On Sept. 26, Ian Roberts was arrested in Des Moines, Iowa, and charged the following week. An American-educated contributor to academics across the country, Roberts has lived in the States for nearly 30 years, becoming a productive member of society to the tune of a $270,000 salary as superintendent of the 30,000-student Des Moines Independent Community School District. His crime? Born in Guyana, Roberts has no right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of administering education to our youth in America.
Among arrests conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2025, this case is just one of the most visible. In the past month, over 800 arrests have been made under Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago. Operations included alleged rappelling from Black Hawk helicopters into apartments, the separation of children from parents, and the disappearance of asylum seekers’ possessions. All of this is done in the name of ICE’s purported mission: “protect America through criminal investigations and enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety.”
“Security” and “safety” repeatedly guide the discourse of American politics, especially in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Founded in the wake of 9/11, the parent department of ICE serves as perhaps the best depiction of the second Trump Administration’s unrestrained reactionary force. Just look at DHS’s social media to see how DHS is binding the ideas of security and safety to idealizations of violence, Christian nationalism, manifest destiny, and casual cruelty.
Not only is this unacceptable on ethical grounds, it’s dangerous. Where we see deployments of ICE in tandem with the National Guard, escalation and excessive force are constant. We see this in Chicago, in Operation Midway Blitz; in Los Angeles, where a journalist was shot with a rubber bullet while her back was turned; in Portland, Ore., where a non-violent 19-year-old protester was sprayed in the face with a chemical irritant. ICE’s disproportionate reactions are in themselves incitements to unpredictable violence. We should remember that two Minnesota lawmakers were murdered this summer by someone impersonating law enforcement. When ICE agents wear masks and refuse to identify themselves, how can we be certain that they are not assailants like those we’ve seen in this year’s series of violent shootings? The government knows we cannot be certain. A cruel and unaccountable DHS is not a symptom of Trumpian politics. Trumpian politics are the symptom of a nation-state that would create such forces as DHS and ICE. And with Republicans delivering massive budget increases to these agencies, we can only expect their attacks to become worse. Defund DHS. Melt ICE.
