Perspective

Growing up in elementary school, I learned about the horrors of people being taken away from their homes and sent to concentration camps by the Gestapo in the late 1930s and early 1940s in Europe because of their religion, sexuality, disability and political beliefs. I hoped that history would prevent such a thing from happening again. Now, we didn’t learn.

People are being taken by ICE because of their skin color, race and accents. Data from November 2025 showed that almost three quarters of the people taken don’t have a criminal history, while another report shows a 2,450% increase in arrests for people who haven’t committed crimes. Others are living here legally with green cards or visas, and some are even U.S. citizens; one report from October found more than 170 U.S. citizens who’ve been detained. People are being held in conditions considered inhumane and some have died living in these conditions with deaths in custody reaching a 20-year high.

Now, we have seen U.S. citizens who have been shot to death by ICE agents, including Keith Porter, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Americans do not feel safe. Regardless of political party, people are fed up and scared, and the only way to quell these feelings is to abolish ICE, and as the Allied Forces after World War II did to the Gestapo, hold them accountable.

ICE was created in March 2003, as part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after the 2001 terrorist attacks. ICE was charged with dealing with people in the U.S. who violated laws against immigration through investigations, detainments and deportations. Under Pres. Barack Obama, more than three million people were deported by ICE throughout Obama’s eight years in office. While Trump deported fewer people in his first term, there was still a lot of backlash from Americans over the separation of migrant families, as well as treatment of people in ICE facilities, with some even being compared to concentration camps.

During the Biden administration, most deportations and arrests came from Border Patrol. Under the second Trump term, ICE has seen a massive increase in funding. As part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), ICE received more than $75 billion in supplementary funds through 2029. ICE has more money than the militaries of countries such as Turkey, Spain and the Netherlands. Taxpayer money also helps build detention centers. Guards have been accused of abusing and murdering inmates, such as Geraldo Lunas Campos whose death in a Texas detention center was ruled a homicide by a medical examiner. In a Louisiana detention center, an ICE agent has been charged and pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a woman who was being held.

U.S. Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller and Vice President J.D. Vance have said that ICE agents are immune from prosecution. There has not been a federal investigation into Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Good, as well as the unidentified agents who killed Pretti.

At a New Haven Green protest and later at Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s office, multiple participants gave their thoughts on ICE. Heather Swanson, a 16th generation Connecticut resident, said that America is great because of immigrants and targeting them is unamerican. She said her grandparents also fought in World War II against Nazis, and she is the 14th great granddaughter of William Cogswell, who fought alongside George Washington in the American Revolution.

Frank Panzarella, originally born in Germany, also spoke at the New Haven rally.

“In their heads (the Trump administration) it means that illegals shouldn’t be in our country even though most of us probably were here illegally if you go ask most Native Americans,” he said. “So that whole history we need to embrace it out there and not let people live in that mythology. We need to isolate ICE, and we need to stop them from being able to take the steps that they’re taking.”

Where we are now, there is no way that ICE can be reformed. It should be abolished, and anyone who has worked for ICE under this current administration should be barred from ever working in the federal government or part of law enforcement ever again. Training for ICE agents has been reported to be as short as six weeks. A Connecticut police officer requires a 28-week long course. In addition, immigration systems should be replaced, to allow people to come to this country. There should be an increase in the amount of visas, green cards and asylum applications that can be approved. Also an expanded immigration legal system that will help keep people in the U.S. who have zero criminal record and intend to live, work and contribute to society.

America is a nation built on immigrants; we cannot let that go away as a society and must abolish ICE to ensure that everyone feels safe.