On September 14, 2001, three days after nearly 3,000 Americans died in the deadliest terrorist attack in US history, President George W. Bush stood in front of the rubble of the twin towers and to crowds cheering “USA, USA, USA” he shouted through a bullhorn “I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.” Out of this atmosphere of fear and anger, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were created on March 1, 2003, merging enforcement functions from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and U.S. Customs Service. Decades later, in January of 2026, ICE agents shot and killed Renée Nicole Macklin Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti.
From its creation after the September 11 attacks to the present, ICE has evolved from an agency focused on national security threats and serious criminals to one that can only be described as operating with unprecedented scope and minimal oversight.
Under Bush, who appointed the first ICE director and expanded border security funding by 66%, the agency deported approximately 2 million people over his two terms. President Obama continued this trajectory of mass deportations, logging more than 3.1 million ICE deportations, peaking at 407,000 in 2012. While Obama claimed to prioritize convicted criminals — an overly broad term ranging from murder to fishing without a license — both administrations normalized mass deportation.
Tom Homan, who later helped shape immigration enforcement during the Trump era, served in ICE leadership under Obama and oversaw record deportation levels. His role across administrations reflected how enforcement strategies developed within a system that remained largely intact regardless of political leadership.
President Biden oversaw approximately 4.4 million total repatriations during his term, a figure that includes formal removals, returns, and nearly 3 million pandemic-era Title 42 expulsions. His administration fundamentally changed ICE by specifically prioritizing individuals who posed threats to national security, public safety (serious criminals), or border security (recent crossers). To implement this, Biden issued memos restricting arrests in "sensitive locations" like schools and hospitals and initially required field agents to seek leadership approval for interior arrests, which caused interior enforcement to drop by over 60% in his first month. By the end of his term, approximately 82% of those deported were arrested at the border rather than in the interior.
Trump's return to office in January 2025 brought immediate changes. Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025, allocating $75 billion to ICE over four years and tripling the annual budget to $28 billion. ICE has since grown to be the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency. By Trump's first anniversary, the administration announced 675,000 deportations.
The profile of deportees shifted dramatically under the second Trump administration. Under Obama, 90% of interior removals involved convicted criminals. Under Trump, only 25 to 35% of deportees had criminal records. Critically, only 3% of immigrants arrested and detained by ICE between September 21 and November 16, 2025, had criminal convictions. The American Immigration Council documented that ICE arrests of people with no criminal record increased by 2,450% during the first nine months of the second Trump Administration. The agency reported 32 deaths in ICE custody in 2025, making it the deadliest year on record.
Across four presidencies — Bush, Obama, Biden, and Trump — ICE became what it is today through a steady accumulation of decisions that normalized mass deportation as part of everyday government policy. What began as a response to terrorism and national security now shapes the lives of ordinary people across the country, including immigrant families in Massachusetts and CA students who are growing up in a world where mass deportation is not shocking but expected. The fear and anger that created ICE did not disappear. It became policy, and now it defines the country we are inheriting.