By Joshua Racks
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a division of the Department of Homeland Security and a Federal agency that enforces regulations regarding immigration status, detention of illegal immigrants, and deportations.
There has been an increase in the enforcement efforts of ICE over the last few years, which has made it more controversial and publicized. Although the agency explains that its mission is to safeguard national security and to enforce federal law, critics complain that some of its practices have led to unnecessary damages such as deaths during enforcement operations and in the detention centers.
The amount of work of ICE mainly entails detection of people who are suspected of being illegal immigrants, arresting them and detaining them as their immigration proceedings are handled. Such apprehensions may be conducted when making traffic stops, visiting the house, raiding the work place or making joint arrests with the other law enforcers.
Over the past few years, ICE has expanded the magnitude and publicity of these activities, especially in big cities. Those who are in support of this claim that this strategy strengthens the rule of law, whereas those against this approach argue that it instills fear among the immigrant communities and exposes them to dangerous encounters. Among the gravest issues related to ICE, one can single out the death-related issues.
There have been some deaths in the course of enforcing the same and most of the officers use force. In such instances, people have died during interactions with federal agents and some of them are even U.S citizens or bystanders. Research of these cases usually concerns the question of justification of force and adherence to appropriate protocols.
These killings have led to protests and demands of more transparency, body-cameras, and the use of independent checks and balances on federal law-enforcement agencies. The other critical issue is the deaths that take place when people are in ICE custody.In the immigration detention centers, every year detainees are dying due to different reasons, such as medical emergencies, suicide, and alleged neglect. The advocacy groups claim that most of the detention centers have inadequate staffing of medical activities, mental health sectors, and emergency response. Cases have been reported whereby people who have been detained have pleaded severally to seek medical attention before dying.
Although ICE assures that it takes care of detainees, and investigates all in-custody fatalities, critics believe that in-house investigations are not enough to hold anyone accountable. Such deaths have fuelled controversies concerning the morality and efficiency of immigration detention as such. In contrast to imprisonment of criminals, immigration detention is a civil procedure, thus a large number of detainees have not been found guilty of a crime. Because of this, civil-rights groups find it hard to believe that there is any need to keep people in restrictive settings, more so when there are other forms like supervised release or electronic monitoring.
Due to pressure by the people, the legislature and interest groups have demanded reforms in the form of better detention conditions, dwindled use of force, independent inquiry into fatalities, and a restriction on mass enforcement practices.Others advocate the minimization of the role or reorganization of agency ICE.
To conclude, ICE is a very influential force in implementing the U.S. immigration law, yet its recent activities have caused certain concerns. Killings associated with enforcement actions and detention have become the main point of the discussion in the country regarding immigration, human rights, and government accountability. The future of the process of immigration in the United States and the confidence of the citizens in the law enforcement is determined by how the United States will resolve these issues.
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