{"id":498664,"date":"2026-01-27T18:26:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T22:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/what-is-ice-and-how-far-does-its-power-reach\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T18:26:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T22:26:55","slug":"what-is-ice-and-how-far-does-its-power-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/international\/what-is-ice-and-how-far-does-its-power-reach\/","title":{"rendered":"What is ICE and how far does its power reach?"},"content":{"rendered":"The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a U.S. government agency created in 2003 whose mission is &#8220;to protect the U.S. through criminal investigations and the enforcement of immigration laws, to preserve national security and public safety,&#8221; according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/mission\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">read<\/a> on its official website.\n\nWith <strong>more than 20,000 active agents<\/strong>, plus an unspecified number of support staff, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/about-ice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">it has<\/a> more than 400 offices inside and outside the United States and constitutes the &#8220;principal law enforcement agency of the Department of Homeland Security&#8221; (DHS) to mitigate &#8220;transnational threats&#8221;, protect the nation and its citizens, and control &#8220;legal immigration, trade, travel, and financial systems&#8221;.\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>You may be interested in<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/ICE detiene en Miami a Dimitri Vorbe, uno de los magnates m\u00e1s poderosos de Hait\u00ed\">http:\/\/ICE detiene en Miami a Dimitri Vorbe, uno de los magnates m\u00e1s poderosos de Hait\u00ed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since the return of President Donald Trump to the White House, ICE has become the&nbsp;<strong>spearhead of a harsh&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/actualidad-rt.com\/actualidad\/578205-eeuu-deportado-600000-inmigrantes-ilegales\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">anti-immigrant policy<\/a>&nbsp;<\/strong>, which has primarily targeted, although not exclusively, undocumented migrants suspected of having committed crimes in the North American country.<\/p>\n\n\nLast year, its actions have included raids on workplaces, <strong>schools, bus stops, churches <\/strong>and <strong>hospitals<\/strong>; warrantless home raids, <a href=\"https:\/\/actualidad-rt.com\/actualidad\/583421-ice-detiene-nino-anos-redadas-antiinmigrantes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">detentions<\/a> of minors and even the <a href=\"https:\/\/actualidad-rt.com\/actualidad\/583789-video-agentes-federales-disparan-hombre\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">murder<\/a> of two U.S. citizens in the context of protests against the agency&#8217;s actions, all of which has put the entity in the focus of public opinion, inside and outside the U.S.\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What can ICE do?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\nAs part of the federal forces, ICE officials are <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/immigration-detainers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">authorized<\/a><\/strong> to capture and deport people suspected of being illegal immigrants. If the detention procedure takes place in a public place, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/us\/article\/can-ice-agents-detain-us-citizens-what-powers-do-they-have-to-arrest-people-your-most-common-questions-answered-194725171.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">they are not<\/a> obliged to present a warrant. What is required in that case is that they have evidence or a reasonable suspicion that the person they intend to apprehend has violated U.S. immigration laws.\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As its scope of operation focuses on undocumented migrants, ICE does not have the authority to arrest or deport a U.S. citizen. However, some 170 people who possess that nationality have been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/immigration-dhs-american-citizens-arrested-detained-against-will\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">captured<\/a>&nbsp;irregularly in government raids, despite having shown documentation that allowed their legal status to be corroborated.<\/p>\n\n\nFurthermore, residents of cities like Los Angeles, with a high density of people of Latin American origin, have denounced that the operations are based on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/actualidad-rt.com\/actualidad\/560080-miedo-terror-redadas-atemorizan-latinos-california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">racial profiling<\/a>&nbsp;of non-white people<\/strong>.\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the other hand, while US courts&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/1978\/78-5420\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prohibit<\/a>&nbsp;the intrusion of federal agents or police into a private home or business without a court order<\/strong>, ICE personnel often&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/actualidad-rt.com\/actualidad\/583350-agentes-ice-permiso-fuerza-ingresar-hogares\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">circumvent<\/a>&nbsp;this rule by signing an internal administrative order, according to documentation&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/immigration-officers-assert-sweeping-power-212644913.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">leaked<\/a>&nbsp;by Associated Press. The Justice Department has not yet defined whether the immigration control agency can maintain its policy of detentions based on reasonable suspicion for national security reasons.<\/p>\n\n\nRegarding the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/doclib\/detention-standards\/2025\/nds2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">use of force<\/a>, immigration agents are required to use the &#8220;minimum non-lethal force necessary&#8221; to fulfill their purpose, but <strong>they are not prohibited from using lethal force<\/strong>. They must reserve it for when they deem it necessary and have a &#8220;reasonable belief&#8221; that they, their colleagues, or third parties face a threat capable of endangering their lives or causing them serious injuries. Conversely, they cannot use lethal force when a suspect flees or when they only pose a danger to themselves.\n\nRegarding the video recording of raids, detentions, and the use of force by ICE, although the DHS has warned that it could constitute a crime, in the U.S. there is extensive jurisprudence that protects the right of citizens to record the actions of law enforcement agencies.\n\nIn fact, this allowed public opinion to learn about the circumstances of the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/esrt.space\/actualidad\/581062-fuertes-imagenes-muestran-asesinato-mujer-ice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">murder<\/a>\u00a0of the poet Renee Good<\/strong>\u00a0at the hands of an ICE agent or the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/actualidad-rt.com\/actualidad\/583421-ice-detiene-nino-anos-redadas-antiinmigrantes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">transfer<\/a>\u00a0of five-year-old Liam Ramos to an immigrant detention center in the state of Texas. Both cases generated rejection and led to both massive demonstrations and pronouncements by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/actualidad-rt.com\/actualidad\/583832-mamdani-pide-abolir-ice-caos-mineapolis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">personalities<\/a>\u00a0of the American political class.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a U.S. government agency created in 2003 whose mission is &#8220;to protect the U.S. through criminal investigations and the enforcement of immigration laws, to preserve national security and public safety,&#8221; according to read on its official website. With more than 20,000 active agents, plus an unspecified number of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[40499],"class_list":["post-498664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-international","tag-ice"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-25IY","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","dum_api":{"author_name":"Redacci\u00f3n De \u00daltimo Minuto","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cropped-logo-de-ultimo-minuto-96x96.png","categories_name":["International"],"featured_media_url":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}