How presidential policy becomes ICE’s identity

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sits at the center of political debate as the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown. Civil rights activists and immigration advocacy groups argue that the agency has exceeded its authority while carrying out enforcement operations.

To understand how the department came to its current state, it’s important to know its history and why it was created.

How ICE started

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, then President George W. Bush and his administration moved to combine federal security efforts into one department to prevent future terrorist attacks and protect Americans from a wide range of threats.

From this idea came the Homeland Security Act (HSA), which Bush signed into law in 2002. The legislation rearranged federal agencies and created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 

The law split the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s (INS) responsibilities into three separate agencies under DHS: Customs and Border Protection (CBP); U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS); and ICE. The move, Bush said at the time, would ensure “that our efforts to defend this country are comprehensive and united.”

Presidential administrations’ influence over ICE and criticisms

ICE has several core responsibilities, including what the agency describes as “dismantling transnational criminal organizations, preventing human trafficking and drug smuggling, battling cybercrime, rescuing victims of child predators and human trafficking, protecting intellectual property rights, and removing criminal noncitizens.”

All four presidents who have served since ICE was founded have taken different approaches in their use of ICE, emphasizing some roles and initiatives over others. 

Bush

The DHS supported Bush’s push to address unauthorized immigration. In 2007, Bush urged Congress to pass what he called comprehensive immigration reform. His proposal aimed to strengthen border security, increase oversight of hiring practices and create a path toward citizenship for people living in the country without legal status.

At the same time, ICE moved to train roughly 1,500 state and local officers through the 287(g) program, which allows local governments to partner with federal agents on immigration enforcement. Arrest data from the time shows a major emphasis on enforcing immigration laws at workplaces: In 2006, ICE made more than 4,300 arrests in cases related to unauthorized immigrant employment.

A year later, ICE agents arrested 361 employees during a raid at a textile factory in a small Massachusetts town. Those arrested in the state’s largest-ever workplace raid lacked legal immigration status, authorities said then. Immigration advocates like the ACLU spoke out against the operation, which separated families and left children at day cares without proper care arranged.

In total, nearly 2 million people were deported during the Bush administration, only about one-third of whom lived near the nation’s borders. 

Obama

The Obama administration took a different approach. In 2013, ICE Director John Morton told Congress about plans to reform the agency. The reforms would shift focus from anyone living inside the U.S. without authorization to “individuals who pose a danger to national security, a risk to public safety or otherwise represent enforcement priorities,” Morton testified.

In 2014, President Barack Obama issued an executive order, directing ICE to focus on “deporting felons, not families.” The order expanded Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allowed people who were brought to the U.S. as kids to stay and work legally, even without legal immigration status. It also created the Lawful Permanent Residents program to help parents of DACA recipients seek stays on their deportation, find work and pay taxes. 

ICE faced criticism during the Obama administration. In May 2014, the ACLU argued that the administration bypassed people’s due process rights to expedite deportations. The ACLU cited a report from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), which found that roughly 75% of deported immigrants did not appear before a judge. 

Over the eight years of his presidency, Obama deported a record 3.1 million people, earning him the nickname “Deporter in Chief.”

Trump’s first term

When President Donald Trump took office in 2017, he signed multiple executive orders expanding immigration and enforcement operations, while also targeting sanctuary cities — places that limit local cooperation with federal immigration policy. The orders directed officials to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities and expanded the 287(g) program. Trump’s orders also called for hiring 10,000 additional federal agents and building more detention centers to hold people who may not have legal immigration status.

Many spoke out against ICE’s tactics during Trump’s first term, which the ACLU called cruel. A key issue for critics: The administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which mandated the criminal prosecution of all adults crossing the southern border without inspection, and resulted in thousands of children being separated from their parents at the border. Trump also attempted to end DACA, but the Supreme Court overturned the program’s complete termination. 

In total, 1.5 million people were deported during Trump’s first four years in office, about half as many as had been deported during Obama’s first four years. 

Biden

Under former President Joe Biden’s administration, policy shifted back toward Obama’s. In 2021, then-ICE Director Tae Johnson said the administration would focus on “cases that present threats to national security, border security and public safety.” 

Biden ended Trump’s national emergency at the southern border and rolled back other Trump immigration policies. Biden received broad backlash for an increase in border crossings along the nation’s southwestern border with Mexico — 7.8 million of which violated the law, according to Texas Senator John Cornyn.

Critics spoke out against the administration’s use of the Family Expedited Removal Management (FERM) program. After detaining families at the border, officials monitored only the head of household while the family waited for an asylum interview to determine whether they qualified. The National Immigrant Justice Center argued the program’s fast turnaround for families seeking asylum in the U.S. set them up for failure, often resulting in deportations. Trump and his administration have repeatedly criticized Biden’s approach, calling it an “open border policy.”

Trump’s second term

Since returning to office in 2025, Trump has made immigration issues a central focus of his presidency. His administration’s immigration enforcement has prompted legal challenges, nationwide protests and concerns that ICE has committed civil rights violations through actions like entering homes and making arrests without judicial warrants or targeting individuals based on race. The controversy intensified after federal agents shot and killed U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good during immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis.

A majority of American voters support reducing illegal immigration, but dislike the ways ICE has handled the issue under Trump, according to a 2025 poll from The Wall Street Journal. Many disagree with tactics like skipping due process for individuals or deporting people to places other than their country of origin. 

Human rights groups, like the American Immigration Council, have reported inhumane conditions within ICE facilities resulting from an influx of detainees. In 2025, ICE reported 29 deaths of individuals in its custody, making it the second deadliest year on record.

The Trump administration has touted the success of ICE’s efforts, claiming that illegal border crossings have dropped to record lows. In December, DHS reported that the administration “is shattering historic records,” via more than 600,000 deportations and 595,000 arrests. This is a little over halfway to the administration’s goal of deporting at least 1 million people every year, a major increase from previous administrations.

How the agency has expanded

Policies have changed over the years, but growth has remained constant. In 2003, ICE spent $3.3 billion. Twenty years later, that figure had nearly tripled, to $9.8 billion in the 2024 fiscal year.

In Trump’s second term, ICE is expanding rapidly. A massive cash influx from 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act gave the agency the authority to spend $75 billion over four years, in addition to its annual funding of roughly $10 billion.

The agency launched a recruitment campaign to hire at least 10,000 new federal law enforcement agents, offering up to $50,000 in signing bonuses and benefits. In January 2026, ICE announced the campaign exceeded its recruitment goals, more than doubling its workforce with the addition of 12,000 new agents.

Between January 2025 and January 2026, ICE’s detention population rose by 77%, from 40,000 to about 71,000 people.

ICE is now seeking additional detention facilities, a move that has angered local officials who told SAN they were not consulted when their city was chosen as prospective locations. 

Authority and jurisdiction 

Immigration is a federal issue, which means the federal government oversees its enforcement. ICE operations must fall within the limits of federal laws, the Constitution and DHS policy — though how these guardrails are interpreted and applied can change from one administration to the next.

Recently, ICE has implemented enforcement practices that have drawn sharp criticism, including a May 2025 memo authorizing agents to enter private homes to arrest individuals using “administrative” warrants, which do not require a judge’s sign-off. Critics argue the policy conflicts with the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable government searches and seizures.

ICE has long been criticized for not properly adhering to the due process rights of unauthorized immigrants under multiple administrations. In March 2025, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was incorrectly deported to his native El Salvador, despite a 2019 decision from an immigration judge protecting him from deportation. 

Calls for accountability escalated in 2026, after Renee Good was fatally shot by ICE agents, and Alex Pretti by CBP. In January, the DOJ opened a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s shooting.

Where the agency is headed

More than two decades after its creation, ICE remains an agency shaped largely by the priorities of the administration in power. Its unpredictable future will more than likely be affected by pending litigation, like the ACLU’s class action suit to end “the administration’s policy of racially profiling, unlawfully seizing and unlawfully arresting people without a warrant and without probable cause.”

Members of Congress from both parties are questioning ICE’s interpretations of law and policy and how the agency incorporates them into its enforcement tactics. Officials like Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, and Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-NY, have called for ICE officials to testify at an oversight hearing following the fatal shooting of Good and Pretti. Democrats have widely criticized ICE’s conduct and are withholding funds from DHS to advocate for change. 

Whether ICE can remain a malleable instrument of the executive branch, or if the current friction will force permanent changes, remains to be seen. For now, the agency continues its work, fueled by an increased budget and ever-widening boundaries. 

Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief