A Brief History of ICE
What A Day
What A Day
4.6 • 12.6K Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
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Summary
Immigration and Customs Enforcement isn't some storied government agency from the 19th century. ICE was invented back in 2003 — but now it has a multi-billion-dollar budget and many officers who are undertrained at best. So, how did we get here? To find out, we spoke to Garrett Graff. He's a historian and journalist who has covered federal law enforcement for 20 years.
And in headlines, President Donald Trump threatens fresh tariffs on America's NATO allies over Greenland, the Pentagon ordered 1,500 National Guard troops to prepare for possible deployment to Minnesota, and a seat on Trump's Board of Peace reportedly has a $1 billion price tag.
Show Notes:
- Check out Garrett's work – https://www.garrettgraff.com/
- Call Congress – 202-224-3121
- Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8
- What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
- Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
- For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Monday, January 19th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is what a day. The show that has learned that Secretary of Labor, Lori Chavez-Durimer, allegedly keeps a massive stash of alcohol in her office and has committed, quote, travel fraud, as in making her staff invent trips for her to go on so she can hang out with her friends. |
| 0:23.2 | The White House is called the allegations baseless, |
| 0:27.9 | but as a deep supporter of members of the Trump administration not doing their actual jobs, |
| 0:31.6 | this show has no choice but to stand with our Secretary of Labor. Thank you. On today's show, President Donald Trump continues to die on the strangest of hills, |
| 0:47.9 | threatening fresh tear of center NATO allies over Greenland. |
| 0:51.5 | And the Gaza Peace Board is here, but at what cost? Hint, it's a billion dollars. |
| 0:57.4 | But let's start with immigration and customs enforcement. Like we said last week, ICE isn't |
| 1:02.3 | very popular right now, and elected officials have noticed. Case in point. Last January, Arizona |
| 1:08.3 | Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego co-sponsored the Lake and Riley Act, |
| 1:11.9 | which required ICE to detain and deport undocumented immigrants who commit theft, |
| 1:16.0 | burglary, larceny, or shoplifting offenses. |
| 1:19.2 | In a statement about his support for the bill, he said, quote, |
| 1:21.9 | we must give law enforcement the means to take action when illegal immigrants break the law. |
| 1:26.7 | But on CNN State of the Union Sunday, Senator Gallego sounded a little different on the subject. |
| 1:32.7 | I think ICE needs to be totally torn down. |
| 1:35.4 | It has to be, you know, created in the image of what people want, right? |
| 1:39.5 | And what does that look like? |
| 1:40.4 | From my experience running in Arizona in a very hard, hard state when it comes immigration, immigration issues, people want immigration enforcement that goes after criminals, |
| 1:48.9 | right, and focuses on criminals. And immigration enforcement is actually focused on security and not |
| 1:53.1 | the goon squad that has come from Stephen Miller and Donald Trump. But I wanted to know, |
| 1:58.3 | what is I supposed to be? See, immigration and customs enforcement |
| 2:02.9 | isn't some storied government agency from the 19th century. Ice was invented when I was in high school |
... |
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