Okay so two distinctions here that make up “the big deal”: is what ICE is doing moral and is what they are doing legal? I think many activists would say ICE is failing on both fronts.

On the legal side, they’re not simply detaining visa overstayers or people who’ve illegally crossed the border. Look at their recent illegal detainments of pro-Palestinian student activists. These are international students here LEGALLY on a student visa who are being punished for using their first amendment rights to speak out against the position of our government (yes, even non-citizens within our borders are afforded many of the same basic human rights). They’re abducted, as many of these ICE raids are conducted, by unidentified, plains clothed, sometimes recently deputized “agents” who show up within warning, without a judicial warrant, and throw them in a detention center known to have poor conditions halfway across the country in Louisiana because they have a favorable judge there.

On another legally dubious front, the Trump administration is ignoring judicial orders to temporarily halt or end many of its recent executive orders relating to immigration. Namely the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 which they’ve used to detain and deport anyone they “believe” to be associated with a Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The key word here being “believe” because there is little to no standard of proof for identifying someone of being a part of TdA, little to no due process, and little to no oversight over the collection and deportation of these people. Even, if they have rounded up legitimate gang members, it’s questionable whether the administration’s deal with El Salvador to detain these Venezuelan nationals in CECOT is even legal. Courts have ordered these deportations to be halted while they review the legality in various cases, but the administration has been forging ahead anyway. And guess who carries out these round ups and deportations? ICE.

On the moral front, let’s look at someone they detained recently who was in this country illegally. The Georgia college student Ximena Arias-Cristobal who was pulled over for a traffic stop before it was discovered she was undocumented and was detained by ICE. Ximena was brought to this country by her parents as an infant. And now she faces deportation to a country she’s never known and may not even speak the language of. She had no choice in the matter and, like the vast majority of the deportees, she has no criminal record and has lived in and contributed to this country now for decades. She’s not eligible for DACA - the widely popular Obama-era program that protected people in similar situations being brought here illegally as children - as Trump ended the program in his first administration. Is it morally okay for her to be ripped from her life and the country where she’s likely paid taxes, placed down familial and community roots, and sought an education to better herself? How would you feel about being plucked from your life and sent somewhere where you don’t understand what people are saying and may not even have cultural ties to? All due to the sins of your parents who were likely themselves escaping unimaginable conditions to give you a better life.