it’s important when thinking about ice to remember that it was started right after 9/11. so it was born out of an extreme concentration of hitler particles and it derives all its power from hitler particles. ideologically, it’s there to “defend the homeland from ” materially, its primary use has been to terrorize and create an underclass of immigrant workers (e.g. by deporting strikers) who work for less than minimum wage and have zero legal recourse for anything. they also have been used to put down protestors who are immigrants, esp. palestinians in recent years

trump appears to be consolidating some or many functions of the government into ice, which is under the more-or-less direct control of the president. ice is also expanding a lot recently. because of shock and awe or because the trump administration wants a better SA or something idk. they’ve reduced their hiring requirements to basically nothing, and as a consequence the average ice agent has gone from being a cryptofascist to being too stupid (or evil) to even try to hide it. that’s why they’re going around executing white people in rich neighborhoods now

imo, i think one of the most vital aspects of understanding the class composition of the US is that, because of its settler-colonial nature, those who are hyperexploited constitute a qualitatively different class than those who are not. and, i think those that live under the constant fear of becoming hyperexploited also belong to this class, sort of in the same way that the proletariat lives under constant fear of becoming unemployed and homeless. the three classes that i see that fit this definition are:

• the indigenous, who often live in the worst conditions and have limited to no sovereignty. the reservation system continues to be a product of settler-colonialism
• black people, with particular reference to the effectively forced labor systems in prisons. slavery is still technically legal according to the constitution, with the stipulation that slavery can be applied to prisoners. their status as prisoner gives them next to no legal rights or means to bargain with their employer, and they are paid a pittance as a result if anything at all
• foreign and/or hispanic people and their families, with particular reference to undocumented immigrants. there are many strong incentives for white capital to hyperexploit these people: because they have no documents, usually have little education and often have a strong language barrier, they also have next to no bargaining power with respect to their employer. this results in the most horrible of working conditions: slums on company property, extra-long work days with considerably less pay than those who are documented, child labor, etc.

the irony here is that, because of their undocumented status, they are in fact much less likely to commit crime than the general populace, because it risks losing access to their family, their job, and their means of life. structures like ICE typically have existed in order to strike fear into those who are at risk, similar to gangs of whites being given arms in order to combat or dissuade slave revolts in early american history (which was the derivation of the 2nd amendment, the right to bear arms).

but, now that ICE is actively deporting and killing the undocumented and anyone who has anything to do with them, it’s literally self-defeating because settler-colonialist structures rely on hyperexploitation to keep the wheels turning, especially as it relates to much of the menial labor in the core. not to mention that its different and more prominent use of force is obviously having the effect of making people more class conscious as well.

It can cool down your drink for instance.

in the past they were a migration office to detain illegal immigrants and check the reasons for irregular stances iirc, but since trump 2.0 are basically a paramilitary group filled with self-hating latinos, white supremacists and unhinged trumpists who like to attack multicultural communities with the pretext of “fighting crime commited by illegal aliens” and kidnap people who doesn’t look “white enough”

They exist to enforce white supremacy.

Essentially a deputized KKK.

Their stated mission is to protect the United States from cross-border crime and illegal immigration by enforcing federal laws. The problem is by definition it’s hard to find out “illegal immigrants” (people staying in the country without valid papers) because, well, they don’t have papers. By all aspects they don’t exist, so how can the government track them down?

Border control for the US has always been a sinking ship tbh, the famous border wall with Mexico is more of a colander.

Their other preferred method is arresting people at court and administrative functions, e.g. trials or citizenship hearings. But that’s not very effective either because realistically how many “illegals” actually go through these procedures? There’s a difference in methods between “law says to deport illegal immigrants” and “deport ALL illegal immigrants”, and they are set on the latter. But dialectically this is how their methods become more brutal as time goes on and they cannot reach their goal.

Then of course there’s the backrooms deal to deport people to CECOT in El Salvador, or arresting literally anyone. ICE has no oversight despite being a federal agency, they have carte blanche to do anything. A father and son were arrested and battered by ICE, and the teen’s phone who recorded the arrest was later found in a second-hand shop. Someone recently wrote for Salon how their ICE interview went. Even with their clear opinions about ICE and Trump they were offered the job without even doing any of the pre-hire tests they needed to (such as drug and medical). Then you spend 6-12 weeks training in office, then can go on the field. It’s clear from the videos the ICE agents are not trained in anything. Local riot cops do better kettling and cordon methods than ICE lol.

This is explainable dialectically as well, the method of random checks require an increasing amount of agents so they start getting lax - training is shortened, everyone is offered a job, and you can do whatever you want as long as you get results. Of course it is only complete in totality, and we see that these agents can be redeployed against other targets later. It’s a test run of what the US wants to become shortly. But conversely, their terror is only hardening the people’s resolve against them, and you even see suburban moms going head-to-head against armed agents (though we’ve long known women are at the forefront of revolutionary movement and moms are fierce!), they just don’t have any sympathy for ICE anymore.

It’s not what a winning empire looks like basically. Gives me late Japanese empire vibes.

I recommend people in the US (and outside too tbh) read this resistance manual btw: https://mega.nz/file/HrA1gYQT#fkwvQxea0jg5yAWM-pzgSGotAG0Syw8oZ_K1wdpLr3I. It was written in the 50s in case of actual armed occupation but many of the tactics presented would apply perfectly against ICE, both for people targeted and sympathizers to people targeted.

Until recently this was the state of affairs, now there’s a bunch more court stuff happening:

“People need to understand, ICE officers and Border Patrol don’t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5396985-trump-homan-immigration-detainments/

Immigration advocates warned that the supreme court has “effectively legalized racial profiling”, granting federal agents the power to stop people in Los Angeles simply for speaking Spanish or appearing Latino

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/09/supreme-court-immigration-los-angeles-reaction

Attempt to bolster the security of the Bourgoisie Proleteriat and petty-bourgoisie by reducing the pool of eligible candidates, using perceived lack of allegiance to Whiteness as a filtering mechanism.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protections enforces immigration law in the exterior of the country

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement enforces immigration law in the interior of the country