Analysis: MAGA Should Be Worried About Dangerous ICE Funding Too

While the focus on the Republican budget bill has been on social services, we should have a serious discussion about ICE funding

Photo by Jose M on Unsplash

Many on the more conservative side of the political spectrum have consistently spoken out about federal government overreach into their lives. This thinking spawned countless militias that are largely anti-government, sovereign citizens' movements that argue they are not obliged to follow laws that infringe on their individual sovereignty, and even hate groups. However, their duplicity should be noted as they are typically only loud when conservatives aren’t in control.

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Even during the pandemic, the anti-lockdown protests were encouraged by Trump, beginning only after data showed that Black people and Latinos were disproportionately affected, and Trump called COVID the “China Virus,” leading to an increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans. The racially motivated protests weren’t against Trump, but against the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and the then-head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Anthony Fauci, based on nonsensical theories.

We are in a similar time today. The same anti-government types that freak out about government overreach haven’t said a word regarding the explosion of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS), Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) budgets, despite the power each agency wields over citizens and noncitizens. The Latinophobic motivations behind the silence speak to how prevalent racism is in such groups.

But they should also remember that before Trump began wielding this power, there was precedent in 2020 when agents were deployed around the country to address protests, according to a leaked, unofficial memo to then-Senator Kamala Harris, obtained by The Nation. The memo revealed the extent of DHS's actions outside of its stated mission. DHS officers (including CBP, ICE, and Homeland Security Investigations) deployed to over 50 cities between May 20 and June 10, 2020, under Trump and with seemingly bipartisan support.

To think they won’t do it again is nothing short of insanity.

While they remain silent because they seemingly support what’s happening to Latinos, we must remember that they are also the people who defend cops under the banner of Blue Lives Matter, another racially motivated counter-movement to stop any conversations about accountability in law enforcement, racism in policing, or the disproportionate funding police receive. The group also targeted conversations about anti-Black racism by implying that scrutinizing police is the same as being anti-Black because of their “blue” uniform.

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The group’s social media posts, along with many other law enforcement groups, look no different than an anti-government militia’s posts would. They’re the same groups of people who are so blinded by the racism promoted by billionaire-funded loudmouths like Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, Ben Shapiro, and many others. This segment of society is falling for what they decry when they argue that billionaires create chaos to keep us divided.

Blue Lives Matter prefers bigoted language to humane language

Meanwhile, DHS, the Patriot Act, and the Homeland Security Act have always been on these groups’ radar. Still, they somehow seem unalarmed about it becoming the most funded agency in U.S. history, with more funding than the militaries of numerous countries. The government they told us all to fear is suddenly not such a big deal. But with so much power and money, thinking the agency won’t come after them through its countless child agencies is a gross miscalculation.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) absolutely has the power to come after them for dubious reasons under the guise of “national security,” as we have seen the administration do countless times in less than a year. Permanent residents (green card holders), naturalized citizens, and native-born citizens have all been targeted by DHS agencies.

For years, there have been videos posted on social media of some of these anti-government types being angry about CBP having checkpoints 100 miles from the border. Their outrage would inevitably lead to them taking it out on the agents as they filmed themselves going through a checkpoint and refusing to answer questions, often leading to physical confrontations with overly aggressive CBP agents. Their irritation about this is understandable, as they are nowhere near the border.

That is about to get worse for them as the new funding provides an incredible $5 billion for updating and constructing CBP facilities and checkpoints, in addition to spending $46.6 billion on a border wall that has never and will likely never work as well as the surveilllance technology currently in use at the U.S.-Mexico border does.

The inclusion of $26.7 billion for 10,000 new ICE agents is another issue the country should be aware of. What happens when that force isn’t needed? Well, Senate Republicans took care of that by providing a single lump sum payment, granting more flexibility in how the money is allocated from these funds.

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According to the American Immigration Council, this is problematic for myriad reasons.

“With this funding, the current administration will be poised to dramatically expand community arrests and expand cooperation with state and local law enforcement agencies,” reads the American Immigration Council’s funding breakdown. “Given the recent dismantling of three primary DHS oversight agencies, this funding would also rapidly expand ICE’s enforcement capacity at a time when the agency has failed to provide timely and accurate information on the whereabouts of those it has arrested.”

The bill also includes $3.5 billion for state and local police to assist ICE in enforcement operations.

As the rest of the country raises alarms about the gross funding of an agency that invades lives based on pretenses like immigration enforcement, the anti-government types who should logically be loud in the moment have chosen the silence and glee emblematic of Trump’s most ardent supporters. While we face a growing authoritarian government being accelerated by Trump, we are also faced with the reality that more people support this than we’d like to admit.

Few Democrats denounced this funding, with most focusing on cuts to social services such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as Food Stamps. New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted on social media that "This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion – making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, [the] DEA, and others combined," highlighting another alarming detail.

ICE funding has always been a bipartisan affair. Even under Former President Joe Biden, ICE received its highest funding in history. With Trump tripling the agency's budget and knowing how much harm it will cause based on ICE’s history, neither party has been willing to challenge the agency and hold it to account; only individual lawmakers have. Similarly, DHS as a whole has skirted accountability since its inception. The culture in the agency is what you see today.

While two-thirds of the country are raising alarms over this, and Trump’s poll numbers continue to free-fall, his most ardent supporters seem more afraid of brown people who have more in common with them than not, than they are of their government who has accelerated the taking of our civil liberties since the post-9/11 era. All based on the notion that somehow, white people are being made extinct despite the scientific impossibility of such a claim, since whiteness is a social construct and was created as a tool of oppression.

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Plus, white people aren’t going anywhere. This freak-out began before the Revolutionary War when Benjamin Franklin feared the Germination of Pennsylvania. All of the anti-immigrant rhetoric and the fear of white people becoming extinct started there. Yet, here we are, centuries later, and whit people are still among us. I don’t think anyone has a problem with that.

People do have a problem with racism and hate. I hope MAGA is paying attention.

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Arturo is an independent journalist whose work can be found at Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, Latino Rebels, and more. Arturo is also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support his work, become a paid subscriber or donate via Venmo, PayPal, or Cash App.