Homeland Security hack exposes ICE agents' violent histories

Concerns that the Department of Homeland Security’s rapid hiring spree would result in dangerous or even deadly consequences arose early on when Donald Trump took office again and vowed to carry out mass deportations.

Hiring conventions, sign-on bonuses, and loosened requirements created a perfect storm for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hire men—some with alarming pasts —who would fire the guns that killed multiple immigrants as well as U.S. citizens.

Now, thanks to a hack that leaked the info of approximately 1,500 employees, more ICE agents with violent track records are being exposed.

After an extensive background check effort looking into only 300 of the agents exposed, The Washington Post found that at least 19 ICE recruits had glaring red flags in their past. The problem, however, is that the department hired them anyway.

One example is JeJuan Jetter, a former Detroit police officer who fatally shot a teenager while on duty. According to the Post’s findings, Jetter claims that Michael Contrell Adams III had raised a pistol and ignored commands before fleeing.

A video shows Jetter firing multiple times before Adams turned to run. He was pronounced dead 30 minutes later.

But Jetter, according to the report, had other red flags as well. While on the police force, he was placed on leave for tasing a handcuffed person. He was suspended in 2018 for using “language of a profane nature” toward the mother of his child.

He was also found to have turned off his in-car camera, “purposefully,” at the scene.

Related | Trump: Killer ICE agents are doing a ‘GREAT job’

Despite all of this background uncovered by the Post, Jetter was still hired by ICE in Detroit. But he’s just one example of the excessive force found in the pasts of ICE hires.

Another former police officer-turned-ICE agent, Joseph Joffrion , was unable to explain the Fourth Amendment during a deposition, which protects people from unreasonable seizures or searches.

These are but two examples of an extensive list that the outlet combed through following the data leak. The likelihood that more damning information will be uncovered thanks to the leak is high as well.

But this information is less surprising given reports and the number of deaths and of violations at the hands of ICE agents since Trump took office.

From the gunning down of a Texas father who was in the process of obtaining citizenship to killing a Colombian man who was driving to work, the department is stained with violence, abuse, and death.

“That is Soviet gestapo tactics when you want to hide a crime or victim,” Juan Proaño, chief executive of the League of United Latin American Citizens, told Daily Kos in July when Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot dead in Houston and stripped of his identification.

Yet the DHS and the president have vehemently defended the ICE agents despite public cries for justice.

However, following a blue wave that will see the House and the Senate controlled by Democrats come January, Trump did admit that his deportation agenda might have been “too tough.”

It’s unclear if the president and his new chief of staff Stephen Miller will actually deliver any meaningful changes. But Miller’s history as the hateful architect of Trump’s deportation push and the violent history lurking around ICE are established—and they’ve already cost lives.