A growing number of reports suggest that some Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are engaging in theft during operations, including instances where detainees’ possessions, such as jewellery and personal belongings, are allegedly taken and sold or kept by agents.
The most recent and disturbing evidence emerged from Minnesota, where a photograph circulated showing an ICE agent wearing a gold bracelet. The bracelet was allegedly taken from a detainee during an arrest.
‘It now appears that some ICE agents are stealing from the people they’re arresting. This agent was photographed with a gold bracelet he took off a man in Minnesota,’ a viral post on X was shared.
Civil asset forfeiture can be legally challenged and has documentation, even if the concept itself is bullshit. An unidentified ICE agent just taking and keeping it for themselves on a whim is significantly more severe.
This is the theater they use to justify the reality that they are functionally the same.
Just because in theory you can jump through enough legal hoops to maybe get your stuff back doesn’t change the reality that they have your stuff unjustly.
‘Cops robbing you at gunpoint with their faces covered is just like cops searching your home with a warrant and taking items you can legally reclaim’ certainly is a position.
Civil asset forfeiture does not require a warrant, and just because the gun is not drawn doesn’t not erase the threat of violence. Mixed with the ways the thin blue line and absence of consequence for cops lying, I will say again, the theater of it is different, but they are functionally the same.