No cages, due process rights intact: ICE agents set the record straight on Trump's immigration enforcement
"The Story" sat down with four agents—Paul, Andres, Celina and Daniel — who have served the country for several years, to ask about the hardships they have faced in recent months. (The agents' last names were withheld for their safety.)
"There are officers here who have been attacked," Paul told anchor Martha MacCallum. "There are officers who have families, and they are well known in their communities, and they operate in a way where ... many people don't let their families ...(and) don't (let) their community know that they work for I.C.E. There is a sense of danger."
Paul told Fox News the mask his colleagues wear is a sense of "security" for I.C.E. agents, who often have other jobs outside of law enforcement, such as business ownership.
"We're following the law," Paul explained. "We're basically enforcing immigration law, administrative law, and we have every right to do that. So, in all honesty, that is really what we're doing. We're not out here just randomly picking up people … based on race and things like that, just to remove people and kick them out of the country."
The agents clarified they operate through a "process" to remove illegal migrants. Under the Trump administration, the agents have seen more people being arrested and deported rather than being sent back into the streets.
"We have our targets, we know who we're going to pick up, and we have our plan beforehand," Andres said. "We don't just go out there and look for anybody. We know who we're looking for."
Agents can also make collateral arrests.
"We know our target, and we're encountering them, and let's say he has a passenger with him and, you know, we ask for ID for our safety, and we vet them and we run a criminal record of them and if they're here in the country illegally ... they are a collateral, and we will take them into custody," Celina explained.
Andres told Fox News that detainees are given accommodations in detention centers. They are provided with tablets to chat with family, beds, warm showers, and three meals a day.
"To debunk that statement about cages, I can tell you right now, we have no cages at our detention centers, nor have I ever seen a cage in one of our detention centers," he said.
Bond hearings are still happening under the Trump administration, according to the agent.
"That is a due process right for every sovereign individual in the United States," Andres explained. "The approval process is based on certain factors, which – is the individual a threat to the community, is the individual a flight risk if we give a person a bond and he just skips town, or if the person already has an immigration order of deportation. So, those are determining factors that a judge will determine before issuing a bond. The bond process will remain the same, we will not and have not taken that right from people."
The four agents expressed pride in their work in carrying out the mission of the agency.
"I haven't met anybody that works for I.C.E. that is ashamed of what they do," Daniel said. "We're all proud law enforcement officers and the hardest working people I've ever met in my life."
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