According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which aggregates immigration detention information, more than 73% of people held by ICE nationwide have no criminal record. At the Northwest ICE Processing Center, that number is closer to 60%. Even many of the convictions are for minor offenses like traffic violations or for decades-old cases.
Videos showing ICE agents pinning a Target employee to the ground with a knee on the neck, hunting down a DoorDash driver as she hides terrified inside the home of the person who has hailed her, and threatening people who film them reveal a different reality from the administration’s heroic narrative.
The administration hasn’t left narrative control to official channels alone. It cultivates right-wing influencers by taking them on ICE ride-alongs and holding special briefings where they receive access to Cabinet members. The influencers then amplify DHS messaging and create content portraying ICE operations as righteous crusades.
When protests erupted in Minneapolis, DHS posted videos of DHS Secretary Noem filmed during ICE operations, content that conservative influencers amplified to their millions of followers. Pro-Trump influencers posted clips urging the president to invoke the Insurrection Act. Trump threatened to do exactly that unless Minnesota’s “corrupt politicians” stopped “the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E.” The Preamble
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