial, masking the identities of Ice officers and deportation to third countries in violation of international law.

Ice has spearheaded President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Images of the South Korean workers in shackles and handcuffs have sparked outrage in Seoul and threatened future investment in the US.

President Lee Jae Myung has warned that South Korean companies are questioning whether investing in the US is worth the risks – but the Ice deportation machine has built up a momentum that may prove unstoppable.

Trump’s police force. With billions of dollars in funding and a massive recruitment drive, Ice is poised to become the largest law enforcement agency in the US.

Since Trump took back the White House in January, promising to deport millions of illegal migrants, Ice agents have launched raids on a string of US cities. The agency has deported nearly 200,000 people in the first seven months of the administration. Latino communities in particular have been targeted. Many undocumented migrants now live in hiding.

Trump has sent the National Guard into Los Angeles and Washington DC to support the crackdown by Ice. Further deployments are threatened in Memphis and Chicago.

Footage of masked men who refuse to identify themselves snatching people off the street has raised alarm at home and abroad that America is sliding into authoritarianism. Democrats and civil rights groups claim Trump is turning Ice into his own police force, loyal to him and largely shielded from legal accountability.

Who’s in charge?

• Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar” and former Ice director, now oversees immigration policy and the deportation of undocumented migrants.
• Kristi Noem, secretary for homeland security. Nicknamed “Ice Barbie” by critics, Noem has staged a string of photoshoots to promote Ice’s work, including a visit to the prison in El Salvador where the administration has sent hundreds of deportees.
• Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, is the chief architect of the anti-immigration strategy. He was a driver of the “zero tolerance” policy that saw thousands of children separated from their parents at the border during Trump’s first term. Miller also spearheaded the “Muslim ban” that barred travel to the US from several Muslim-majority countries.

Horror stories. One detainee who’s become a cause celebre is Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran man mistakenly deported by Ice in March and jailed in El Salvador’s notorious Cecot prison. He was returned to the US in June but still faces criminal charges and was told last week he is to be deported again, this time to the tiny southern African nation of Eswatini.

Thousands more have been forcibly disappeared, many to “third countries” far from their homeland.

The Trump administration has struck secretive deals with governments across South America to receive deported migrants. Since August, deportees have arrived in Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan.

Flights. Migrant advocacy groups have fought to stop deportation flights, even securing court injunctions to halt planes on the tarmac. Even so, the Ice Flight Monitor run by the nonprofit Human Rights First believes the Trump administration carried out at least 7,454 flights to the end of August.

Since the US supreme court allowed the White House to resume deporting migrants to “third countries” in June, Ice flights have accelerated, averaging 45 a day.

Big is beautiful. Ice is awash with cash, after Republicans in Congress passed Trump’s flagship tax and spending bill in July. The “big beautiful bill” set aside funds to complete the construction of Trump’s border wall, and

• roughly $165bn for immigration enforcement and border security …

• … including $75bn in extra funding for Ice, making it the wealthiest law enforcement agency in the government by far.

Target shooting. Miller summoned Ice officials for a dressing down in May, demanding a “minimum” quota of 3,000 arrests a day to meet a target of 1m deportations by the end of the year.

When Ice officers said they had prioritised catching migrants with criminal records, Miller reportedly snapped back: “What do you mean you’re going after criminals? Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7‑Eleven?”

Backlash. Ice has since resorted to aggressive new tactics. In June, agents seized dozens of day labourers looking for work in the car park of a Home Depot in central Los Angeles. That and other raids sparked large-scale protests; Trump sent in marines and National Guard troops in response.

“We’re going to have troops everywhere,” Trump said. “We’re not going to let our country be torn apart.”

Lawsuit. California governor Gavin Newsom condemned Trump’s move as “the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial president”. A federal judge ruled this month that the National Guard deployment was illegal. The Trump administration accused the judge of “trying to usurp the authority of the commander-in-chief to protect American cities from violence and destruction”.

At what cost? The crackdown has been blamed for a slump in tourism to the US, not helped by reports of international visitors being detained at the border and deported. Hotspots such as New York and Las Vegas have reported a sharp drop in visitors. Estimates put the projected cost to the US economy this year at almost $30bn, while tourism in Europe has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.

How is this legal? The administration has faced a flurry of lawsuits. Migrant advocates have blocked Trump’s attempt to undermine birthright citizenship – the constitutional right to American citizenship for children born in the US, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court rejected Trump’s attempt to use the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants accused of being members of a Venezuelan street gang. That case appears set to return to the supreme court, however, where the 6-3 conservative majority has handed the president several notable victories.

In June, the court let Trump resume deporting migrants to “third countries”. In another 6-3 ruling earlier this month, it lifted restrictions that barred Ice patrols in Los Angeles from using racial profiling to target migrants.

Millions of Americans will now “have to live in a country where the government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish and appears to work a low-wage job”, liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissenting opinion.

What next? Civil rights groups have warned that Ice agents could be deployed at polling stations during next year’s crucial midterm elections, when control of Congress is up for grabs. That could drive down turnout among Latino voters. The administration is likely to continue seeking to undermine birthright citizenship via Republican-held states.

Photographs by Octavio Jones/ AFP via Getty Images