Calling ICE the secret police is factually incorrect and intellectually dishonest.
First, ICE has no authority over US we citizens. So on that note alone they are not a police force. Second, they still operate under the law, specially INA 236-287. Their budget is reviewed and authorized by Congress and they are beholden to the laws of the land.
What is new in their scope are 287(G) agreements which are currently being contested (as they should) in courts. It’s unclear whether local police can or should enforce immigration law under current statutes. Only in this case would I agree with your statement, in that the enhanced local police forces would constitute a “secret police” by the literal Gestapo-/Stasi-era definition.
Funny enough Trump has made quite a show of ICE but has yet to top Obama’s numbers. I’m old enough to remember ICE forming in 2003 and Obama’s (ab)use of DHS. I don’t remember people complaining and protesting about door kickers back then. Maybe because the other team was doing it and their quarterback won a Nobel peace prize?
They've detained quite a number of them, which would be impossible if they had no authority over them. (Also, while a lot of the time “ICE” is used as shorthand, the objections are generally to the actions the administration characterizes as immigration enforcement as a whole—to which a sizable portion of most US federal law enforcement agencies have been redirected from their usual duties, with ICE and Border Patrol taking the most highly-visible roles, not to ICE specifically.)
> So on that note alone they are not a police force.
A police force whose nominal focus is a particular subset of the population (including, e.g., noncitizens) is still a police force.
> Second, they still operate under the law, specially INA 236-287. T
Having law which nominally governs their behavior is not contrary to being a police force, regular or secret. In fact, I think you will not find any example of such a force for which this is not true.
> Funny enough Trump has made quite a show of ICE but has yet to top Obama’s numbers.
The objection is not the numbers (by which i assume you mean the aggregate count of deportations), but primarily to the changes in methodology and focus.
> I’m old enough to remember ICE forming and Obama.
ICE was a product of the reorganization of federal national security and law enforcement bureaucracy under George W. Bush, not Obama.
> I don’t remember people complaining and protesting about door kickers back then. Maybe because the other team was doing it?
ICE specifically and the entire Department of Homeland Security has been a target of protests, objection, and vilification since it was formed.
First, ICE has no authority over US we citizens. So on that note alone they are not a police force. Second, they still operate under the law, specially INA 236-287. Their budget is reviewed and authorized by Congress and they are beholden to the laws of the land.
What is new in their scope are 287(G) agreements which are currently being contested (as they should) in courts. It’s unclear whether local police can or should enforce immigration law under current statutes. Only in this case would I agree with your statement, in that the enhanced local police forces would constitute a “secret police” by the literal Gestapo-/Stasi-era definition.
Funny enough Trump has made quite a show of ICE but has yet to top Obama’s numbers. I’m old enough to remember ICE forming in 2003 and Obama’s (ab)use of DHS. I don’t remember people complaining and protesting about door kickers back then. Maybe because the other team was doing it and their quarterback won a Nobel peace prize?