If you go to the official government website for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), you’ll instantly see their mission statement: “Protect America through criminal investigations and enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety.”
But a social media post from ICE suggests the agency is also in the business of serving as the Thought Police from Orwell’s classic novel 1984.
Here’s what that agency posted on social media and later deleted after a firestorm of criticism forced them to relent:
Stopping people, money, products, and ideas. Why do you suppose they didn’t mention that in their mission statement? Probably because it would have caused too much outrage, as well it should.
Having been caught advocating for their “mission” to suppress speech, a spokesperson for the agency tried to walk back the post, with Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs, issuing a statement: “That post was sent without proper approval and should not have been shared. ‘Ideas’ should have said ‘intellectual property.'”
However, as HuffPost notes, the Trump administration has already made it clear that dissent will not be tolerated in any discussion of certain issues that relate to American foreign policy.
“Chief among them is any criticism of Israel. The administration has sought the deportation of numerous students for their participation in or support for protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. The most high profile of these cases are those of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk.”
“Khalil, a legal permanent resident, was a spokesperson for the student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. He had never been arrested or found to have participated in any act beyond his free exercise of speech. The administration stripped him of his legal status, arrested him and moved to deport him.”
The Trump administration does not support the First Amendment when it applies to anyone who disagrees with them or their policies. And that alone should frighten every American who values free speech and democracy.
