ABSTRACT
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is a government agency that was established in 2003 as part of the US Department of Homeland Security. It united two previous agencies – the US Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. ICE’s main functions are related to enforcement of border, immigration, trade, and security-related laws intended to ensure and maintain public safety and order. The forms of collaboration between federal and local structures often lead to racial profiling, as a result of an insufficient or absent training of the local law enforcement officers whose responsibilities are to apply federal immigration policies. ICE’s functions and programs raise many questions that stand on the borderline between the struggle for equality and human and civil rights, on one hand, and border control, security policies, and community safety, on the other.
