What is ICE's job?

I do. I remember it was the first interview you did by yourself here at Civics 101.

“And you were nervous. This was like eight years ago, right?”

May 2018. And yeah, I was nervous. We had just become the hosts of the show. This was only the third episode. We had made as hosts of the show and I was like, "Oh, man. How do you make a Civics 101 episode about this agency that is really unpopular right now?" More protests are expected this morning. After a 37-year-old Minneapolis man was shot and killed by a federal agent. Christian Bean and Veda's reports, the incident happened on the hills of the shooting death of Rene Good,

and has led to escalating tensions between protesters and federal office staff. Fast-moving developments in Minneapolis after a protester. Alex Predi was shot and killed by federal agents in broad daylight over the weekend. I mean, we've got a deadly shooting here. We have to have an investigation and you've got protesters screaming on the ground in front of us, emotional throwing trash cans, barricade.

So, how do you make a second Civics 101 episode about ICE?

“Well, you start all over again in 2026. That's how.”

This is Civics 101. I'm Hannah McCarthy and today, ICE. Immigration and customs enforcement. And again, we do already have an episode about ICE. It explains a lot, but it doesn't really get to what is happening right now. So two things, I recommend you go back and listen to that episode if you want to know why ICE exists and what the deal was in the second year of Trump's first term as president. But for the purposes of this episode, Nick, I just want to get to something

really basic. What is ICE's job? Well, I guess we can start with the actual name of the organization,

the enforcement of customs and immigration law. Let's talk about that enforcement part. You've got customs and border protection,

“CBP, historically at our ports of entry and patrolling the borders. So, they're usually at the edges”

of the country, the areas where people come in to the country and they are enforcing our laws there. The borders and ports of entry, those are not specifically ICE's job for the most part. Though they can and do work with CBP, especially lately. All right, so ICE is on the inside. Well, ICE is for the most part the agency tasked with interior enforcement, though, you know, because a big part of their job is to arrest and detain people they suspect of being in the country

without authorization, without documentation. That is something they can do at the border as well. I do just want to note here that people have noticed that customs and border patrol employees have been participating in immigration operations far from U.S. borders. And because of something called the "hundred mile zone" in the immigration and nationality act, people are wondering why that's allowed, what they're doing so far from the border.

Hang on, the "hundred mile zone"? Yeah, there is a federal regulation that says that immigration enforcement. This is actually both ICE and CBP, have authority to board a train, a bus with an a quote "reasonable distance" on quote, which federal regulation says it's a "hundred miles" from any external boundary of the U.S. planes, by the way, or different here, because they are part of the port of entry for international travelers. So if you have heard about

the "hundred mile zone" and thought to yourself, okay, what is going on in terms of immigration enforcement happening so far from the borders? Well, again, that "hundred mile zone" it is really about boarding vessels, right? A bus or a train, and really all of those agents and officers do have the legal authority to pull over a car and interrogate and arrest someone they suspect of being undocumented. So that "hundred mile zone" thing, that is a restriction, but not as much of a

restriction as it might seem. And while typically border patrol has done enforcement at the borders,

All right, so that's why you're seeing CBP alongside ICE far from the border. And Hannah,

“real quick, can we touch on this suspect of being undocumented thing? What constitutes suspect?”

So courts have said that immigration enforcement cannot stop arrest and detain people based on their perceived race, what language they speak, where they work, or where they physically are in any given moment. A.K.A. ICE and CBP cannot racially or culturally profile people. Well, in September 2025, the Supreme Court issued what's called a "stay" on a lower court order that had barred racial profiling. Oh, so the Supreme Court said that ICE and CBP can

target people for their looks in behavior. Essentially, yes, for now at least they have paused

the lower court's order. What about 14th Amendment equal protection and fourth amendment unreasonable search and seizure protection? How did Skoda's explain that one? Well, they didn't explain much. There is no opinion in this instance. I can tell you that justice, Brett Kavanaugh, did write what is called a "concurrents" where he suggests that, you know, if you are a documented

“immigrant or a citizen who is stopped and questioned, you should just be able to show your ID”

and, common sense, as you would then be permitted to go. But many people have not had that experience. Oh, a "concurrents" but no opinion. This was a shadow-docket thing, right? Yes, or as the Supreme Court prefers to put it, the emergency docket or the non-marriage/motions docket. But, uh, listen to our episode on the shadow-docket to learn more. Okay, so back to your question. What does suspect mean? Well, it can mean, right now, according to the Supreme Court,

that you look, sound, or are in some way acting like, an undocumented immigrant in the eyes of immigration enforcement. Okay, moving on. Because I want to talk about the differences within ice itself. We keep hearing about ice agents, and there are ice agents, but in terms

“of the way that they were originally established, agents and officers perform different roles.”

Ice agents are supposed to do the investigating. They are stationed across the country and across the world. They fall under the label, H-S-I. Homeland Security Investigations. Investigating what exactly? Well, crimes. There are more than 400 U.S. laws pertaining to national security. H-S-I investigates violations of those laws. So, think smuggling of various kinds, trafficking of various kinds, financial crimes, fraud. H-S-I agents are also tasked with breaking

up terrorist groups and transnational criminal organizations. And these agents are working in offices like I said across the country and across the world. They are everywhere. But to be clear, an ice agent is not the same thing as an ice enforcement officer. Right, an officer falls under the

E-R-O label enforcement and removal operations. And actually, in the past, during the first

Trump administration, some H-S-I agents requested to please be removed from the agency because they were getting confused with E-R-O officers. So, they're under the same umbrella, but these agents were like, "We do not do the same thing." Right. And before I read you a bit of this letter, I do just need to say that an executive order that Trump signed at the beginning of his second term does appear to change the nature of H-S-I's main mission. But in 2019, a number of agents, reports say as many as 19,

were requesting some kind of independent, some kind of distinction from this other part of ice. In the letter, they wrote to the department of Homeland Security DHS Secretary at the time, Chris and Em Nielsen, an agent said, quote, "The perception of H-S-I's investigative independence is unnecessarily impacted by the political nature of E-R-O's civil immigration enforcement." Many jurisdictions continue to refuse to work with H-S-I because of a perceived linkage to the

politics of civil immigration, unquote. In other words, the people who investigate crimes were upset that they were being confused with the people who were taking undocumented immigrants into custody. Right. And I am not sure how H-S-I agents feel right now, but later on, I am going to talk a little bit about how their mission may have changed under the Trump administration. And what exactly are the ice officers? Has opposed to the agents? Supposed to be doing.

target public safety threats, such as convicted criminal undocumented aliens and gang members,

“as well as individuals who have otherwise violated our nation's immigration laws,”

including those who legally re-entered the country after being removed, and immigration fugitives ordered removed by federal immigration judges, unquote. Right, here's where I'm getting caught up a little, Hannah. Our ice officers supposed to be targeting just anybody who violated immigration law or are they supposed to be going after safety threats, criminal, undocumented aliens as they put it. This is a good question. So as I was making this

episode, the Trump administration circulated a draft memo that, you know, if official would direct ice to avoid engaging with agitators, now agitators, that is the term that Trump and his administration has used to describe people protesting ice. People that are causing the problem

“are perpetual agitators, their insurrectionists, their bad people, they should be in jail, thank you.”

And before I read this quote from this memo, I do just want to state that we are fully aware of the problematic nature of the word aliens instead of using the term undocumented immigrants, or unauthorized immigrants. But you are going to hear that term in this episode because it is in a lot of the language that is used by the Trump administration. It has been used by administrations in the past. Okay, so, you know, avoid engaging with quote unquote agitators. And this memo also

says, quote, we are moving to targeted enforcement of aliens with a criminal history. This includes arrests, not just convictions. And then this is in all caps. All targets must have a criminal nexus, unquote. A criminal nexus? Yeah, I actually learned a lot because of encountering this word. A nexus just means a link. In this case, an arrest, a charge, a conviction. This is a term that comes up a lot with criminal cases. A defense attorney might challenge the nexus, try to prove

for example that there was no probable cause for search and seizure or that a judge should have denied a warrant because of a lack of nexus. And the administration is now saying there has to be in excess? Well, on January 29th, 2026, borders are Tom Homan, gave a press conference in Minnesota. He said that they were working on a quote drawdown plan, getting more ice officers working in jails and prisons and fewer on the street. He said agents who did not act professionally would

be quote dealt with. He said ice is focused on threats to public safety and national security with a caveat, of course. There is not going to be a focus on people who have no other crimes

except for their stats. But really the country, or you're not, you're never off the table.

So in terms of the quote, all targets must have a criminal nexus thing, that would be so big if true. Why is that? Well, under both Barack Obama's and Joe Biden's administrations, ice's guidance was to prioritize non-citizens who posed a threat to public safety or national security. Prioritize, but not like go after exclusively. Yeah, there's some wiggle room there. Now, you know, that memo stating all targets must have a criminal nexus. Again, we have no idea

if that is an official order or policy or if it's going to be the new way of doing things. In that press conference, I mentioned the one with borders are Tom Homan. You heard him state that, you know, nobody who is here undocumented is quote off the table. And while that memo, you know, if it really means anything would be a significant change, this administration and its agents and officers have also signaled in both language and action

that crime and undocumented immigrant kind of go hand in hand. I'm going to talk about that in

“a moment, actually, because Nick, what is ice's job? So if you look back to the beginning, right?”

I'm going to read you a quote from the first ever Department of Homeland Security Secretary

Julie L. Myers. This is from 2007. She said that ice's mission was quote to protect the United States and uphold public safety by targeting the people, money and materials that support terrorists and criminal activities on quote. I want to make sure I get this right. Ice was established to if I may put this extremely ham-handedly to target like identify, find deal with the quote unquote bad guys. Ice continues to states that they go after the worst of the worst.

that ice is going after criminals. Boy, these are rough characters. These are all criminal illegal

“elements that, in many cases, the murderers, the drug lords, drug dealers, the mentally insane. Some”

of them who are brutal killers, they're mentally insane, they're killers, but they're insane. And then this memo comes to light that appears to say, you know, we're pivoting here, we're going to go after criminals, even though that is what, you know, the American public has been told, ice is already doing. And before this memo even came out, Homeland Security Secretary Christie known said that 70% of non-citizens in custody have been convicted of or charged with

a violent crime. What's the breakdown of the percentage of those who you have in custody who

actually committed a criminal offense versus just the civil infraction? Every single individual

has committed a crime, but 70% of them have committed or have charges against them on violent crimes and crimes that they are charged with or have been convicted of. I actually watched this clip,

“known was on face to nation. And journalist Margaret Brennan is like, wait, 70%”

because your agency says 47% of detainees have been charged or convicted of a crime. Okay, well, our reporting is that 47% based on your agency's own number, 47% have criminal convictions against them. But let's talk about the other numbers again. Absolutely. We'll get you that's a correct number, so you think that's them in the future. Well, that's from your age.

Importantly, like I just want to draw your attention to the fact that that piece of information

talks about crime, not violent crime. A violent crime is, and this is according to the Department of Justice. A violent crime happens when, quote, a victim is harmed or threatened with violence and quote, this includes sexual assault, robbery, other kinds of assault, and murder. But no, I'm said, violent crime. Where is that coming from? I will tell you that a lot of people are trying to understand where exactly that is coming from and what period of time

know might be referencing and whether she's referencing arrests or detentions. Those are two different things not everyone who's arrested and is up in detention, but she was being asked a question about the people currently in ICE custody. The people currently detained and that was the answer to the question. So, you know, as soon as ICE or DHS releases the data that supports that, I will add a little addendum to this episode. Currently, there are no numbers available

from DHS that have been leaked or FOIA requested that remotely suggest that much non-citizen violent crime be it a conviction or a charge which are two different things. The other thing that Nome also said was that everyone detained by ICE has committed a crime. What Nome meant by that is not clear to me, but this does seem like a good time to share with everybody that it is not a crime in and of itself to be an undocumented person in the United States. And you're not speaking

colloquially here, you are speaking literally hand. Yeah, it's not like a, that's not a crime, it's like this is an actual legal definition. Being undocumented in the United States, which means you do not have a form of legal status like a visa is a civil violation. Civil violations have civil penalties. Criminal violations have criminal punishments. Overstaying your visa puts you under the civil violation umbrella. Undocumented status only becomes criminally punishable if someone has

already been deported and then re-enters a temporary enter or is found within the United States. And just to be clear, you can be deported if you overstay your visa. Absolutely, that is the civil penalty for the civil violation of being undocumented in the United States. You could also face re-entry bans and you could, you know, have future visa applications denied depending on how long you've overstated, et cetera, but it is not again in and of itself a crime. Congress has established

it as a civil violation and the Supreme Court actually appelled that in a case called Arizona of United States when Arizona essentially tried to treat being an undocumented immigrant like a crime.

“Hannah, so why is this secretary of DHS saying everybody in detention is committed a crime?”

And on top of that, most of them are either guilty of violent crime or facing violent crime charges. Again, Nick, I am really looking forward to the data that explains where that piece of information is coming from. It is really confusing when internal reporting says one thing and the person in charge of the people who did that reporting says something entirely different.

least the data that's been reported shows that it's about, well, not just criminals or criminals

“as far as the law defines criminals. Right, as opposed to the statement that everyone detained by”

ICE has committed a crime, which is, according to United States law, how we define a crime untrue unless Christy Nome knows something we don't. Of all the many, many data sets and analyses I have read and I will post links to those in the show notes, the highest percentage of detainees convicted of or charged with a crime that I could find was in this time period between Trump's inauguration that was in January of 2025 and October of 2025. So total, that was 64% 64% of detainees

convicted or charged with a crime and that is according to a politic act analysis. But then, if you look at who ICE was booking into detention as the year went on, fewer and fewer people had that criminal nexus, as they say.

“Hannah, how many undocumented people are there in the United States right now?”

I do not have an exact number for you, but the most recent numbers, this is from the federal

government, from state governments show between 10 and 11 million. All right, I have seen reports

that say this administration has an internal goal of deporting a million people a year. Is that true? Well, that number comes from anonymous sources in the administration. So who can say? But I can tell you that homeland security adviser Stephen Miller and DHS Secretary again, Christy Nome set a target of 3,000 arrests a day earlier this year, which would be just over a million people over 365 days. If everyone arrested was detained, which they are not, and if everyone

detained was deported, which they are not. Right, and how many of those people have a criminal nexus? That I cannot even begin to tell you, but here is another, I can tell you, I can tell you that of the people who were booked into ICE detention last year, who either had criminal convictions or charges. And I bring this up because again, we are talking about what the purpose is here, and the purpose is public safety and national security. Most of them were not charged with or convicted

of a violent crime. For the most part, it was either vice, traffic violations, or immigration violations. And again, because it is not a crime to be undocumented in this country. In that case, we are talking about things like crossing the border without going through the proper channels or being in the country after being deported. So there are a lot of things, non-violent things, including

“traffic violations that could amount to a criminal nexus. If you want to better understand, by the way,”

how low-level offenses became a much bigger deal for undocumented immigrants, I warmly again,

recommend that you go back and listen to our first episode on ICE from 2018,

there was a 1996 immigration law that really shook things up. Okay, let's take a break. So food delivery services have been around for a while, and I've tried a lot of them, and I love some and I hate it others. I will say that green chef is the trusted authority on clean eating. They deliver only real farm-sourced ingredients. So for my choice, I chose the Mediterranean option because I want to live another thousand years, and the stand out to me was

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Again, that is code [email protected]/50cyviks.

Many years ago, never mind how many, but I wasn't high school. My very wise friend informed

me that I should stop acquiring so much flimsy, fall apart in the wash, fast fashion. This was by the way, before the term, fast fashion had properly entered the lexicon, so he probably just said junk, and that I shouldn't stead invest in high quality clothes that I could wear year after year. Now, there are two reasons that I did not do this at the time.

“One, I believe I was like 16 years old, to when I heard invest and high quality in the same sentence,”

I really heard too expensive for the lex of you. Now, here I am sitting in the years later, and there's finally a path to exactly the kind of quality over quantity my buddy Pete was talking

about, and that is Quince. Quince makes wardrobe staples that last. We are talking 100% European

linen, 100% silk, organic cotton, Mongolian cashmere, high quality fabrics, well-made clothes, the stuff that you can reach for a year after year. As I speak, I am wearing my Quince organic cotton boyfriend sweater, something that I reach for a week after week, and it has been years. High school Hannah could not even imagine something holding up for this long, let alone keeping its shape, warmth, softness, and color like this puppy has. And because Quince works directly

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or brand markup prices for this. So Pete was right, I don't need a ton of clothes, I just needed the clothes that I love that last year after year, and you can have the very same right now. Go to quince.com/sifix for free shipping and 365 day returns. That is a full year to wear it and love it. And you will. Now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to quai nce.com/sifix for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com/sifix.

The oath and the office is a politics law and democracy podcast hosted by constitutional scholar Cory Brecht Schneider and serious ex-emhost John Fuckelsing. Each week they break down the biggest political stories three constitutional lens in plain English for broad audience.

“It's smart, accessible, and focused on how power actually works. The oath and the office is available”

wherever you get your podcasts. And on YouTube with full video episodes each week. We're back. This is Sifix 101. We're talking about ice. And before we try to further understand what exactly ice's job is. Just to remind her, Sifix 101 is a public radio show. We do not receive any funds from the federal government because there is no longer the corporation for public broadcasting. We rely on contributions from listeners. That is you. If you are someone

who is able to contribute two Sifix 101 to help keep us going and trying to understand what is

going on here, you can always go to our website to make a contribution that is at Sifix101podcast.org.

Every little bit helps. Thank you so much. It's the same situation that we've seen happening over the past several weeks since the shooting depth of Renee Good back on January 7th and the shooting of Alex Prady. One week ago today. Ministers say the local officials are going to try to argue in court that the federal deployment of immigration agents in Minneapolis is illegal. Two separate hearings today will vote. Two a person to almost a case with one exception. Every time

the judges are saying you have no right to detain these people. Sort of underscores what we're seeing on the street. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry said he told President Trump that the city would continue cooperating in what he called real criminal investigations, adding that people should be prosecuted for the crimes they commit, not where they're from. So back to talking about ICE. We have talked about ICE before. Things are different now. We are talking about ICE again.

We are in the midst of an immigration crackdown, promised and consistently executed by the Trump Administration. The DHS Secretary told us recently that everyone who was in ICE detention at the time was a criminal. The government's own data contradicts that recently there has been a move to deescalate ICE-related tension following protests and the killing of American citizens and non-sitizens alike in Minnesota and elsewhere. So Nick and I are trying to figure out what ICE's job is,

2003. And the big goal from the beginning for this agency, within the Department of Homeland Security, a department created in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks, was public safety

and national security. As to whether or not that is the actual role ICE plays, that has always

been a question, but never a question to the degree that it is today. They have always arrested, deported, and detained both criminal and non-criminal undocumented immigrants. But the numbers, the percentages of non-criminal detentions and on the street arrests vary wildly from Barack Obama's administration to Trump's administration and then from Joe Biden's administration to Trump's second administration. As in, I'm just spitballing here. Based on what we've been talking about so far,

the numbers of non-criminal arrests and detentions are higher under Trump. That is right. That is an accurate spitball. Both Obama's and Biden's ICE policy had two significant points.

Prioritized terrorists, national security threats, violent criminals, and exercise prosecutorial

discretion. And what does that mean? Meaning don't go after everybody. Don't get distracted by the millions of non-criminal undocumented immigrants. Focus on the ones who pose some kind of safety threat. And it seems that ICE did not like this. In 2012, for example, Obama was sued by ICE

“agents for preventing them from deporting DACA recipients. Do you remember DACA, Nick?”

I absolutely do deferred action for childhood arrivals. It was a policy that protected certain undocumented immigrants from deportation if they'd come to the United States when they were children. Right. ICE agents said that Obama was stopping them from enforcing immigration law. They also said that his, quote, "prosecutorial discretion" policy made it hard for them to do their job. Now, I do just need to add here that Obama was labeled by critics as the, quote, "deporter

in chief," for removing more undocumented people from this country than any other president in US history. Now, report say that Trump has yet to surpass the numbers under Obama, though he does appear to have loftier goals, so we will see if that changes. My point is, Lassu or No, immigration law enforcement was very much in full swing under Obama. Agents and officers were able to do a big part of their job. Hannah, what is their job? Well, you know, I guess I would say

it's not that much different from any other workplace. What ICE's job is very much depends on

what their boss says it is. When Trump was first running for office, he employed a lot of anti-immigration

rhetoric. Now, whether that was exactly what ICE liked about Trump, I don't know, but I can't tell you that their union endorsed him for president. And then when Trump first became president, he got rid of that prosecutorial discretion thing. In fact, he decided to leave a whole lot up to ICE agents. They could target not just people who had committed a crime, but those who they deemed to "have committed acts which constitute a chargeable criminal offense," unquote, or who in

ICE's judgment, otherwise posed a risk to public safety or national security. So, essentially, they got to decide who the real threat was. Essentially, and under the current administration, you can find a lot of ICE policy in the executive order called protecting the American people

“against invasion. Nick, do you remember HSI? Homeland Security Investigations, right?”

In 2018, some of them were like, hey, we are not the same thing as ICE officers. We want to make that clear. Yeah, I want to read you another quote from that letter that they wrote to the DHS Secretary in 2018. Again, some agents from HSI explained, quote, "HSI investigations have been perceived as targeting undocumented aliens." Instead of the transnational criminal organizations that facilitate cross-border crimes impacting our communities and national security, unquote. In that executive

order from Donald Trump that I'm talking about, he writes, quote, "the Secretary of Homeland Security shall ensure that the primary mission of U.S. immigration and customs enforcement homeland security investigations division is the enforcement of the provisions of the I.N.A. and other federal laws related to the illegal entry and lawful presence of aliens in the United States and the enforcement of the purposes of this order." And what is the I.N.A.? That is the

“immigration and nationality act. I think we should probably do an episode about it.”

Okay, so here, Trump is saying that DHS will make sure that the primary mission of HSI is

the thing those agents were worried about being perceived as doing back in 2018.

Right, in 2018, there were HSI agents who were worried that the public, the press, and the law enforcement agencies they needed to work with would think that they were doing the same thing as enforcement officers. Now, I don't know enough about HSI policy or internal direction right now to say for sure, but this executive order suggests that now they are supposed

“to do the same job. But what that job is. Yes, Hannah, please. What is their job? What is it?”

Okay, there is some language in this executive order about cartels, human and drug trafficking, transnational criminal organizations. You know, that's the bad stuff, right? Perhaps if you

want to find the worst of the worst in here, that is where you find it. But before you get to

that section on these people who may be causing harm in the United States, there is this section. Trump writes that the executive department's an agency is quote, shell employee all lawful means to ensure the faithful execution of the immigration laws of the United States against all inadmissible and removable aliens unclosed. All inadmissible and removable aliens. Now, again, to be clear, the penalty for being undocumented in the United States is deportation.

That is correct. So the term removable aliens applies to all undocumented immigrants in the United States. You know, this is boring a couple of options. You have if you actually get to go to immigration court. But yeah, and ISIS fully legally permitted to identify a rest, detained, and deport

“undocumented immigrants regardless of criminal history or charges. So I think, Hannah,”

if we want to figure out what ISIS job is, we have to ask in lieu of Congress passing or lending laws, what does the president tell them they should be doing and what they should not be doing? Which is why Nick, this could be a moment to watch. You know, Trump did replace top border patrol official Gregory Bovino, who had been commanding ice operations in Minnesota with borders our Tom Homein. Now, of course, this is following massive backlash in escalating tensions after the

deadly shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretty. But in terms of that de-escalation, Homein has said that change is contingent on cooperation. What kind of cooperation remains to be seen. Homein has also said that "mass deportation will continue." The administration seems to be suggesting

“a possible shift in its approach with ice, but Trump has not revoked that sweeping executive”

order that I mentioned. The Department of Homeland Security has not said if or how their

operation is changing. One thing that has never changed, though, in terms of ISIS' job description,

in terms of the way that administrations have talked about ice, is this focus on public safety. Who and what ice is keeping the public safe from and how they go about it? That is not up to the public. That is up to the federal government and to the president of the United States. This episode was produced by me and a McCarthy with Nick Capiteche. Marina Henki is our producer, Rebecca Lavoy is our executive producer. Special thanks to Heidi Altman, the Vice President of

Policy at the National Immigration Law Center, who spoke with me to help me understand this very complex picture. Music in this episode comes from Epidemic Sound. There is a lot that did not go into this episode, but we here at Civics 101 are going to keep trying to understand as much as we can and share what we learn with you. If you have questions for us, you can submit them at our website, Civics101Podcast.org. Civics 101 is a production of NHPR, New Hampshire Public Radio.

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