Love People Enough · Recording guide

ICE: The Good Work and the Bad

An updated ICE episode. Not "abolish it" and not "they can do no wrong." We separate the work almost everyone wants done from the places it is going wrong, with the receipts. Target: 45 to 60 minutes. Facts checked as of Oct 31, 2026.

How to use this page

Read it top to bottom, in recording order. Each section has a rough time; they add up to about 52 minutes.
Gold box = how to open it. Blue = ICE's side and the good work. Red = where it's going wrong. Green = the fix both sides could sign.
When you hit ▶ Play now, play that clip. Codes are in play order, and the file name starts with the same code. Clip files: Google Drive, My Drive > Podcast > ICE clips.
Most clips are from Jubilee's "Pro-ICE vs Anti-ICE" (Apr 2026). Several people in it say things that aren't true, on both sides. Each clip card says what holds up and what doesn't, so you can correct it on air.
Folded boxes are extra background and sources. You don't need them on air.
The rule from El-Sayed still holds: say what the record shows, then give your opinion and call it your opinion.

The spine of the episode, in one breath

ICE does work almost nobody wants to lose: child predators, gang killers, international fugitives. Most of that is its investigations arm, HSI. Since 2025 the agency got about three times its old money, a push for 3,000 arrests a day, and a hiring surge with shortened training. As arrests tripled, the share of people with a criminal conviction fell by about half, HSI agents got pulled off fentanyl and child cases to make arrests, and shootings, citizen detentions and deaths in custody all went up. The problem isn't that ICE exists. It's what happens when a number drives it.

Two things changed since the Jubilee video was made

Kristi Noem is out. Trump removed her Mar 5, 2026, two days after both parties grilled her over a $220 million ad campaign. Markwayne Mullin is DHS Secretary now.
"$75 billion" is out of date. ICE got about $75B in July 2025 (through 2029), then another $38.5B on June 10, 2026. Its normal budget was about $10B a year.

Background

A. What is ICE, and what does it actually do?

The questions

What does ICE do that we'd actually miss?
Did they really cut ICE training in half?
Is there a 3,000-a-day quota, and what does it do?
When agents use force, who checks the story?
Are they detaining citizens and skipping due process?
Detention: how bad is it, and who's checking?
Abolish ICE, or fix it?

Background: 30 seconds of what ICE is

AWhat is ICE, and what does it actually do?~5 min

Open withBefore we argue about it, what is it? Most people think ICE is one thing. It's really two, and that matters for everything after this.

Created March 2003, after 9/11, by the Homeland Security Act. It merged the enforcement side of the old INS with the investigators from the Customs Service. So "it didn't exist 25 years ago" is true of the name. The jobs existed before.
ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations): finds, arrests, detains and deports. This is the arm in the street videos.
HSI (Homeland Security Investigations): criminal investigators. Child exploitation, human trafficking, drug and gun smuggling, money laundering. In FY2024 HSI made 32,608 criminal arrests and identified or helped 1,783 child exploitation victims.
The money: about $75B in July 2025 ($45B for detention, about $30B for arrests and hiring) plus $38.5B more in June 2026. The Brennan Center says that's more per year than every other federal law enforcement agency combined.
Who runs it now: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Acting ICE Director David Venturella. Border czar Tom Homan. Stephen Miller sets policy from the White House.

Where it's going wrong

The abolish side, in their own words. Watch for two claims we'll check later: "killing American citizens" and "30% less crime."

▶ Play now

▶ 00AWhere it's going wrong

Jubilee: the abolish side opens

Length 1:22. Original source

What holds up: ICE is from 2003. Three US citizens have been killed by immigration agents since 2025, one of them by ICE (section 4). "30% less crime" is roughly right: Cato's Texas data has a 26% lower homicide conviction rate. Not checked: the billionaire and fascism framing; that's opinion.

File: 00A-j1-abolish-side-opens.mp4

ICE's side

The answer that stumps the abolish side: if you abolish ICE, you abolish HSI too.

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▶ 00BICE's side

Jubilee: "HSI is under ICE"

Length 1:06. Original source

True. HSI is half of ICE. In 2018, 19 HSI bosses asked to be split off from the deportation side because it was hurting their cases. That split is a real proposal (section 7).

File: 00B-j2-hsi-is-under-ice.mp4

Talk about it

Ask your friend: when you say abolish ICE, do you mean HSI too? Who goes after the child predators?

Sources (7 links)

Part 1: The good work

1What does ICE do that we'd actually miss?~8 min

Open withI want to start with the work almost nobody wants to lose. Not a DHS press release. Court records. And the first one happened just down I-95 from my house.

ICE's side

Fredericksburg, Virginia. Samuel Flores de Dios, in the US illegally from Mexico, abused a girl under 13 in his home in Feb and March 2025 and recorded it on phones around his bedroom. HSI investigated with the Spotsylvania Sheriff. Sentenced June 24, 2026: 30 years.
Houston, MS-13. Eight members killed people, some as young as 14, with machetes and bats, on orders phoned in from El Salvador, and sent photos of the bodies back. HSI and the FBI built the case. Sentenced April 2026: 35 to 50 years each.
A Toronto murder suspect hiding in Mississippi. Adrian Walker was on Toronto's most-wanted list for a 2024 first-degree murder. HSI proved he was here illegally and got the warrant; the Marshals task force caught him Mar 23, 2026. Charged, not yet convicted.
Tren de Aragua in New Mexico. Yorvis Carrascal Campo is one of 11 indicted for kidnapping a man in Albuquerque, strangling him on a leader's order, and burying him in the desert. HSI arrested him Jan 8, 2026. Indicted, not yet convicted.
A repeat child predator in Washington state, Corbett Craig: 27 years, an HSI Seattle case. Not an immigration case at all. That's HSI's everyday job.
Also legit, and it happened under Biden too: picking people up straight from prison when they finish a sentence for something like child rape, so they're deported instead of released.

DOJ: Fredericksburg, 30 years

DOJ: Houston MS-13 sentences

DOJ: Toronto fugitive caught in Mississippi

DOJ: Tren de Aragua indictment, New Mexico

Heads upSay "charged" for Walker and Carrascal Campo. Only Flores de Dios, the Houston MS-13 members and Craig are convicted. And notice who did the work: almost every one is HSI, the investigations side, usually with the FBI, Marshals or a sheriff. Hold that thought for section 3.

Where the good-news story gets oversold

Don't take the DHS "worst of the worst" list on faith. Cato found it covers about 4% of ICE arrests, and 56% of the people on it have no violent charge or conviction.
Henrry Villatoro Santos, arrested in Woodbridge in 2025: the Attorney General called him "head of MS-13 on the East Coast." The only charge ever filed was gun possession, and DOJ dropped that to deport him.
A man DHS listed as arrested "in Minnesota neighborhoods" had been in state prison since 2018.

Talk about it

Is anyone, including your friend, against what happened in Fredericksburg?
If this is the work we all want, what share of ICE's day is it? (Section 3 answers that.)

Sources (9 links)

Part 2: Where it's going wrong

2Did they really cut ICE training in half?~7 min

Open withThe stat that started this episode: Trump cut ICE training in half. Close, but not quite. Here's what actually happened, and the part nobody mentions: they reversed it.

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▶ 02AWhere it's going wrong

Jubilee: Laura Jedeed, the whistleblower, and 3,000 a day

Length 2:08. Original source

What holds up: "cut 240 hours" matches the whistleblower exactly. "Cut in half" is a bit strong; it was about 42%. 3,000 a day is real (section 3). The Jedeed story is partly true (below). "They wanted him to lie" is his description of being told to keep a memo secret, not an order to lie to anyone.

File: 02A-j3-jedeed-schwank-3000-a-day.mp4

Before: the basic academy at Glynco, Georgia was 72 days, 584 hours, plus 5 weeks of Spanish.
Fall 2025: cut to 42 days, about 336 hours. Spanish dropped. That's a 42% cut, not quite half.
What got cut (whistleblower documents plus a Senate comparison of the old and new syllabus): use-of-force classes and the use-of-force simulator, 16 hours of firearms, arrest procedures, the difference between criminal and deportation cases. A 2-hour class on protesters' rights shrank to about 10 minutes. Cadets were no longer taught "objectively reasonable," the legal test for when you can shoot.
The whistleblower: Ryan Schwank, an ICE attorney who taught at the academy. Quit Feb 13, 2026 and spoke at a forum run by congressional Democrats on Feb 23 (not a formal hearing; Republicans didn't take part). His words: "Deficient training can and will get people killed."
DHS said: "No training hours have been cut." The meat of it was kept, moved to six 12-hour days a week.
Then the new Secretary undid it. Mullin told the House on June 3, 2026 that training goes back to 500-plus hours starting July 1: "We had to rewrite the curriculum."

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▶ 02BWhere it's going wrong

FOX 9: the whistleblower testifies, and DHS's denial

Length 2:41. Original source

Schwank in his own words, then DHS's statement that no hours were cut. Ends with a Minneapolis family describing agents ramming their door.

File: 02B-n1-fox9-schwank-training-cut.mp4

Where it's going wrong

Hiring: ICE says it hired 12,000+ officers in a year, going from about 10,000 to 22,000. Federal workforce data showed a net gain of about 5,400. Age limits were dropped and signing bonuses went up to $50,000.
Vetting: NBC found recruits at the academy before their background checks were done, one with a past robbery and domestic violence charge. In Sept 2026 it came out that ICE's own background-check chief, who voted for Trump twice, had warned the Inspector General of an "unprecedented lowering of standards." The IG is investigating.
Where that leads: July 13, 2026, Biddeford, Maine. An ICE officer hired in the surge, with reported domestic abuse records, shot and killed a 25-year-old Colombian man with a work permit who wasn't the target. Border czar Tom Homan: if the records are real, "he would have had an almost impossible time passing vetting."
Laura Jedeed, an Army vet and journalist: interviewed under six minutes at an ICE job fair, got a "tentative offer," and ICE's own portal later showed her hired with a start date, though she never signed the background check form. DHS calls it a "lazy lie" and says she was never offered a job. Don't say she worked for ICE.

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▶ 02CWhere it's going wrong

WMTW: Homan says the Maine officer's vetting is under review

Length 0:59. Original source

File: 02C-n4-wmtw-homan-vetting-review.mp4

ICE's side

Even the pro-ICE side in the Jubilee room admits it: they cut training to hit mass-deportation numbers, "and maybe they should" train more.
DHS says 85% of new hires came with law enforcement experience. And when it got bad, the administration fixed it: longer academy back July 1, vetting under review.

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▶ 02DBoth sides in one clip

Jubilee: the pro-ICE side, "let's cut the training"

Length 0:40. Original source

The most honest 40 seconds in the video. She blames Biden for the numbers, but says out loud that training was cut for speed.

File: 02D-j4-pro-side-cut-the-training.mp4

Talk about it

As an Army guy: what does cutting the use-of-force block do to a new officer the first time a car rolls toward him?
If the administration restored the training itself, is that an admission it was wrong to cut it?

The fix both sides could sign

Full academy for every new officer before they carry a gun in the field. (Restored July 1, 2026. Keep it in law, not just policy.)
No final job offer before the background check clears.

Sources (10 links)

3Is there a 3,000-a-day quota, and what does it do?~7 min

Open withHere's the stat I think explains almost everything else in this episode. It's not a secret. Stephen Miller said it on Fox.

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▶ 03AContext

Fox News, May 2025: Miller on the "daily goal"

Length 1:01. Original source

"We are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day," and Trump will push it "higher each and every single day." The clip stops before he moves on to the budget bill.

File: 03A-n2-fox-miller-3000-a-day.mp4

Goal or quota? Officially a goal; DHS says "NO quotas." In practice it works like one: on Oct 6, 2026, CNN reported, leadership told agents to get back to 3,000 a day and 19,000 a week.
What they actually hit: about 656 a day before the goal (early 2025). About 2,000 a day by October 2026. Never 3,000.
Here's the problem. There are only so many convicted criminals to find. As arrests tripled, the share with a criminal conviction fell from about 45% to 27% (July 2026, the lowest on record).
People in detention on July 11, 2026: 29% convicted, 31% with charges pending, about 40% with neither. In December 2024, about 64% had convictions.
Violent convictions: about 5 to 7%. DHS's own internal numbers, counting pending charges: 13.9%, and homicide plus sexual assault together are under 2%.
How you fill the number: Miller reportedly told agents to skip target lists and hit Home Depot parking lots. About 64,000 people, a quarter of arrests over seven months, were "collateral": picked up for being near the actual target. Only 18% of them had any conviction. In one Idaho raid, agents had warrants for 5 people and arrested 105.

Where the quota collides with the good work

This is the part that should bother everyone. DHS's own Inspector General (Aug 20, 2026): HSI hours spent on immigration arrests went from about 207,000 to nearly 2 million in a year. Fentanyl investigation hours fell 31%.
The New York Times found HSI spent 33% fewer hours on child exploitation cases in early 2025, the fewest in more than a decade.
The quota isn't just sweeping up landscapers. It's pulling the agents who caught the Fredericksburg predator off cases like that one.

PBS: the IG report on fentanyl investigations

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▶ 03BWhere it's going wrong

Jubilee: "74% have no criminal history"

Length 0:38. Original source

Mostly right but worded wrong. 74% had no conviction in January 2026. "No criminal history" is about 40%, because some have pending charges. His 5% violent figure matches Cato. Not checked: the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 shares.

File: 03B-j6-74-percent-no-record.mp4

ICE's side

Nearly everyone arrested is here illegally. Crossing without inspection is a federal crime (overstaying a visa is civil). The pro-ICE side's point: "We do not have to wait for you to break two laws."
Border crossings are down about 95%: 98,708 Border Patrol arrests at the southwest border in FY2026, the lowest since 1968.
Deportation numbers are about where Obama's were, not wildly above: roughly 380,000 removals a year now, vs. Obama's 373,000 to 392,000 a year.

Talk about it

If you had 2,000 arrests a day to make, and only so many violent criminals, what happens?
Is it worth trading fentanyl and child-exploitation investigations for landscaper arrests?

The fix both sides could sign

Drop the daily number. Rank the work: violent and convicted first, then the rest.
Give HSI back its hours, or split it off so it can't be raided for arrest counts.

The other Jubilee numbers, checked

"65% of deportations are criminals, 15% violent": false for deportations. Only 20% of about 980,000 deportations (Jan 2025 to July 2026) had a conviction. It roughly matches arrests if you count pending charges.
"300,000 deported": about right. ICE formal removals FY2025: 319,980.
"Obama deported 6 million, Clinton 11 million": Obama about 3.1 million removals (5.3 million counting quick border returns). Clinton's 12 million was mostly border turnbacks; only about 870,000 formal removals.
"11 million encounters, 2 million gotaways" under Biden: right as counts, but encounters are events, not people. Repeat crossers count more than once.
Self-deport payment: started at $1,000. Now $2,600 plus a free flight.
ICE stopped publishing its required detention and deportation numbers after July 11, 2026. Anything after that comes from leaks or records requests.

Sources (13 links)

4When agents use force, who checks the story?~8 min

Open withWe said we wouldn't make this about individual cases, and we won't. But there's a pattern here: what the government says happened, and what the video shows. That's the part I want to look at.

Shootings since Jan 2025 (The Trace, updated Oct 29, 2026): immigration agents fired on people in 32 incidents, 9 killed, 15 wounded. ICE/HSI 20 incidents, Border Patrol/CBP 9. At least 3 of the dead were US citizens. In all of FY2023, DHS reported 5 ICE gun incidents.
The Jubilee "14 since September" was right in mid-January 2026, and it counts times agents fired, not people hit.
Renee Good (Minneapolis, Jan 7) was shot by an ICE officer. Alex Pretti (Jan 24) was shot by a Border Patrol agent and a CBP officer, not ICE. Pretti was an ICU nurse at the VA with a permit to carry. No charges in either case.
In Pretti's case, DHS said he came at officers with a gun. CBP's own report to Congress doesn't say he drew or reached for it. Video shows a phone in his hand, an agent taking his gun from his waistband, and the first shot about a second later.

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▶ 04ABoth sides in one clip

Jubilee: the Pretti argument, and the "misfire" claim

Length 2:42. Original source

Play it, then correct it. There's no evidence his gun misfired. Bellingcat: the slide on his gun didn't move at the first shot, and an agent's arm recoiled. CBP's report says two agents fired their own Glocks. The viral "muzzle flash" clip was AI-made. True background: the Sig P320 has 100+ alleged unintended discharges, and ICE dropped it as a duty gun in 2025. "On his knees" isn't supported either; he was pinned on the ground.

File: 04A-j9-pretti-misfire-argument.mp4

Where it's going wrong

Assault cases that fell apart. AP followed 102 people charged with felony assault on federal officers at protests: 41% dismissed, 34% pleaded down to misdemeanors. All 12 that went to trial ended in acquittal, mistrial or dismissal. The normal federal conviction rate for assault: 82%.
Officers caught lying. Minneapolis: two men charged with attacking an ICE officer with a shovel. Video showed otherwise; charges dropped, and ICE's own director said two officers made "untruthful statements" under oath. The officer who fired was federally indicted for false statements in Sept 2026.
Chicago: a federal judge found Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino "admitted that he lied" about being hit by a rock before he threw tear gas, and body cam video contradicted agents' written reports. (An appeals court later vacated the order as moot when the operation ended.)
Chicago again: Marimar Martinez, a US citizen, shot 5 times by Border Patrol and charged with assault. Charges dropped when video showed agents rammed her car.

ICE's side

Attacks on officers are real. July 4, 2025: an officer was shot in an ambush at the Prairieland facility in Texas. Sept 2025: a sniper fired on the Dallas ICE office and killed two detainees.
DHS says assaults on ICE rose more than 1,000%. Court records show about a 25% rise in assault charges, and DHS has never released its data or how it defines "assault." Both can be true: a real rise, a hyped number.
Masks: DHS says agents get doxxed and threatened. A federal judge blocked California's mask ban for federal agents in Feb 2026, but let its badge-number rule stand.
Some accountability is happening: the indicted Minneapolis officer, Hennepin County assault charges against ICE agents, and body cameras (below).

Talk about it

Why should anyone trust the first official statement after a shooting, when so many have been wrong?
If you're an honest officer, don't body cams protect you too?

The fix both sides could sign

Body cams on every officer, on during every arrest, with footage released on a set timeline. (ICE says it has enough cameras for everyone as of Sept 1, 2026, but won't say how many are worn, and releases footage only when it's in the agency's "best interest.")
Visible name or badge number. Masks only with a stated reason.
Every shooting reviewed by someone outside DHS.

Sources (12 links)

5Are they detaining citizens and skipping due process?~6 min

Open withThe pro-ICE guy in the video says it's 99.9% accurate. Let's check that, and the Supreme Court case everyone gets wrong.

▶ Play now

▶ 05ABoth sides in one clip

Jubilee: "arrested for being brown" vs "99.9% accuracy"

Length 2:01. Original source

Both sides miss. The Supreme Court did not say race alone is enough (details below). And "170 to 200 citizens, 130 assaulted officers" is wrong: ProPublica said about 130 were accused of assaulting or interfering, and many cases were dropped. The count is now 519.

File: 05A-j5-vasquez-perdomo-99-percent.mp4

US citizens detained: ProPublica counted 519 from Jan 2025 to Oct 2026. More than 300 were held for allegedly assaulting or obstructing agents; fewer than half of those were ever charged. 100+ were held after agents questioned their citizenship. 70+ were kids. About a dozen citizens were deported, mostly children sent with deported parents.
The Supreme Court case (Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, Sept 2025) was an emergency order, 6-3, with no majority opinion. It let agents in LA keep making stops based on a mix of factors: apparent ethnicity, speaking Spanish, the location (Home Depot, car washes), and the kind of work. Justice Kavanaugh, writing alone, said ethnicity alone isn't enough, but can be one factor. Accurate version: "The Court let agents use ethnicity as one reason among several." Not "for being brown."
Entering homes without a judge. A May 2025 ICE memo let officers force their way into a home with a warrant signed by an ICE official, not a judge. A judge in Minnesota ruled one such entry unconstitutional. At his confirmation, Mullin said ICE would use judicial warrants to enter homes. I couldn't find a written order replacing the memo.
Fast-track deportation without a judge now applies anywhere in the country to anyone who can't prove 2 years here. An appeals court let it take effect in June 2026.
No bond hearings: since July 2025 ICE treats people who entered illegally as ineligible for bond, even after decades here. The Supreme Court agreed Oct 1, 2026 to decide whether that's legal.
CECOT: of the 238 Venezuelans flown to El Salvador's mega-prison in March 2025, government data showed only 32 had US criminal convictions, 6 for violent crimes.

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▶ 05BContext

PBS: Blumenthal presses Mullin on entering homes without a judge

Length 3:08. Original source

Mullin: "a judicial warrant will be used to go into houses" unless agents are chasing someone who runs inside.

File: 05B-n3-pbs-mullin-judicial-warrants.mp4

ICE's side

Mullin promised judicial warrants for homes, and that's a real change from the 2025 memo.
Kavanaugh's point: when agents learn someone is a citizen, they're supposed to let them go. Most citizen detentions are short. (ProPublica: 36 were held a day or more with no lawyer or family contact.)
Immigration judges are backlogged by years. Fast-track removal and detention are the administration's answer to people who skip court.

Talk about it

"Just show your papers": do you carry proof of citizenship? Should you have to?
Is any number of wrongly detained citizens acceptable? Where's the line?

The fix both sides could sign

Judicial warrant to enter a home, written into policy and law.
A citizen who says "I'm a citizen" gets checked within hours, not days, and gets a phone call.

Sources (8 links)

6Detention: how bad is it, and who's checking?~6 min

Open withLast one before we get to fixes. The pro-ICE guy in the video actually agreed on this one, which tells you something.

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▶ 06ABoth sides in one clip

Jubilee: a pro-ICE guest agrees on deaths in custody

Length 0:37. Original source

Close but adjust it. "5 to 10 a year before" was true most years from 2018 to 2023, but FY2020 had 21 and FY2024 had 12. "30 in Trump's first year" is right for calendar 2025.

File: 06A-j7-deaths-30-pro-side-agrees.mp4

Deaths in ICE custody (ICE's own count, by fiscal year): 2021: 5. 2022: 3. 2023: 4. 2024: 12. 2025: 24. 2026: at least 36, the deadliest year in ICE history. Calendar 2025 had about 30 to 32, the most since 2004.
One January 2026 death at Fort Bliss, which DHS first called "medical distress," was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner: compression of the neck and torso. The FBI is investigating.
Record detention: 70,766 people on Jan 25, 2026, the first time over 70,000. Plans call for 92,600 beds, and ICE bought 9 warehouses for more than $700 million.
Documented by watchdogs, not activists: the DHS Inspector General found Alligator Alcatraz held 79 people in 16-to-18-square-foot outdoor metal cages, pods at three times capacity, and failures on food, hygiene and medical care. (It closed in June 2026.) The GAO found no care plans for HIV or diabetes patients at Fort Bliss. Federal judges found conditions unconstitutional in Baltimore and New York holding rooms.

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▶ 06BWhere it's going wrong

CBS News: deaths in ICE custody on pace for a record

Length 1:40. Original source

Recorded earlier in 2026, at 18 deaths. The fiscal year ended at 36+.

File: 06B-n5-cbs-deaths-in-custody-record.mp4

Who's checking? Fewer people every month

The watchdogs got cut while deaths went up. The office that reviewed every death in custody (the Detention Ombudsman) went from 100+ staff to 5, then was shut in May 2026. The civil rights office went from about 150 to 9. Published inspections fell 36% in 2025, and 74% of 2026 inspections rated facilities "Superior." None failed.
DHS tried to require 7 days' notice before members of Congress could visit. Federal law says they can show up unannounced. A judge blocked it twice; an appeals court refused to pause her ruling.
And ICE stopped publishing its own detention numbers in July 2026.

ICE's side

DHS: the number detained roughly doubled, so more deaths were expected. Its death rate: 0.009%. (Fair point. But deaths tripled from 2024 to 2026, faster than the population grew.)
Detention isn't supposed to be a hotel. The pro-ICE line in the video: "It's a cell."
Every administration has had bad detention. Obama built the chain-link holding pens in 2014. (But Obama had no family separation policy. Trump's 2018 zero tolerance separated about 3,900 kids.)

Heads upDon't say "maggots in the food" or "women given diapers" as fact. Both come from detainees, lawmakers or one former worker, and no inspection has confirmed them. Say instead: "Detainees allege maggots. Inspectors have documented food and hygiene failures, and the GAO found pads and tampons are handed out inconsistently."

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▶ 06CBoth sides in one clip

Jubilee: both sides say yes to audits

Length 0:35. Original source

The one moment in the whole video where everyone agrees. Use it to turn to the fixes.

File: 06C-j8-both-sides-want-audits.mp4

Talk about it

If you believe these people should be deported, do you also believe they should come out alive?
Why would you cut the office that investigates deaths in the year deaths hit a record?

The fix both sides could sign

Restore the Detention Ombudsman and the civil rights office.
Unannounced congressional visits, as the law already says.
Publish the detention and death numbers every two weeks, like the law requires.

Sources (11 links)

Part 3: So, abolish it or fix it?

7Abolish ICE, or fix it?~6 min

Open withSo, to my friend who wants it torn down. I get why. Here's what I think we actually agree on.

What "abolish ICE" bills actually do: one (H.R. 7123, Jan 2026) abolishes it with no plan for its work. Rep. Delia Ramirez's (Oct 2026) breaks up all of DHS and moves pieces to Treasury and Justice. Rep. Robert Garcia's just makes HSI its own agency, separate from deportations. None has moved.
Polling: YouGov had support for abolishing ICE at 50% to 39% in March 2026, the first time it hit 50. Civiqs, polling registered voters, had it at 42% for, 50% against. A Data for Progress poll found people don't agree on what "abolish ICE" even means.
Already fixed, give them credit: the full academy is back (July 1, 2026). Mullin promised judicial warrants for home entry. Body cameras bought for everyone. The Maine officer's vetting is under review. Noem is gone.

Seven fixes. Which would your friend reject? Which would an ICE officer?

Split HSI off so investigators can't be pulled into arrest quotas. (HSI's own bosses asked for this in 2018.)
No daily arrest number. Violent and convicted first.
Full training, real vetting, written into law so the next administration can't cut it.
Body cams on, footage released on a schedule. Visible ID.
A judge's warrant to enter a home.
Bring back the watchdogs: the Detention Ombudsman, the civil rights office, unannounced visits by Congress.
Publish the numbers the law already requires.

Talk about it

To the friend: if all seven happened, would you still want it abolished? Why?
To the pro-ICE side: which of these would make ICE worse at catching the Fredericksburg guy?
Your closing: the good work and the bad work aren't two agencies. They're the same agency, and the bad work is crowding out the good.

Sources (5 links)

Who's who

Markwayne Mullin: DHS Secretary since March 2026, a former Oklahoma senator. Replaced Kristi Noem.
Kristi Noem: DHS Secretary from 2025 until Trump removed her Mar 5, 2026, after the $220M ad campaign hearing.
Stephen Miller: White House deputy chief of staff; the architect of the 3,000-a-day goal.
Tom Homan: Trump's "border czar," a former acting ICE director.
Todd Lyons: acting ICE director through early 2026; signed the home-entry memo. Now David Venturella is acting director.
Greg Bovino: Border Patrol chief who led the Chicago and Minneapolis operations.
Ryan Schwank: former ICE attorney and academy instructor; the training whistleblower.
Laura Jedeed: Army veteran and journalist who went through ICE's hiring process and wrote about it in Slate.
ERO / HSI: ICE's two halves. ERO arrests and deports; HSI investigates crimes like trafficking and child exploitation.
CBP / Border Patrol: a different agency from ICE. Border Patrol agents shot Alex Pretti and Marimar Martinez.
The Trace: nonprofit newsroom that tracks gun violence, including shootings by immigration agents.
Bellingcat: open-source investigators who analyze video frame by frame.
TRAC / Deportation Data Project / Cato: Syracuse University's data project, a Berkeley data project, and a libertarian think tank. All three work from ICE's own numbers.
Jubilee: YouTube channel that puts opposing groups in one room. Its "Middle Ground" ICE episode is the source of most clips.

Words to keep out of your mouth

"Trump cut training in half." Say "cut it by about 40%, then restored it in July."
"ICE killed Alex Pretti." Border Patrol and CBP did. ICE killed Renee Good.
"Pretti's gun misfired." No evidence. The video and CBP's own report point to the agents' guns.
"The Supreme Court said they can arrest you for being brown." Say "it let them use ethnicity as one reason among several."
"74% have no criminal record." Say "no conviction." About 40% have no record at all.
"65% of deportations are criminals." About 20% of deportees had a conviction.
"Maggots in the food" / "diapers" as fact. Say "alleged."
"Laura Jedeed worked for ICE." She got a tentative offer and ICE's portal listed her as hired. DHS disputes it.
"$75 billion." It's about $113 billion now, on top of the regular budget.
"Noem." As the current boss. It's Mullin.
"Concentration camps." The left side of the video says it. You don't have to. Say what the inspectors found.

Title and hook ideas

Hook (first 30 seconds): "In June a man in Fredericksburg got 30 years for what he did to a little girl. ICE caught him. The same summer, ICE pulled the agents who do that work onto a quota of 3,000 arrests a day. Both of those are true. That's this episode."
Titles: "ICE Caught a Child Predator Just Down the Road From Me. Then It Pulled the Agents Off Cases Like His." / "ICE: The Good Work and the Bad" / "My Friend Wants ICE Abolished. Here's What We Agree On."
Shorts: clip 2D (pro-ICE guest admits they cut training for speed), the 4A misfire correction, and your seven fixes.