Jeh Johnson Concerned About ICE Recruits, Not the Agency's Legacy
Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, speaking to The Hill, expressed concern about the 'type of people' being recruited for ICE. This sudden moral qualm emerges years after the agency was weaponized against asylum seekers and migrant families. Johnson, who oversaw DHS during a period of aggressive deportations under the Obama-Biden administration, now wonders if ICE agents are being
drawn from the 'bottom of the barrel.' Perhaps Johnson's concern isn't about 'bad apples' but rather the visibility of the rotten barrel. ICE, an agency created post-9/11 with broad powers, inherited a legacy of enforcing draconian immigration laws. Its history is replete with reports of civil rights abuses, family separations (long before the Trump administration made it notoriously public), and
deaths in custody. The very structure incentivizes aggressive enforcement and detention, creating an environment where 'bad apples' aren't anomalies but logical extensions of policy. Suggesting the problem is merely recruitment sidesteps the systemic design of an agency that always attracted those willing to enforce harsh, often inhumane, orders.