Keith Mack
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's mission is to protect the United States from cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety. This has led to concerns about whether ICE is breaking the law in its enforcement activities. There have been allegations of sexual abuse, forced sterilization, serving pork to Muslim detainees, and wrongful detention of U.S. citizens. Protests have also emerged in response to ICE policies, such as the separation of migrant children from their families. While ICE has broad powers, there are still laws and regulations that govern its activities, and it is important for individuals to know their rights when interacting with ICE.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Formation | U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was formed in 2002 under the Homeland Security Act |
| Parent Agency | Department of Homeland Security |
| Mission | To protect the U.S. from cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety |
| Function | Enforcement of more than 400 federal statutes, with a focus on customs violations, immigration enforcement, preventing terrorism, and combating the illegal movement of people and goods |
| Components | Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), along with three supporting divisions: Management & Program Administration, Office of Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), and Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) |
| Employees | Approximately 20,000 |
| Offices | About 400 offices within the U.S. and 53 countries |
| Director | Appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate |
| Training | New hires receive training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia |
| Criticisms and Controversies | Wrongful detention of U.S. citizens, family separation, sexual abuse allegations, forced sterilization allegations, serving pork to Muslim detainees, etc. |
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What You'll Learn
Sexual abuse allegations
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse and assault. However, there have been numerous allegations of sexual abuse in ICE facilities, with hundreds of immigrants reporting such incidents.
A 2023 investigation by Futuro Investigates revealed disturbing details of 308 sexual assault and sexual abuse complaints filed by immigrants detained in ICE facilities nationwide between 2015 and 2021. The data obtained shows a systemic pattern of abuse by detention officers, contractual guards, and ICE employees, with more than half of the allegations made in the past six years directed against staff.
In one case, five women in ICE custody at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, complained of being sexually assaulted by a male nurse. The women alleged that the nurse took advantage of his position to isolate them and force or coerce them into giving him access to their private body parts without medical justification.
Another case involves E.D., a 19-year-old asylum seeker and domestic violence survivor from Honduras, who was sexually assaulted by an employee while detained at the Berks Family Residential Center in Pennsylvania. E.D. filed a lawsuit against the detention center and its staff for failing to protect her from sexual violence, despite being aware of the risk. The employee pled guilty to criminal institutional sexual assault, but the defendants argued that they should not be held liable for any constitutional violations as the abuse was "consensual."
The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was passed by Congress in 2003 to address sexual assault in prisons and jails. However, there have been criticisms that the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) PREA standards do not protect immigrants in all detention facilities, as the agency only applies these standards when entering into new contracts or renewing or modifying old ones.
ICE has implemented the Sexual Abuse and Assault Prevention and Intervention (SAAPI) Program to ensure effective procedures for preventing, reporting, responding to, investigating, and tracking incidents or allegations of sexual abuse or assault against aliens in their custody. The program aims to comply with the DHS PREA Standards, ICE SAAPI Detention Standards, and ICE SAAPI policies and protocols.
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Forced sterilisation allegations
In 2020, a whistleblower complaint was filed by Dawn Wooten, a nurse and former employee at Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, alleging that unnecessary hysterectomies were being performed on immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Wooten accused Dr Mahendra Amin, the centre's main physician, of conducting these invasive surgeries on Spanish-speaking women and women who spoke various Indigenous languages common in Latin America.
Wooten claimed that the facility failed to obtain proper consent for these surgeries, or lied to women about the medical procedures. Many of these women did not speak English and were not properly informed about what occurred until after the operation, if at all. Wooten also alleged that women who protested or spoke out were sent into solitary confinement.
These accusations recall a long history of forced sterilizations in the U.S., particularly targeting Latina, Indigenous, Black, and migrant women. In the 1960s and '70s, Mexican women were disproportionately targeted for forced sterilization in Los Angeles County Hospital. Despite legal reforms, there are reports that this practice continues in California state prisons, with nearly 150 incarcerated women sterilized between 2006 and 2010.
The treatment of women in the Irwin County Detention Center constitutes human rights violations and genocide according to the standards established by the United Nations. Immigrant rights advocates argue that this is part of a much bigger problem, with widespread reports of sexual and physical abuse of detainees.
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Wrongful detention allegations
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been accused of violating human rights and abusing detainees in its custody. Between January 2017 and April 2020, 39 adults died in ICE custody or immediately after being released. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the suffering, with the number of deaths in ICE custody in 2020 more than doubling from the previous year.
ICE's detention system has been described as "corrupt" and "inhumane", with a lack of oversight that has led to deadly consequences. The system incentivizes incarceration for profit, with private prison companies enriching themselves while local governments pad their budgets. As a result, people trapped in this system suffer severe human rights abuses.
One example of ICE's wrongful detention allegations is the case of Raul Lopez, a 44-year-old undocumented migrant who was swept up in a raid on his home in Chicago in January 2025. Lopez, who had no criminal record and was employed in the construction industry, was detained by ICE agents when they realized he was undocumented. His family, who are originally from Mexico, claimed that Lopez's detention was an "unjust arrest" and that they had no information about his whereabouts.
Lopez's case is not an isolated incident, and there have been numerous other reports of wrongful detention and abuse by ICE agents. In February 2025, ICE was accused of using a "collateral arrest" tactic, where a migrant is detained due to their immigration status during an unrelated police action. Such arrests were banned under the Biden administration but encouraged by the Trump administration as part of its efforts to deport millions of migrants.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has also been criticized for its role in expanding the immigration detention system and failing to address improper contracting practices and inadequate inspections in ICE's detention facilities. Despite these concerns, ICE continues to receive significant funding from Congress, with nearly $3 billion allocated for fiscal year 2021 to maintain more than 200 immigrant detention centers.
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Separation of migrant children from families
In April 2018, the Trump administration's Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, announced a zero-tolerance policy, under which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would refer all migrants who entered the US without authorisation to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal prosecution. This policy was an expansion of "Operation Streamline", a program that began in 2005.
As a direct result of the zero-tolerance policy, over 2000 children were separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border between mid-April and June 2018. Since children cannot be held in criminal detention, they were designated as "unaccompanied alien children" and placed in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). ORR, in turn, placed the children in shelters until they could be released to a family member, guardian, or foster family.
On June 20, 2018, President Trump signed an Executive Order to halt the separation of families. However, the order also instructed DHS to detain migrant families together throughout any pending criminal and immigration proceedings. While the Border Patrol temporarily stopped referring parents arriving with children for criminal prosecution, there was no procedure in place to reunite the thousands of families already separated.
Five years on, in 2023, approximately 1000 children were still separated from their families, and a task force was attempting to reunify and account for separated families. However, advocates of the Biden administration's Family Reunification Task Force argued that the group's scope was too narrow to capture all separated families. Inconsistencies in the data used to track families have also resulted in separated families falling through the cracks.
In addition to the ongoing issue of family separation, concerns have been raised about the fate of unaccompanied migrant children in the US. In November 2024, Donald Trump's incoming border tsar, Tom Homan, claimed that the US government "can't find" more than 300,000 migrant children, many of whom, he alleged, have been lured into forced labour and sex trafficking. However, immigration experts and attorneys disputed this, arguing that the figures were indicative of a bureaucratic "paperwork issue" rather than anything more nefarious.
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Sanctuary cities
The debate around sanctuary cities centres on the role of local and federal authorities in immigration enforcement. While sanctuary jurisdictions limit cooperation with federal immigration officials, they do not actively prevent them from carrying out their duties. Compliance with immigration detainers is generally considered voluntary, and courts have ruled that local authorities cannot be compelled to honour them. Sanctuary cities may still share information and cooperate with federal immigration authorities, and research suggests that sanctuary policies do not increase crime rates or prevent the deportation of individuals with violent convictions.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken a hard line against sanctuary cities, threatening to withhold funding and prosecute officials who obstruct immigration enforcement. In Chicago, a sanctuary city since 1985, the DOJ sent a top official to investigate possible interference with ICE raids. The Trump administration's efforts to increase deportations have sparked fears of raids in schools and churches, with local officials and communities pushing back to protect immigrants' rights.
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Frequently asked questions
ICE stands for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from cross-border crime, illegal immigration, terrorism, and the illegal movement of goods, all of which threaten national security and public safety.
ICE has two distinct law enforcement components: Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). HSI focuses on disrupting transnational crime, while ERO deals with the deportation and removal of illegal immigrants.
Regardless of your immigration status, you have rights under the Constitution. You have the right to remain silent and do not have to discuss your immigration status or provide documents if you do not have them with you. You can refuse to be searched without your consent or probable cause.
Yes, you have the right to consult with a lawyer. While the government is not required to provide one, you can ask for a list of free or low-cost alternatives.
