There's no mistaking what ICE's new structure is designed to do [View all]

[Jilly_in_VA]

The Trump administration is conducting a sweeping overhaul of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with more than a dozen senior officials in various cities being replaced by officials from Customs and Border Protection (CBP). At the heart of this effort is Greg Bovino, commander-at-large of the Border Patrol, who is currently the public face of the Trump administration’s current interior enforcement surges. But what’s unfolding under Bovino isn’t law enforcement. It’s political stagecraft directed from Washington, not the field.

Under Bovino’s command, the Department of Homeland Security has assembled something new: a hybrid, unaccountable task force reporting directly to DHS headquarters and the White House and operating outside the traditional command structures that govern federal law enforcement. It isn’t ICE. It isn’t CBP. It’s a Frankenstein force, stitched together from multiple agencies but loyal to none. Its purpose is to create a community response designed for social media clicks, rather than to keep communities safe.

The recent wave of ICE senior official reassignments makes the motive behind this new structure unmistakable: It’s about control, not competence. Seasoned career leaders — the very people who built ICE’s investigative, detention and removal frameworks — are being pushed aside or relocated for refusing to chase arbitrary arrest quotas or participate in politically driven operations. These aren’t disciplinary moves; they’re purges designed to silence dissent and clear the field for Bovino’s task forces. In effect, the DHS has replaced law enforcement judgment with political obedience, rewarding those who follow orders from the top — and sidelining those who still believe in risk-based enforcement and the rule of law.

For decades, ICE and CBP had distinct yet complementary missions. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) targeted serious offenders in the interior; CBP’s Border Patrol protected the border. Each had apparent oversight, trained professionals and accountability lines that ran through their respective chains of command.

The new structure under Bovino upends that approach. Under his leadership, select personnel from both agencies have been integrated into what’s officially branded a “joint enforcement initiative.” Still, DHS officials describe it as politically controlled, rather than law enforcement-controlled. It doesn’t answer to ICE or CBP leadership — it reports directly to DHS political appointees.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-ice-raids-bovino-immigration-border-patrol-rcna240795

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