Nine months ago, within spitting distance from the deaths of Alex Peretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis, Reddit user @Lokja asked the internet, “If you know an ICE agent personally, what is that relationship like now?” Thousands answered. Because yes, of course, we do know ICE agents. The Department of Homeland Security goons who have taken to the streets of US cities to act as an armed gang enforcing the white supremacist whims of the current regime—they are not some distant people group. They are us.
ICE agents are our neighbors, brothers, cousins, uncles, brothers-in-law, and ex-husbands. They are the meanest girl you knew in high school and they were the kid who picked fights. We served alongside them in the military, way back when, before they became what they are. Or maybe they are the jerks who tried to pick up our ex-girlfriends, the ones we’ve blocked on the college group text, or the people three drinks in who receive ad-hoc counseling from their local bartenders. Many ICE agents are themselves immigrants to the US, they have married immigrants, or their families may originally have entered the country illegally. They’re the dropouts from the National Guard, Marines, or local police force. They’ve failed psychological examinations. They’re wanna-be Proud Boys. Or they started working in the organization before the recent Trump term and have retired or quit to avoid the purge they saw coming. Some stay to act as a “leash” for their colleagues, despite the personal toll it takes on their mental health. And still, many remain “the definition of toxic masculinity,” as one commenter put it.
As another commenter put it, “People who enter that line of work can be like anybody you know including family. People with good hearts and intentions. . . . What defines them is what they do when asked to cross a line they themselves hold. Clearly . . . there is no such line for some.”
