ICE: The Birth of The American Gestapo
- Post by: Michael R. Bailey
- January 8, 2026
- No Comment
Let me be clear. No government creates a secret police force overnight. It does not begin with camps, mass terror, or extermination. It begins quietly. It begins in shadows. It begins when a force is allowed to operate without transparency, without identification, and without meaningful accountability. It begins when fear replaces safety as the dominant public response.
In today’s America, that fear wears three letters: ICE.
We must stop pretending this is simply about immigration enforcement. It is not. What we are witnessing is the construction of a politically charged enforcement apparatus that operates more as a tool of intimidation than as an institution of public safety. This shift has profound racial implications, and it demands serious scrutiny.
Gestapo Comparisons Are Not Theater. They Are Historical Warnings.
When the Gestapo is referenced, it is not for shock value. It is for historical clarity.
The Gestapo did not begin with genocide. It began as a secretive police force operating in the shadows, driven not by independent courts or rule of law, but by political ideology and rhetoric. Its purpose was to identify, isolate, and detain a targeted population. Fear was not a byproduct of its work. Fear was the strategy.
Crucially, the Gestapo was directed by political will, not judicial oversight. It enforced policy goals shaped by propaganda rather than law. And it targeted people not because they posed individualized threats, but because of who they were.
That is the relevance of the comparison today.
ICE is not expanding because of a documented threat to public safety. It is expanding because it serves a political narrative. It is being used to demonstrate power, control, and dominance, particularly over racialized communities. History teaches us that when a government allows such a force to grow unchecked, the end result is never benign.
A Racialized Target Is Not an Accident
This article is written for the American Journal of Race and Racism because race is not incidental to what ICE is doing. It is foundational.
ICE’s enforcement practices overwhelmingly target Black and Brown people. People are detained, questioned, and removed based on nationality, language, neighborhood, and appearance. Whether an individual is undocumented or not, the public spectacle is unmistakable. The people being rounded up are not white Europeans overstaying visas. They are migrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Global South.
Like the Gestapo’s early focus on Jewish populations, ICE’s enforcement relies on identity as suspicion. This is not about individual wrongdoing. It is about who belongs and who does not. The racial message is unmistakable, and it is broadcast deliberately through raids, checkpoints, and public arrests.
The Gestapo did not begin with a final solution. That outcome emerged only after years of normalized targeting, silence, and institutional expansion. History does not repeat itself exactly, but it does rhyme. And this rhyme is deeply troubling.
What ICE Looks Like Is What Power Feels Like
ICE agents do not present themselves as community protectors. They are not dressed in traditional law enforcement uniforms that signal service and accountability. There are no visible name tags. No ranks. No readable badges. No individual identifiers.
Instead, agents appear in jeans, tactical vests, black clothing, and face coverings. Their attire resembles military special forces conducting raids, not civil servants enforcing administrative law. The only visible markings are the stark white words “POLICE” and “ICE.”
This is not accidental. It is branding.
The uniform does not communicate safety. It communicates dominance. It is designed to strike fear, not confidence. Communities do not see protectors when ICE arrives. They see an occupying force.
When a state actor hides their face while exercising power, the message is clear. Accountability is not part of the mission.
Due Process Exists on Paper. Reality Is Far More Troubling.
Legally, people detained by ICE are entitled to due process under the Constitution. They have the right to remain silent. They have the right to seek legal counsel. They may be eligible for bond hearings before an immigration judge.[¹]
But the existence of rights on paper is not the same as access to those rights in practice.
Immigration proceedings do not guarantee appointed counsel. Many detainees remain incarcerated for months without legal representation. Recent policy changes have rendered large categories of immigrants ineligible for bond hearings, resulting in prolonged detention without meaningful judicial review.[²] Advocacy organizations report that a significant portion of ICE detainees never secure an attorney at all.[³]
The critical question is not whether due process technically exists. The question is whether it is accessible, timely, and real. For many Black and Brown detainees, the answer is clearly no.
This gap between law and lived reality is where racial injustice thrives.
The Expansion That Has No Emergency
Perhaps the most alarming development is ICE’s rapid expansion.
Over the past year, ICE has launched a massive national recruitment campaign described internally as a “wartime” effort. The agency has spent tens of millions of dollars on targeted advertising, including outreach at gun shows, military events, and ideologically aligned venues. This campaign has resulted in tens of thousands of applications and the hiring of more than twelve thousand new agents, effectively doubling the size of ICE’s enforcement workforce in a remarkably short time.[⁴]
What makes this expansion so troubling is that it is not tied to any documented surge in border crossings, violent crime, or national security threats. There is no empirical emergency justifying this buildup.[⁵]
When a federal enforcement agency expands this rapidly without a corresponding public safety need, the logical conclusion is unavoidable. This is not about enforcement capacity. It is about constructing a large, disciplined, and politically loyal force. It looks less like public service and more like ideological consolidation.
History shows us that authoritarian systems do not rely solely on the military. They rely on internal forces that enforce compliance at home.
A Political Force Wearing a Police Costume
ICE is increasingly behaving not as a neutral enforcement agency, but as a political instrument. Its expansion, its tactics, and its visual presentation reflect loyalty to political power rather than commitment to democratic norms.
This is not how policing functions in a free society. Law enforcement exists to protect the public, not to terrorize it. When a force’s presence generates fear primarily among racialized communities, it is not preserving order. It is imposing control.
The fact that this control is directed almost exclusively at Black and Brown bodies is not coincidental. It is the point.
Final Warning: The Beginning Always Looks Manageable
This is how it starts.
A force without faces.
A force without names.
A force driven by politics rather than courts.
A force that targets identity rather than behavior.
We are not being asked to accept this quietly. We are being trained to accept it as normal.
But history teaches us that silence is not neutrality. It is permission.
The masks ICE agents wear hide more than identity. They hide accountability. They hide racial targeting. They hide a political agenda masquerading as law enforcement.
If we allow this system to continue expanding unchecked, we will one day look back and recognize this moment for what it was. Not an overreaction. Not alarmism. But the early stages of something we failed to confront when we still could.
And I refuse to look away.
Footnotes
[¹] American Immigration Council. “Due Process and Immigration Courts.” https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/due-process-immigration-courts
[²] Washington Post. “Trump-Era Bond Restrictions Return.” July 2025. https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/07/14/ice-trump-undocumented-immigrants-bond-hearings
[³] Acacia Justice. “Due Process Violations in Detention.” https://acaciajustice.org/due-process-violations
[⁴] Washington Post. “ICE Launches Wartime Recruitment Campaign.” Dec. 31, 2025. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/12/31/ice-wartime-recruitment-push
[⁵] GovExec. “ICE Doubles Workforce Without Public Safety Justification.” Jan. 2, 2026. https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2026/01/ice-more-doubled-its-workforce-2025