ICE: Things Will Get Even Worse

On Friday, I wrote a post titled "ICE is Recruiting Out-of-Shape Morons" in which I described how the surge in hiring by Immigration and Customs Enforcement was resulting in the recruitment of large numbers of candidates who were unable to pass the physical fitness test (which is very easy) or the written exam (which is open book). Yesterday, Garrett Graff, a blogger who has long followed federal law enforcement matters, posted a new article titled, "ICE’s Hiring Surge Is Already a Disaster" in which he went into greater detail on the same theme. It is worth revisiting this topic in light of the new information Graff reports and due to some significant developments involving ICE yesterday afternoon.

I previously mentioned Graff back in July in a post titled, "The Dangers of ICE Expansion". I described a post by Graff in which he had outlined several dangers ICE's massive expansion would likely face. As Graff wrote in July:

What happens when a law enforcement agency at any level grows too rapidly is well-documented: Hiring standards fall, training is cut short, field training officers end up being too inexperienced to do the right training, and supervisors are too green to know how to enforce policies and procedures well.

In his post yesterday, Graff provided evidence that his predictions are already coming true. I mentioned in Friday's post that ICE has twice cut the length of its training program. What I didn't realize, but Graff pointed out, is that the latest cut shortened the program to just 47 days. That length was chosen "because [cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump] is the 47th president." In addition, ICE is apparently hiring some individuals before they have even been interviewed and then swearing them in virtually. This has resulted in recruits being hired who have not been properly vetted. Some candidates have not even submitted fingerprints for background checks. The end result is poorly trained and unqualified officers being deployed to the streets. Graff recounts a recent incident in which an ICE officer attempted to break a car window with his gun, which then misfired and shot a U.S. marshal.

Graff also reports that "other federal law enforcement agencies are now cutting their hiring standards too." He says that the FBI is now lowering its standards to more closely match those of ICE. He says:

FBI Director Kash Patel wants to drop the college degree-requirement and turn its traditionally highly educated, older agent workforce into something more like ICE’s high-school educated street cops; the training they get will drop from 18 weeks to just eight, a stunning cut.

According to Graff, ICE officers have traditionally been looked down upon by other law enforcement officers. ICE agents are said to be hired "by the pound, from the pound." But, "Now the rest of federal law enforcement wants to race ICE to the bottom qualifications-wise."

Graff provides a warning based on his reporting on the Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol expansion that occurred in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. He writes about crime and corruption that followed:

A tidal wave so huge that from 2005 to 2012, there were a total of 2,170 misconduct arrests of CBP officers and Border Patrol agents — meaning that one CBP officer or agent was arrested every single day for seven years — and that even by 2017, a decade after the hiring surge, that pace of arrest had only slowed to one CBP agent or officer arrested every 36 hours.

Graff notes that four CBP agents or officers have been arrested or sentenced for sex crimes this year in Arizona alone. This includes one who was first accused of rape in 2014, but not investigated by CBP. This summer he was finally arrested and "charged with 24 felony criminal counts, including 10 counts of child sex trafficking". The United States will likely be dealing with the fallout of ICE's current hiring spree for years.

The problems that will likely result from everything described above would be concerning enough, but yesterday there was another development that will likely make things even worse. As Bill Melugin of Fox News reported:

A mass removal of ICE leadership around the country is underway, with up to 12 ICE field office chiefs being removed & reassigned in an effort to increase deportation numbers. I'm told the move is spearheaded by Corey Lewandowski, and a handful of the ICE Chiefs will likely be replaced by Border Patrol & CBP officials, some of whom will be hand-picked by aggressive & controversial Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino.

For those who have not been following this closely, Corey Lewandowski is a former Trump presidential campaign manager who is currently serving as a Special Government Employee under Kristi Noem in the Department of Homeland Security. Lewandowski and Noem are said to be romantically involved. According to recent reports, Lewandowski is now effectively running DHS while Noem concentrates on press appearances and, presumably, costume selection. Bovino is the U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large and has been the face of federal crackdowns in both Los Angeles and Chicago. He is due to appear in federal court today in response to allegations that he personally violated a judge's orders about the use of tear gas.

Most of us who have seen masked federal agents aggressively seizing people off the streets probably assume those officers are affiliated with ICE. In reality, many of the most concerning incidents have involved Border Patrol officers who tend to act much more aggressively and are much less restrained. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick‬, a fellow at the American Immigration Council, follows federal immigration law enforcement activities closely. He posted last night on Blue Sky that:

The old guard, which prioritized targeted enforcement operations aimed at people with criminal records, is being replaced with Border Patrol and Gregory Bovino's "Midway Blitz" style.

Think things are bad now? It'll get worse.

Melugin, in a X post, concurred with this analysis. According to Melugin:

Generally speaking, ICE typically conducts very targeted operations, largely going after criminal illegal aliens or those with deportation orders, but almost always knowing who they are targeting for arrest, often conducting surveillance to learn their schedules before and waiting hours before arresting them if needed.

In contrast:

Border Patrol, under Trump 2.0, while sometimes doing their own targeted operations, has been extremely aggressive and has been at the forefront of some of the most controversial immigration enforcement operations we've seen so far, carrying out roving patrols in Los Angeles, Chicago, etc, often at Home Depot, car washes, flea markets etc, leading to a handful of federal judges around the country issuing injunctions against them. A majority of the viral videos you see online are Border Patrol agents, including the use of a Trojan horse style Penske moving truck at a Los Angeles Home Depot, an operation organized by Bovino.

Melugin further writes that:

I'm told there is significant friction within different wings of DHS and the administration, with Border Czar Tom Homan & ICE Director Todd Lyons preferring to prioritize targeting criminal aliens & the "worst of the worst" or those with deportation orders, while DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski, and BP Commander Bovino prefer to use aggressive tactics to arrest anyone in the US illegally, including but not limited to criminals, to ramp up deportation numbers and achieve President Trump's promises of mass deportations.

All of this points to much more aggressive use of federal immigration personnel. The list of cities in which ICE field directors are being replaced includes locations in which there have already been significant immigration actions, such as Los Angeles and Portland. But the list also includes Phoenix, Philadelphia, Denver, El Paso, San Diego, and New Orleans, which have not seen similar large-scale crackdowns. That may be changing as the new leadership takes control.

The problem with out-of-control federal agents in cities is illustrated by a report yesterday in the Washington City Paper. As Mitch Ryals reports, on October 17, Metropolitan Police Department officers who were accompanied by federal agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Diplomatic Security Service, the U.S. Marshal Service, the FBI, and Homeland Security Investigations stopped a driver because "they suspected the tint on his windows was too dark and he was allegedly missing a front license plate." An MPD officer's report said that, after the stop, the vehicle accelerated toward federal officers who were on foot and struck a car that was stopped in front of it. The HSI officer opened fire, shooting multiple bullets. One of the bullets hit that man's jacket near the collar, and two others struck the empty passenger's seat. The suspect was taken into custody.

None of that would seem unusual except for what happened later. An MPD officer filed an affidavit in court that did not mention the shooting, and his partner omitted the shooting from the public incident report. One of the officers later testified in court that he had been instructed by a "team leader" to leave the shooting out of his report. Moreover, the body camera footage of the incident has been "locked down" and has not been made available to either the defense attorney or the prosecutor. Therefore, there is no video evidence to support the contention that the driver accelerated after the stop. The case was dismissed by a Superior Court judge due to a lack of probable cause.

We are facing what is almost the worst possible scenario. Poorly trained and unqualified new ICE officers are being put under the command of Border Patrol administrators who are charged with implementing aggressive large-scale operations in which emphasis will be placed on the quantity of arrests rather than quality. The chances of U.S. citizens or legal immigrants being swept up will increase greatly. Moreover, this is in an environment in which U.S. officials from the President on down actively encourage law enforcement brutality. In Chicago, the Border Patrol's use of tear gas and other crowd control measures was so out-of-control that a federal judge placed strict limitations on their use. Nevertheless, after the judge's order, Bovino himself was captured on video personally throwing two tear gas canisters into a crowd. He will be asked to address this in court today. To make things even worse, the D.C. incident suggests that federal actions may be covered up. There is very little evidence that federal officers will be punished for transgressions. The result is that federal officers are likely to present a significant threat to everyone within cities being targeted.