ICE Pretends It’s a Military Force. Its Tactics Would Get Real Soldiers Killed

As a veteran of the warfare connected terror, I person spent the past twelvemonth watching Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers grow their operations crossed the state connected a heretofore unprecedented standard and with a caller faux-military bearing. From instrumentality to weapons to tactics, ICE and different migration enforcement bodies privation to beryllium seen arsenic combat forces carrying retired their missions. Witness connected Thursday, erstwhile White House borderline czar Tom Homan talked astir Minneapolis arsenic a “theater” for his agents. Overlooking that ICE is not, successful fact, portion of the equipped services of the US—it’s a civilian instrumentality enforcement agency—it is utile to interruption down their operations done a subject lens to find the strategical implications. Because if an bureau wants to cosplay arsenic a subject force, it deserves to beryllium evaluated arsenic one.

Let’s commencement with the tools of the trade: equipment, uniforms, and armament. From the subject perspective, soldiers take the due instrumentality and armament for the mission. An infantry squad would not spell into a jungle run equipped for an municipality fight. Squads successful Iraq and Afghanistan often “dressed down” for counterinsurgency missions, wherever gathering communal spot with locals was much important than showing up arsenic if acceptable for World War III. Sometimes, units went into the other posture erstwhile a amusement of unit was needed. Equipment, armament, and tactical employment alteration from ngo to mission.

ICE agents—civil representatives of the law, remember—often amusement up to raids kitted retired arsenic if they’re preparing to participate Fallujah circa 2004 against a well-entrenched force equipped with instrumentality guns, mortars, and explosive vests. They besides get successful a mishmash of uniforms, hoodie sweatshirts, subject gear, and masks, leaving everyone confused arsenic to whether these are instrumentality enforcement officers oregon conscionable immoderate random dudes.

Where soldiers tailor their armament for the mission, ICE agents transportation weapons and instrumentality inappropriate for elemental search-and-seizure missions: ballistic helmets, slug resistant sheet carriers, mag driblet pouches connected their legs, weapons loaded with a cornucopia of optics, silencers, and different attachments you wouldn’t drawback your mean infantryman dormant with (the much value connected the limb makes it little effectual successful a firefight).

Tactically, the mode ICE performs its missions has small to bash with “enemy” posture oregon the mission. One, determination is nary “enemy:” There are persons who whitethorn oregon whitethorn not person violated civilian law. These radical person not declared an intent to defy violently and with deadly force. Yet ICE shows up with maximum unit and intimidation—often roping successful radical connected the sidelines and expanding the media interaction of their actions.

Generally, ICE agents determination with zero subject sense. They clump up and clump astir their people oregon successful doorways; successful a combat zone, soldiers clustering up similar this could beryllium annihilated by a azygous grenade oregon burst from an automatic weapon. It besides demonstrates that ICE agents often person precise small hint what their ngo is. Soldiers are taught to disperse and ever determination with a caput connected a swivel for situational awareness. As a soldier, you are taught to constituent your limb lone astatine thing you mean to shoot. ICE agents person brandished their weapons. Soldiers bid to reserve deadly unit for identified enemies and to sphere beingness wherever possible. ICE and national agents person publically killed 2 unarmed American citizens.

Multiple images amusement ICE agents “stacking” connected a door, a enactment utilized successful adjacent quarters combat. Rather than resembling immoderate benignant of recognizable municipality warfare formation, ICE agents’ tactics often look to beryllium modeled disconnected what they’ve seen successful movies oregon imbibed via TV shows oregon video games. Given that grooming for ICE officers has dropped down to astir six a fractional weeks, TV and movies mightiness beryllium their biggest root of knowledge. It demonstrates that ICE agents aren’t moving with a tactical focus; they’re doing what they deliberation volition look chill and intimidating successful photographs.

When you get down to the basics of what ICE does—seizing and restraining people—they attack it successful a chaotic fashion. Videos amusement officers bunching up, milling around, often turning connected bystanders. They smash windows haphazardly, wantonness cars with their engines inactive moving alongside the road, and run successful a mode 1 Maine sheriff referred to arsenic “bush-league policing.” Military tactics for seizure and hunt are acold much precise. Every idiosyncratic successful the squad has defined duties and responsibilities: While immoderate signifier an outer cordon to guarantee portion security, 1 searches the idiosyncratic taken into custody, 1 maintains information implicit the prisoner, 1 logs everything found, etc.—all with the extremity of reducing disorder and preserving the integrity of the unit.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, 20 years of counterinsurgency operations demonstrated that escalating combat for nary crushed often conscionable creates much violence. Units recovered that de-escalation often created less civilian casualties, which successful crook meant that those civilian’s families were little prone to instrumentality up arms against conjugation forces, which reduced conjugation casualties. Escalation, by the aforesaid token, often undermined US policy. As a result, units trained to de-escalate wherever possible, portion preserving the enactment to instrumentality unit with proportional but catastrophic lethality for anyone who initiated violence.

ICE tactics seldom question to de-escalate but alternatively ramp up unit via threats, intimidation, and assault. These tactics vaguely lucifer the worst of US subject operations successful the warfare connected terror, which near embedded bitterness and hatred successful the section populations. Repression, humiliation, and degradation—especially the accidental oregon deliberate killings of household members—drove much recruits into the ranks of al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their allies than thing else.

Here we modulation to nexus the tactical with the strategic. Military strategy is astir broadly defined arsenic combining the ways (tactics) and means (resources) to execute a circumstantial end. If ICE tactics are the means to a strategical end, past the implications are either confusing oregon chilling. Confusing, due to the fact that if the medication hoped to summation deportations portion keeping nationalist support, ICE tactics are counterproductive. Chilling, due to the fact that ICE tactics bash enactment up with 1 mentation recognized by subject strategists: the mentation of control.

War, it is said, is simply a continuation of argumentation by different means. State-backed violence, too, tin beryllium a continuation of policy. Stephen Miller, White House lawman main of unit for policy, has repeatedly urged ICE agents to escalate their tactics and summation arrests, and helium broadcast to agents that they had “federal immunity.” Since that past remark successful October 2025, ICE tactics person go acold much violent. But historically speaking, big nations—and successful this lawsuit we talk of California, Illinois, Oregon, Minnesota, and Maine, I guess—simply bash not instrumentality good to semipermanent abusive behavior.

If governmental ends of these tactics are not to sow profound mistrust, confusion, doubt, anger, and division, past they look misdirected and misapplied. Tactics disconnected from strategy yet effect successful strategical failure. In this case, ICE tactics would endanger a Republican bulk successful Congress and power of the White House.

In the end, nary substance however hard ICE tries to task its militant image, it remains an limb of the civilian authorization and not that of the military. It is not warring enemies of the United States. It is captious that we retrieve this and defy normalizing military-style tactics successful our streets.

ICE agents and US subject members bash stock 1 precise existent commonality: We each swore an oath to uphold and support the Constitution of the United States. While the subject upholds this, ICE agents flaunt their extraconstitutional actions connected our TV and telephone screens each day.

Personally, ICE’s operations look similar a fever imagination of the worst parts of the warfare connected panic coming backmost location to roost. From ineffective facial designation scans (BATS and HIIDES, anyone?) to “geardos” who spent much clip astatine Ranger Joe's (a subject outfitter) than the scope to late-night raids to drawback a section violent person who, fractional the time, was conscionable a random feline trying to get done the day. We brought the mechanisms of a surveillance authorities to warfare with us, and they snuck into our duffel bags and followed america home. We emphasized accomplishing the ngo nary substance what and bred a procreation of yes-men. We drove successful heavy equipped convoys down vicinity streets, and present those trucks rotation done our streets.

My procreation spent its younker astatine war. We volunteered to bash this, I acknowledge, but with the someway implied content that we could bash immoderate good. And that what we did mattered and that we stood for something. Something important and unique. But arsenic we ticker the slightest effectual and astir morally objectionable of our tactics travel location and beryllium utilized amongst and against us, we are near with a profound feeling of betrayal. This, too, is simply a effect of misaligned tactics.

The writer is utilizing a pseudonym retired of interest for retribution from the Trump administration.

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