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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 5, 2026

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Potentially she should have not put her foot on said accelerator and complied with the requests?

Probably, but when aggressive people are surrounding your car, the flight or fight response might kick in. Being arrested by ICE is also not quite the same as being arrested by your local police department, since we don't really know what happens to everyone who goes into ICE custody. If the police are trying to arrest me unjustly, I would assume I'll get my day in court. But if ICE deports me to a costa rican gang prison it might be hard to prove my innocence.

  • -19

This kind of misinformation will get more people killed.

Q: Aren’t people in ICE custody routinely “disappeared”?
No. Like most (not all) law enforcement agencies in the modern era, ICE has a detainee registry and an online portal where you can search for them. They have a website listing their locations and describing visiting hours, lawyer hours, and ways to send gifts to detainees.
Also, of course, unlike most prisoners, people detained for immigration violations usually have the option to leave, in fairly short order, by accepting voluntary departure to their home country.

misinformation

I really dislike this word. The government doesn't get to decide what is true and what is false. They may claim that everyone in ICE custody is accounted for, but I have no reason to believe them. Donald Trump is a serial liar, and so is everyone working for him.

But in that case, why do you believe the government when it says "do not resist when police arrest you, if it's all a big mistake you will be released within a couple days at the most?" But then don't apply that same trust to it when it says, "Same applies to ICE?" It's the same source. If the problem is federal/local, substitute being arrested by the FBI, would you have the same response to being arrested by the FBI as you do to ICE?

Instead, I have seen a large online campaign to paint ICE as unusual with zero jurisdiction on anything, operating under no rules, with no training. When really, they get the normal amount of training (ICE agents train at FLETC for about 3–5 months, then complete on-the-job probation before being considered field-ready, which is a comparable amount to the FBI.) They have jurisdiction to arrest people, even American citizens, over crimes committed in their presence. And the people they arrest can only be held for so long before a judge approves the detainment. And the people they send out of the country all have final orders of removal from an immigration judge.

why do you believe the government when it says "do not resist when police arrest you, if it's all a big mistake you will be released within a couple days at the most?"

I don't believe them by default, they earn that trust through transparency and independent oversight. And of course, there is always the threat of consequences if government becomes too authoritarian. ICE employees don't behave anything like normal police officers, and they haven't done anything to earn our trust. I know several of my local sheriffs by name, one of them even lives down the street. ICE agents are faceless and unaccountable, and they seem to report directly to the serial liar and criminal currently running the government. We have no obligation to "obey" them just because some federal law saws so.

I am related to an above average number of police officers and security personnel and ICE agents have not earned that "don't behave anything like normal police officers" comment. They seem normal to me. You are going to have to be more specific in your derision.

Normal police officers don't cover their faces, usually drive marked vehicles, have body cameras rather than filming with their personal cell phones, and will identify their name and badge number when asked. If a police officer were out of uniform and driving an unmarked vehicle, there would have to be much more tolerance for suspects supposedly "resisting arrest," because people wouldn't feel comfortable surrendering to some guy.

The mission of an ICE employee is also very different from a beat cop. ICE is trying to deport as many illegals as they can. Every person an ICE employee encounters is either an illegal alien who needs to be deported, or some busybody getting in the way of them deporting more illegals. Beat cops don't start their interactions with citizens under the assumption that they're interacting with a salvadorian cartel hitman. Policing is very different from protecting the country from external threats.

Normal police officers do cover their faces when dealing with the crap ICE is dealing with. They also drive unmarked vehicles when needed. Federal law enforcement officials do not have a requirement to personally identify themselves.

All you have delineated is that ICE does not act like a beat cop who is not expecting trouble. Yeah, obviously. But when the police go in expecting trouble, they act a lot like the ICE we see on videos where trouble has happened. And ICE's mission is to round up people who have ignored final orders for removal and/or have illegally entered our country. Do you object to the existence of parole officers and bail enforcement agents?

There are also lots of arrests ICE is making that are not shared to social media that go smoothly, everyone is pleasant, no force is used, and all looks a lot more like your beat cop example.