Intimidation and Conformance Enforcement (ICE)

While authoritarian leaders defend their position at the top of a strict hierarchy, true authoritarianism takes root at the ground level. The thugs who carry out the orders are usually bullies endowed with authority in the form of badges and instructed to go into the streets and intimidate ordinary people. They are generally not educated in law, nor do they have a basic understanding of societal workings. They see themselves as avengers against perceived enemies, often without a clear definition. It doesn't matter whether they obey the law. It doesn’t even matter that they perform their duties correctly. What truly matters is the fear and intimidation they spread, all in service to the authoritarian leader who has a simple message: comply with my wishes, and you’ll be okay.

Hitler had his Brownshirts. Mussolini had his Blackshirts. Maduro has his Colectivos. Even in the United States, many local authorities operated in conjunction with the Ku Klux Klan to establish a local order that lynched anyone who interfered with the power structure. These enforcers weren’t aberrations; they were the necessary foot soldiers of authoritarian regimes. And in our modern era, the U.S. has its own version.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, was originally established as a department within Homeland Security to enforce immigration policies under President George W. Bush. But ICE has since evolved into something far more sinister: a paramilitary arm of the Trump Administration, used not for lawful enforcement but for political intimidation. Their official mandate may remain customs enforcement, but in practice, they snatch people off the streets and disappear them into for-profit detention centers, hidden from public scrutiny.

Part of what makes ICE so dangerous is the lack of accountability built into its structure. Unlike local police forces, ICE operates under federal jurisdiction with limited external oversight, meaning abuses often go unchecked and victims are left with little, if any, recourse as they disappear from society.

You might wonder if this is an exaggeration; surely this isn’t how federal agencies behave in a democracy. Is it? On the contrary, here are just a few of the recent documented abuses by ICE agents:

• Last Friday, the Democratic mayor of Newark was arrested and detained for trying to lawfully inspect a privately operated ICE detention facility in his city. Three Democratic members of Congress were roughed up when they tried to step in.

• On May 5, Daniel Orellana, a 25-year-old Guatemalan, was detained at a Massachusetts gas station. Even after agents were told they had the wrong person, one reportedly said, “OK, but we’re going to take you anyway.”

• On April 26, Department of Homeland Security court papers admitted that ICE agents had no warrant when they arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and lawful permanent resident.

• On April 24, in Oklahoma City, ICE agents raided the home of a U.S. citizen family in the middle of the night using a warrant for someone else. They forced the family outside in the rain, half-dressed, and confiscated phones, laptops, and cash as "evidence."

• On April 14, ICE agents detained a 19-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker and deported him to the Cecot prison in El Salvador, despite his lack of criminal convictions or even tattoos. According to his father, one ICE agent said: “No, he’s not the one,” only for another to respond, “Take him anyway.”

• On April 22, plainclothes ICE agents with no badges or warrants detained two men during a courthouse raid in Charlottesville, Virginia. Two bystanders who asked to see a warrant were told not to “impede” the arrest and are now facing threats of prosecution.

This is not law enforcement. It is intimidation. And it is working exactly as intended.

Adding fuel to the fire, the Trump Administration has recently floated the idea of suspending Habeas Corpus, a constitutional safeguard that ensures anyone detained, citizen or otherwise, has the right to be heard in court. Why suspend this basic right? The reason seems clear; it’s the perfect vehicle to intimidate people with impunity. It allows street-level gangs to operate unchecked as they help usher in a new authoritarian regime.

Here's the frustrating part: Rather than confronting ICE head-on, many Democrats have chosen political safety over moral clarity, presumably fearing Republican attacks more than the collapse of our Constitution. Their silence is deafening, and their inaction enables the continued erosion of our democratic foundations.

ICE is going far beyond its original mandate. It is rapidly evolving into a tool for authoritarian consolidation, used to enforce ideological conformity and silence opposition. If left unchecked, we may soon see ICE agents riding in the back of pickup trucks, guns-a-blazing, menacing the street in much the same way as militarized enforcers in failed Middle Eastern states.

Our call to action is clear: We must push back at every opportunity when we see ICE at work. Yes, it will involve risk, and we, as individuals, must weigh the risk against our own personal safety. But to allow this to continue unabated is to allow the rapid takeover of our cherished democracy and ultimately the loss of our freedoms and liberties. If we fail to resist now, history will not forgive our silence. The time is now.