A lot of power and even more money What is this agency that is dividing America? Everything you need to know about ICE

The US federal agency ICE arrests, detains and deports. It stands for tough immigration enforcement, multi-billion dollar budgets and attracts harsh criticism. An overview of its tasks, history and controversies.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Its central task is the enforcement of immigration and customs laws within the USA.

ICE is primarily responsible for tracking down, arresting, detaining and deporting people without valid residency status. Unlike the Border Patrol, ICE works primarily in the interior of the country and not at the border. The authority is also active in criminal law.

ICE also has its own criminal investigation department: Homeland Security Investigations is part of ICE and carries out investigations into human and goods trafficking, smuggling of migrants, financial crimes, illegal arms and drug trafficking as well as security-related violations and terrorism.

ICE differs from other U.S. security agencies such as the FBI, which has broad national security and law enforcement responsibilities, and the Border Patrol, which focuses on direct border surveillance.

ICE was established in 2003 as a direct result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when the U.S. took a radical step: homeland security, migration and border security should no longer be thought of separately. ICE systematically linked immigration enforcement with terrorism, customs and criminal prosecution for the first time.

With the creation of the new Department of Homeland Security, the government under President George W. Bush brought together more than 20 agencies. The aim was to create a security apparatus that would react faster, share information better and recognize potential threats early on. ICE was also created as part of this process.

The basic assumption was that anyone in the country illegally could evade state control and therefore also pose a security risk. ICE was intended to close precisely these "gaps in the system", especially in the interior of the country, far away from the traditional border posts.

An analysis by the Cato Institute shows that there is hardly any evidence of a link between illegal migration and terrorism. The risk of US citizens dying as a result of a terrorist attack by a foreigner in the USA is extremely low: around 1 in 3.6 million per year. The difference by residence status is particularly striking. The risk from refugees is 1 in 3.64 billion, from irregular immigrants even 1 in 10.9 billion per year. It is significantly higher - although still very low - for tourists with a B visa: around 1 in 3.9 million.

Since its founding in 2003, ICE has developed into one of the most powerful instruments of US immigration enforcement. In the early years, the focus was primarily on terrorism prevention, customs and financial crimes. Gradually, the focus then shifted to the consistent enforcement of immigration law within the country. ICE was massively expanded under President Donald Trump's second term of office: The agency received more staff, significantly higher budgets and expanded powers of arrest, detention and deportation.

From the late 2000s, practices such as workplace raids, cooperation with local police authorities and the use of databases and surveillance were expanded. Deportations were extended, detention periods lengthened and discretionary powers narrowed in favor of the harshest possible enforcement.

ICE has been politically legitimized by all US administrations since 2003, albeit with different emphases. George W. Bush founded ICE and firmly anchored the agency in the new security apparatus after 9/11. Migration was charged with security policy and ICE was given far-reaching powers.

Barack Obama's government officially focused on deporting people who had committed serious crimes. At the same time, under Obama, ICE achieved record high deportation numbers, expanded programs to work with local law enforcement and solidified its operational role domestically.

Donald Trump's administration expanded enforcement, detention and deportation even further, demonstratively backing the agency in both his first and current terms. Under Joe Biden, the tone towards ICE has softened in the meantime and there have been restrictions on deportations, but the agency's structural power, budget and legal foundations have remained largely untouched.

ICE has a lot of power today and is financially strong because politicians and Congress have granted the agency more and more money and powers over many years.

Since 2003 , the budget for ICE and all U.S. immigration enforcement has steadily increased. Even before 2025, the agency had received budgets in the billions for personnel, detention centers and deportations. The decisive leap then came in 2025 with the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill Act"(OBBBA), which originated in the Republican-dominated US Congress and was politically supported and driven forward by President Donald Trump.

This legislative package provides over 170 billion US dollars for immigration and border security spending, including huge sums for ICE operations, deportations and detention centers.

The Financial Times reported that this funding made ICE the best-funded law enforcement agency in the US, bigger than the FBI, DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration, responsible for combating drug trafficking and drug crime) or the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Politically, this expansion was driven by Republicans in the US Congress and the Trump administration, who declared a stricter deportation policy to be the most important election campaign and government issue.

ICE has launched a recruitment drive in recent months. The agency reported that it has hired over 12,000 new employees through its current campaigns, more than doubling the agency's staffing levels.

ICE directs its recruitment advertising at "patriotic" and "conservative" target groups. On the official recruitment page, the agency advertises with nationalistic messages such as "America Needs You". Applicants are supposed to help protect the country from crime and "illegal migration". "America has been overrun by criminals and predators," reads the website. "We need YOU to kick them out."

In order to attract as many applicants as possible, ICE is offering high financial incentives: recruitment bonuses of up to 50,000 dollars, assistance with repaying student loans and lucrative overtime regulations. People aged 18 and over can apply. Medical, drug and fitness tests are a prerequisite, although media reports cast doubt on how consistently these tests are carried out.

The recruitment strategy uses advertising formats and events that appeal to military or combat-oriented target groups and embeds the messages in "war mission" narratives. The Washington Post reports on a kind of "wartime recruitment" with a budget of around 100 million US dollars for media campaigns.

ICE does not publish detailed demographic profiles of its personnel. During operations, ICE employees are usually masked and wear military-style equipment, such as bulletproof vests that say "ICE" or "Police". Name badges or service numbers are not mandatory, and there is no obligation to actively identify oneself to those involved.

Civil rights organizations criticize that the deliberately ambiguous appearance can make control more difficult and significantly encourage abuse of power.

Critics accuse ICE of bundling power and cracking down particularly hard in Germany without being subject to the same constitutional hurdles as the police or judiciary. Specifically, this involves raids without judicial warrants, arrests in homes, in front of courts or in the workplace.

The use of so-called administrative orders is central to this. These are internal arrest or deportation warrants issued by the authorities, not by a judge, but by ICE itself. They are sufficient to arrest and detain people, even if there are no criminal charges. Unlike criminal proceedings, there is often no judicial review in advance, no public defender and fewer opportunities to appeal.

Traditional constitutional procedures can thus be circumvented more easily. People are not prosecuted for a crime, but are treated administratively on the basis of their residence status. And it is precisely this combination of far-reaching powers, little external control and enforcement in everyday life that some observers believe brings ICE close to authoritarian structures.

The comparisons to fascism come, among others, from political theorists who analyse the development of state power in the USA. Historians such as Timothy Snyder and Omri Boehm argue that patterns familiar from authoritarian or fascist systems have emerged in the USA - especially under Donald Trump: the expansion of state powers of violence, a pronounced enemy image logic and the gradual normalization of states of emergency.

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In this context, ICE is described as a practical instrument of this development, not as an ideological movement in itself. Most critics do not speak of a fascist organization, but of fascistoid structures. In other words, practices and power mechanisms that promote authoritarian action without ICE officially representing a fascist ideology.

The vast majority of people arrested by ICE are men of working age, usually between 20 and 45 years old. Women and minors make up only a small proportion of arrests. Large-scale arrests of entire families or children are rarer, but do occur.

Most recently, for example, a five-year-old boy in Minneapolis was taken into custody with his father by ICE officers when they came home from preschool and were taken to a family detention center. Such cases have caused outrage and also fear in the affected communities.

People from Latin America, particularly Mexico and Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador), are disproportionately affected. In recent years, there has also been an increase in people from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti. This is less a reflection of crime patterns than of migration routes and repatriation agreements.

Many of those arrested have lived in the USA for years, in some cases decades, have steady jobs and children with US citizenship. Often it is not a question of new criminal offenses, but of immigration violations such as expired visas, rejected asylum applications or old deportation orders.

The scale is considerable: in 2024 alone, ICE arrested around 149,070 people, mainly on an administrative basis - i.e. for immigration violations and not on criminal charges.

However, ICE emphasizes that it primarily takes action against "criminals". For example, people associated with cross-border crime such as human trafficking. In fact, statistics show that most ICE arrests are not for serious violent crimes. At the end of November 2025, 65,735 people were in ICE custody, 73.6 percent of whom had no criminal convictions. The remaining cases were also often not serious crimes, but previous or minor offenses such as traffic violations.

The deadly incidents in early January 2026 in which federal agents shot civilians - including U.S. citizens - in the course of ICE and DHS operations have sparked nationwide protest, outrage and calls for consequences.

In Minneapolis, thousands of people gathered for demonstrations against the federal authorities, criticizing violence and demanding their withdrawal from the city. At times, the protests culminated in general strikes.

Deportations also leave deep scars on society: families are torn apart and many of those affected suffer considerable social and psychological stress. At the same time, raids can destabilize entire labour markets.

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In sectors such as agriculture, construction or hospitality, there is a lack of trained workers, projects are delayed or come to a complete standstill. The Washington Post reports that deportations are already measurably reducing employment in individual sectors because companies lose their workforce from one day to the next.

More intensive ICE operations also have an economic impact in communities with a high proportion of migrant workers: People stay at home more often out of fear, go shopping less often or use fewer services, which noticeably reduces the turnover of local businesses.