First, a brief history lesson here: Both the Immigrations and Custums Encorcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are products of the post-9/11 reactionary government policy. For those of us who were alive or old enough to remember that era, people were panicking over terrorism. We had not suffered a mass casualty event like since since the bombing of Pearl Harbor. People were both hyper-sensitive and hyper-patriotic at that time. When France opposed the Bush administration's plan to invade Iraq, we renamed anything with the word "French" into "Freedom," like "Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Toast." Americans even tried boycotting French's Mustard (created over a hundred years ago in the US by an American whose last named just happened to have the last name French).
But while people were arguing over free-DUMB fries while getting groped by TSA agents, something more sinister was taking place. Bush's VP, Dick Cheney was connected to Hallibuton, which won a contract to build "immigration detention centers" (read: internment/concentration camps). We also found out, unsurprisingly, that the Bush Administration allowed horrendous abuses at Abu Ghraib.
But the one part of the post-9/11 reactionary laws was Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally), a series of large-scale multi-agency operations conduction in the mid-to-late 2000s. It was a massaive round up of mostly undocumented immigrants, but that fact was covered up by rounding up people with warrants. Out of 10,340 people rounded up in the first raids, only 1,616 mentioned in a CNN report had a warrant, although arresting106 for failure to register for the government hitlist is absurd.
As noted by pre-Trumpian CNN: ("Dragnet nabs 10,000 fugitives." CNN. 4/15/2026. https://us.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/14/fugitive.arrests/index.html)
Operation FALCON lasted from April 4 - 10 and marks the largest number of arrests ever recorded during a single operation. Of priority: suspects wanted in homicides, sexual assaults, gang-related crimes, kidnappings, major drug offenses, and crimes against children and the elderly. The operation captured 10,340 people, of whom 162 were wanted for murder, 638 had outstanding arrest warrants for armed robbery and 553 were wanted for rape or sexual assault. Also captured were 106 unregistered sex offenders and 154 gang members.
"We will use all of our nation's law-enforcement resources to serve the people, to pursue justice, and to make our streets and nation safer," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said...
"Operation FALCON -- Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally -- involved more than 3,000 law enforcement officials participating in fugitive searches. As many as 10,000 may have helped at least part of the time, officials said. Five national and 83 district fugitive task forces coordinated raids under the U.S. Marshals Service.
In addition to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI, the Secret Service, even the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development got involved.
For years, these operations have continued, only they stopped calling those raids FALCON once people got tired of all the deprivation of freedom and government overreach. What took its place over the next few years were "compliance checks" of those forced to register for a public criminal registry. (I'd like to add the sex offense registry is not the ONLY registry of persons with prior records. A number of states have registries for other offenses and some are public.)
Over the years, the US Marshals had been given at least $60 million annually to conduct these so-called "compliance check operations" with offensive names like "Operation Chicken Hawk" or "Operation Chester" or "Storm Troupers". This is how the government sold large swaths of the public on the idea of government surveilance is needed. And people bought it, hook, line, and sinker. Public support for sex offense registries remain high despite their ineffectiveness as a public safety tool. More Registered Persons are arrested for "Failure To Arrest" than for actual reoffenses, which can be anything from missing exorbitant registry fees to law enforcement mistyping an address into the database. Yet, few people cared because they have been led to believe every Registered Person just wants to rape and/or murder children every chance they get. And even self-professed leftists will support right-wing extremists like the Proud Boys or these "Predator Hunter" groups because they enjoy watching people accused of sex offenses get assaulted for clicks and views.
You can see this weaponization in action as Trump's (alleged) couch-humping vice-president JP Mandel... or Bowman, or Vance, or whatever Erika Kirk calls him behind closed-doors, tried using America's fear of "sex offenders" to justify the Gestapo raids:
“Let’s say we have a criminal migrant who is a sex offender. And let’s say we’ve got to go an arrest that person, who, Democrat or Republican, wants a sex offender living in their community? I would assume, I would hope, that most people don’t, but because their an illegal alien, we don’t know their last address...” (Source: "JD Vance admits nobody wants a sex offender living in their community." Daily KOS. 1/23/2026. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/23/2365066/-JD-Vance-admits-nobody-wants-a-sex-offender-living-in-their-community). For the most part, justifying human rights violations by weaponizing Predator Panic has worked.
ICE agents are openly murdering people, and it has been proven they don’t care who they nab. If you look too brown, they will assault and kidnap you, possibly even murder you. Even if you are an American citizen who was born here, you could be detained and assaulted by ICE agents. And those of you who are on the registry or will be forced to register upon release, know that your registry status will be used to justify their violent assault if you become the victim of an ICE attack. (I watched a video of one man beaten, pistol whipped, then shot by agents even after he was pinned to the ground. See it if you can stomach it at https://bsky.app/profile/dmbmeg.bsky.social/post/3md6kbvyyhc26)
And for those thinking that they’re not using the SOR as justification, there was a highly publicized case in late January of ICE agents breaking into a home and dragging an elderly man out in his boxers and slides in subzero temperatures. The official justification? The U.S. Department of Homeland Security described the ICE operation at Thao's home as a "targeted operation" seeking two convicted sex offenders. “The US citizen lives with these two convicted sex offenders at the site of the operation,” DHS said. “The individual refused to be fingerprinted or facially ID'd. He matched the description of the targets.” (Source: “A U.S. citizen says ICE forced open the door to his Minnesota home and removed him in his underwear after a warrantless search.” PBS. 1/20/2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-u-s-citizen-says-ice-forced-open-the-door-to-his-minnesota-home-and-removed-him-in-his-underwear-after-a-warrantless-search)
If they’re doing this in the open, I can ony imagine it is much worse behind bars. There has been one report where a person was murdered by ICE thugs behind bars and officials justified it based on his conviction status. It is getting bad out here, folks.
(Source: “Autopsy finds Cuban immigrant in ICE custody died of homicide due to asphyxia”. Associated Press. 1/22/2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/01/22/g-s1-106773/cuban-immigrant-ice-custody-died-homicide)
“A Cuban migrant held in solitary confinement at an immigration detention facility in Texas died after guards held him down and he stopped breathing, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday that ruled the death a homicide. Geraldo Lunas Campos died Jan. 3 following an altercation with guards. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the 55-year-old father of four was attempting suicide and the staff tried to save him. But a witness told The Associated Press last week that Lunas Campos was handcuffed as at least five guards held him down and one put an arm around his neck and squeezed until he was unconscious...”
“The autopsy report by the El Paso County Medical Examiner's Office found Lunas Campos' body showed signs of a struggle, including abrasions on his chest and knees. He also had hemorrhages on his neck. The deputy medical examiner, Dr. Adam Gonzalez. determined the cause of death was asphyxia due to neck and torso compression. The report said witnesses saw Lunas Campos "become unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement...”
“ICE's initial account of the death, which included no mention of an altercation with guards, said Lunas Campos had become disruptive and staff moved him into a cellblock where detainees are held away from others... Last Thursday, after Lunas Campos' family was first informed the death was likely to be ruled a homicide, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin amended the government's account, saying he had attempted suicide and guards tried to help him. ‘Campos violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life,’ she said. ‘During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness.’ After the final autopsy report was released Wednesday, McLaughlin issued a statement emphasizing that Lunas Campos was ‘a criminal illegal alien and convicted child s*x pr*dator.’ New York court records show Lunas Campos was convicted in 2003 of sexual contact with a person under 11, a felony for which he was sentenced to one year in jail and placed on the state's... registry.”
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