# Question about what ICE agents (goons) are up to **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 14, 2025, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067 "2025-08-14T22:02:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/21 "2025-08-15T00:26:30Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > whose crime seemed to be that his wife had unpopular opinions. Hence the increasing approach of tourists to the US even when having all the required visas and certifications, to take only a new/burner phone and clean other electronic devices else your on-line/social media history will identify yourself as an _agent provocateur_ having expressed anti-American opinions say on SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/22 "2025-08-15T00:30:40Z")
You seem to be just a mite unclear as to how secret police work. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/23 "2025-08-15T06:15:06Z")
Legal or not, it appears that people captured by ICE aren’t being handled humanely by any standards. I once wondered why, in WWII Germany, some ordinary people became monsters. How could any reasonable person act like that? Now I see how that works. If you enjoy harassing, torturing, or killing people, you are on personally dangerous ground in “normal” times. But if your cruelty is accepted or encouraged by authorities, your once outlier status becomes elevated to the new normal. We are experiencing _Mein Kampf_ all over again. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/24 "2025-08-15T16:12:33Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I once wondered why, in WWII Germany, some ordinary people became monsters. How could any reasonable person act like that? Now I see how that works. Has there been any decline in ‘right wing nutjob-goes berserk and shoots-up some people’ events this year? I was thinking this cohort may now be gainfully employed by ICE, doing their thing in a more structured manner now. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/25 "2025-08-15T16:17:31Z")
_Loosely_ structured, perhaps, ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/26 "2025-08-15T21:50:42Z")
The great American tradition? "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” … So that ICE can show them the door, And Trump wins MAGA adulation with glee. 🤢 ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/27 "2025-08-15T22:33:59Z")
JFC, the title is objectionable! Would you criticize a Private or Sargent for where the military goes / who we invade? Nope, they’re just doing their job & going where their told; however objectionable it might be to you. Instead, bitch at the Generals & elected officials sending them there. If you’re job asked you to do something objectionable would you just walk away? Probably not until you were able to find a new job because you have bills to pay. It can be even harder with a government job with the big backend (pension) benefits. ICE today isn’t what it was last year. Criticize the leadership, not the ~~goons~~ low level guys doing what they’re told to do. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/28 "2025-08-15T22:38:34Z")
So sorry to have impugned the honor of low-level ICE goons who were “just following orders.” ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/29 "2025-08-15T22:41:56Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Criticize the leadership, not the ~~goons~~ low level guys doing what they’re told to do. Problem is, I see no indication that the ~~goons~~ low level guys are doing what they’re doing with even the tiniest bit of reluctance. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/30 "2025-08-15T22:45:08Z")
We’re really at a strong “_knew or should have known_” point by now, though. Enlisting after hearing about 9/11 and enlisting after hearing about Abu Ghraib are pretty disparate things. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/31 "2025-08-15T22:46:59Z")
Was it really necessary to re-arrest a drunk guy who threw a Subway sandwich at a federal agent at his home with a SWAT-style raid with at least eight federal agents? Yet nothing less than the White House’s Twitter/X account has footage of it. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/32 "2025-08-15T23:21:36Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > ICE today isn’t what it was last year. ICE has never been anything but what it is now. If it has at times appeared to act with greater restraint than it does now, that is because elected officials and their political appointees did the restraining. You absolutely can judge someone by the occupation they choose to engage in. No one was drafted into ICE. No one is going to be court-martialed and stood in front of a firing squad if they choose to quit and go home. And as an Iraq War veteran who volunteered to go to Iraq well past the time it should have been clear that was an immoral war, let me just say: you have my permission to judge me accordingly. And yet, even at my worst, I do believe I would have been constitutionally incapable of working for ICE. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/33 "2025-08-15T23:28:04Z")
Serious question: Is ICE part of the military? How are people recruited into ICE? If they are part of the military I can squint and see your point, but if not, then are they just a national-level law-enforcement arm? Are their standards for hiring people in-line with military recruitment? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/34 "2025-08-15T23:46:25Z")
ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/35 "2025-08-15T23:46:32Z")
Wiki, emphasis added: > United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a **federal law enforcement agency** under the United States Department of Homeland Security. Its stated mission is to conduct criminal investigations, enforce immigration laws, preserve national security, and protect public safety. > U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alongside its parent agency the Department of Homeland Security, was formed under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, following the September 11 attacks. With its establishment, ICE, alongside two other agencies, absorbed and assumed the functions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (which was previously housed under the Justice Department) and the United States Customs Service (which was part of the Treasury Department). More: > ### Wrongful detentions > > From 2012 to early 2018, ICE wrongfully arrested and detained 1,480 U.S. citizens, including many who spent months or years in immigration detention. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/36 "2025-08-15T23:54:19Z")
Now? They probably exceed that count _daily_. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067/37 "2025-08-16T00:05:51Z")
There’s a spreadsheet over at the ICE website, but it contains data only through Q1 2025. ICE removals are broken down by criminality. There are 3 and only 3 categories: Criminal Convictions, Other Immigration Violator, and Pending Criminal Charges. After that are breakdowns by country of origin and Areas of Responsibility (location or arrest). There are other spreadsheets on arrests, etc. But the criminal categories are pretty vague, not unintentionally I suspect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-what-ice-agents-goons-are-up-to/1022067.md?page=1)