In the pre–Trump 2.0 era, it was a relatively simple matter to determine which federal law enforcement agency (LEA) had which mission. Some focused exclusively on firearms, another on the “drug war,” and another on a wide range of federal crimes. Today, it’s clear that LEAs within the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security have a very different mission: overt political repression.
As my colleagues David Bier and Alex Nowrasteh have done yeoman’s work highlighting the rights abuses being perpetrated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel against not only illegal migrants but also legal permanent residents and even US citizens, I won’t revisit their findings here. What has my attention and what should h