Trump turns the anti-immigration agency into his armed wing

WashingtonIn the golden age that Donald Trump promised, there hooded men who stop people in the street and load them into black vans. Parkingparks, restaurantsschools or even churchesThere is no safe place against these armed groups that have been roaming the country for months on the president's orders, knocking on people's doors. Now, the murder of Renee Nicole Good during the massive operation by the anti-immigration agency (ICE) in Minneapolis has once again brought the spotlight on this agency that Trump is turning into his personal police force.

This 37-year-old mother, killed by three gunshots, is the fifth victim of ICE since Trump took office. The US government has already closed ranks with the agent and defended that Good's murder was an act of self-defense. On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance even said it was the victim's own fault: "It's a self-inflicted tragedy." Images shared on social media show a very different scenario than the one described.

Trump fervently defends ICE because it's where he's found a shortcut to mobilize an armed force within the country at will in the absence of a federal police force with jurisdiction to control public order. In the first instance, this authority rests with state and local agencies that the president cannot unilaterally control. At least, that's how the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution establishes it.

ICE agents have become the harbinger of doom that, on many occasions, precedes the arrival of the National Guard. Although in recent months the focus has been on reserve soldiers—which the president has also used to militarize and intimidate Democratic strongholds—The first recourse he has used has been the anti-immigration agency. In Chicago, Portland, and Los Angeles, he first sent federal agents to create tension in the city and thus justify the subsequent deployment of soldiers. In the Californian city, he succeeded; in Chicago (Illinois) and Portland (Oregon), legal challenges from Democratic governors prevented the entry of the National Guard, but not ICE.

Trump has described ICE's large-scale operations as raids to cleanse the country of "criminals" and make it safer. But the reality shown by the data is very different. In Chicago, where one of the agency's largest operations—known as Operation Midway Blitz—has taken place, the figures reveal that, after three months of deployment and more than 600 people detained, only 2.6% had prior criminal records.

The anti-immigration agency has become a feared entity. both for undocumented people and for the Latino community in general. In September, the Supreme Court authorized racial profiling—based on skin color or speaking Spanish—meaning many Americans born and raised in the country also live in fear of becoming prey to federal agents. A ProPublica investigation identified up to 170 U.S. citizens who had been detained by ICE. Now, the murder of Good, a white woman, further raises the threshold of fear and reveals that the actions of the law enforcement agency go far beyond the supposed control of immigration. At the same time, the fear of being detained by ICE has also spread to all those with legal residency in the country who express opinions contrary to the administration. The arrest of students Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk for participating in pro-Palestinian protests had already sparked widespread fear on university campuses, among both students and researchers, due to the possibility that their research or political stances could jeopardize their visas. Indirectly, the anti-immigration force has acted as a political police force.

A budget fit for an army

The Minneapolis shooting also coincides with a massive injection of funds into the agency. Since ICE was created in 2003, the funds approved by Congress have steadily increased, but the latest package—passed as part of the Big Beautiful Bill—provides a massive influx of money to the agency. The law passed in July triples ICE's budget starting in 2026, averaging about $37.5 billion annually over the next four years. This figure is almost equivalent to Poland's defense spending in 2024, around $38 billion, and dwarfs the spending of other countries, such as Spain

"They're being given almost unlimited funding; their budget has increased dramatically, and that gives them more power. It's like the Supreme Court ruling in September," Sama, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), warned the ARA back in November.

Much of this budget is focused on funding new recruits. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security set a goal of recruiting 10,000 new agents to make more large-scale operations viable. The campaign, driven with Calls to "defend the homeland" and slogans like "America has been invaded by criminals and predators"It has proven profitable. In early January, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced with satisfaction that they had exceeded their goals: 12,000 new recruits, a 120% increase. To incentivize hiring, in addition to bonuses, in August the DHS eliminated age limits for ICE agents, who now only need to be over 18 years old, whereas previously they had to be a minimum of 21 and a maximum of 37 or 40, depending on the position. Sisay explained that the fact that the campaign is built on this xenophobic narrative serves as an appeal to a profile of people who may be more prone to adopt aggressive behaviors toward migrants. "We've already seen these patterns in both police departments and ICE. Many of their members are known to be part of white supremacist groups. In fact, here in New York, this is a problem; in one of the local prisons that worked with ICE, there were officers who had been childhood members of white supremacist groups and were racially profiling," he added.

But this first batch is just the beginning. As revealed at the end of 2025, Washington PostICE plans to spend $100 million over one year to recruit gun rights advocates and similar profiles through influencers and geolocated ads. All this according to the document accessed by the WashingtonPost, according to a strategy dubbed "wartime recruitment".