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ICE The Propaganda Machine



– LOS ANGELES–Americans are increasingly frustrated with the broken immigration system in the United States. The economy has yet to recover and Politicians from both sides seem to use this issue for gains rather than to solve the actual problem. ICE, the principal investigative arm of the U.S Department of Homeland Security boasts an exaggerated amount of 20,000 employees, 400 offices in The United States and 46 abroad. Why abroad? Go figure. One of ICE’s objective’s aside from the obvious, protect borders, etc, is to use their resources wisely; however just because it is in writing doesn’t make it so. ICE continuously uses its resources to publicize cases that get media attention while neglecting their real job which includes border protection, customs, trade and immigration.

In April of 2010, several media outlets publicized the, “Fraud” marriage case of Mexican Actress Fernanda Romero and her husband Kent Ross. They were both arrested for allegedly marrying only for the purpose of obtaining a green card so that the actress could stay in the United States.Miguel Unzueta a “Special Agent” in charge of this case was quoted saying that “This actor should have realized that posing as a bride for immigration purposes could land her a role in a real-life crime drama.”

It all seemed very convincing. They both were tried on Federal Court which was a very rare exception since these type of cases are handled by Immigration Enforcement. They both couldn’t leave the L.A area, it really seemed that ICE found a very dramatic case. They got publicity, even went on to make statements that sounded like they came from 100% certainty they were guilty. ICE seemed to be doing their jobs really well, specially in the papers. However, things did not turn out how ICE expected it. The case was a mistrial, Fernanda Romero and Kent Ross no longer have to stay in L.A, as a matter of fact she is now working in her native country. The entire investigation took ICE three full years. They are both expected to return to court, but regardless of the outcome, was all the money spent in a case like this what ICE claims to be doing? Protecting Americans and spending their resources wisely? The answer is no.

WSB-TV in Atlanta believes that the cost of the ICE’s detention centers across the country have an estimated cost of $100 billion dollars. This all makes sense since they have mastered wasting money with cases like the one discussed above. Not only that but ICE is demanding that states wanting to curtail on illegal immigration help out with the costs of a now Federal Mandate requiring detention facility improvements. Of course on top of all this, we are still under the water when it comes to the economy. California, the state where they seem to have cases like Ms Romero’s still has 12% unemployment. Despite all of this, Americans are not naive, Iowans from De Moines voted to deny ICE building a detention facility there, proving that Americans do want the job done, but not with smoke and mirrors. They don’t want new facilities on top of the 400 already existing ones. They just want efficiency and illegal immigration reduced.

ICE’s slogan “One Team, Working Together to Protect the United States” is certainly catchy, but just as many brands, having a slogan doesn’t make them truthful or good at what they do. Since they define themselves as a team they are certainly the winning team because they earn American Tax payer’s dollars but in this game the losing team is without reasonable doubt, the American People.

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