by Arya Mehta

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE’s stated mission is to protect America from cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety. This mission is executed through the enforcement of more than 400 federal statutes and focuses on immigration enforcement, preventing terrorism and combating the illegal movement of people and goods. ICE has two primary components: Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). 

Under President Donald Trump, ICE has been commanded to pursue hard-line measures to deter asylum seekers, including expanding detention, and increasing family separations. Many people argue that detention of immigrants and separation of families has been happening since the 1890s. So why is it becoming a problem now? To start with, ICE under the Trump administration has been detaining people at a much higher rate. They are also kept under horrible conditions with little to no access to toilets and showers. This leads to massively unsanitary conditions which then leads to most people falling ill. 

This becomes an even more severe issue as the separation of children from their guardians and parents is at a much higher rate than the previous years. All these separated children are kept in jail like conditions. Some children have also reported facing physical and sexual abuse by the officers. As these places are overcrowded, the detention centers have also become hot beds for the Corona virus to spread. ICE has been separating children with no plan of reuniting them with their parents/guardians as they have failed to create a system to track this. In some cases, the custody of children is given to child traffickers pretending to be the parent or guardian. In some cases after separation the family is deported without the child making it nearly impossible for them to reunite. 

It is abundantly clear that ICE has no plan. People have been protesting for a while now in favor of abolishing ICE. The question also became a key component of the Democratic debates. Most notably, Bernie Sanders wanted to abolish ICE. Joe Biden on the other hand, who will be competing against Donal Trump, was unclear on his stance on this subject. This is concerning as even if Joe Biden gets elected into office, there is a chance he will follow Donald Trump’s stance on this matter. 

What the People can do: 

● Participate in protests to abolish ICE 

● Create awareness among their friends and family 

● Make sure they themselves are fully educated on this matter before trying to educate other people. Spread of misinformation can kill such matters 

In the end, if everyone comes together on this issue we can force the government to change their policies and do what’s right.