Time for ICE to claim victory and retreat, and for Congress to pass reform

When Mr. Trump ran for president in 2024, he promised that ICE would deport only the worst of the worst, and he repeats that every so often even now.  But  Steven Miller, an aide to the President, demanded (and ICE has capitulated) that they arrest no less than 3000 people a day, regardless of criminal record.  To reach that daily goal, ICE officers are paid on a per arrest basis – an incentive pay scale that is guaranteed to result in arrests of as many people as possible. 

Logic tells you ICE would move against states like Texas, California and Florida with much larger numbers of undocumented people, but ICE targeted Minnesota instead.   

ICE’s mission in Minneapolis was flawed from the beginning.  It was rolled out in the middle of a bitter winter, by masked, heavily armed officers traveling in unmarked vehicles.  ICE officers have arrested and detained many more people without a record of any kind than people with one.   It has picked up children from homes, schools and day care centers.  Those officers appear to be untrained in basic policing actions, and the indiscriminate use of physical assaults and now shootings have compromised that mission because it’s all on video for everyone to see.  Worse, the actions of those agents has lead to the deaths of two US citizens:  Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and DHS has rushed to paint these victims as domestic terrorists.

But it has not worked like ICE thought it would – mass protests have arisen, neighborhood protection groups have formed, and ICE is operating in conditions that it never could have predicted. 

ICE’s mission has been completely compromised and its agents shown to be trigger happy, unprofessional and untrained.  This version of ICE never will have any credibility as a legitimate federal agency.   It is time for ICE to retreat from Minnesota completely and institute proper training programs and actual oversight by professionals who can instill pride in the agency and confidence in the population.

As ICE packs up and retreats, Congress needs to take action.  It has done so before; to avoid more bloodshed and massive damage to our economy, it needs to again.

In the early 20^th Century, there were huge numbers of undocumented people in the US.  The government solved that problem by advising them to travel out of the US and re-enter through legal ports of entry.   Later, immediately after Pearl Harbor, Congress created a work program known as the Bracero Program (1942-64).  Through it, Mexican workers came to the US on a temporary basis, filling jobs left empty by the US men and women who volunteered for service during WWII, Korea and Vietnam.   

In the early 1990s President Clinton signed off on another reform program.  This law (Section 245i) required each green card applicant to pay a $1000 fine to recognize that they had broken the law by entering without permission or overstaying.  Section 245i expired on April 30, 2001, without addressing the lack of a temporary work visa in our system for workers who do manual jobs that US workers will not or cannot do.    Beginning in 2003,  many bills have been drafted to address that imbalance, but none of the proposals has made it to a full vote of either house. 

Why prefer this approach over a mass deportation policy?

The current enforcement only strategy is costing us billions of dollars to implement, with no plan for what comes next.  If we had a new temporary work visa that required the payment of $1000 for each applicant, it could raise upwards of $30 to $40 billion dollars.

It would match a flexible immigration system with changing economic needs.  Since 1964, we have not had a temporary work visa for workers in construction, meat packing, hospitality, and manufacturing.  Those industries are being decimated by this administration’s mass deportation policy.      

This new visa program would enhance security by letting USCIS vet the history of each applicant while they are here and while USCIS knows their location, their work history, etc.

It would relieve the overwhelming pressure that immigration courts now face due to the massive increase in new deportation cases.   Frequently the first hearing is held as much as  2 years after DHS starts removal proceedings, and final hearings can occur years later. 

Finally, it would let ICE do what it and the administration have claimed always was the policy: to get rid of the worst of the worst, and not deport just anyone and everyone.

How hard would it be for members of Congress to draft such legislation?  Not hard – the  Judiciary committees in both houses have copies of all of those bills.  And instead of writing ICE a virtual blank check, members would have to do what they were elected to do:  write legislation to amend our immigration laws to fit current economic conditions.

This framework is nothing new: last year, after the mass deportation effort started, Mr. Trump echoed the Bracero program and announced exceptions for the farming and hospitality industries.  That lasted about a day – when Steven Miller heard about it, he just overruled the president.  

What has Congress done in response to Mr. Miller’s usurpation of the president’s powers?  Nothing.   Miller and others have led Congress into total gridlock by using intimidation and fear – fear of losing their seats.  

That fear has resulted in a legislative stalemate that now has cost Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti their lives, caused thousands of US businesses to lose essential workers, and caused countless workers and their families to lose their liberty, when all they wanted to do is to provide a safe place for their families to live and prosper.  

It’s time Congress created a common sense, temporary work visa for essential workers so that we can match our economic needs with the number of foreign workers we admit.  It’s time to end ICE’s occupation of US states where these workers live, to end the massive costs that today’s strategy is generating, and to  quit using a bogus justification of getting rid of the worst criminals to let ICE arrest and deport anyone and everyone that they can for a financial bonus. 

Congress is giving ICE license to attack our communities, to destroy our economy, and to kill our citizens. 

It needs to stop.

Gerard M. Chapman

Board Certified Immigration Lawyer since 1997

Mr. Chapman practices in Greensboro, NC

Copyright - January 25, 2025