Bier on Immigration--

This weekend, Immigration and Customs Enforcement accused me — a policy scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute — of causing assaults on its agents. I’m just the latest in a long line of people — mayors, governors, members of Congress and more — whom ICE has blamed for a rise in violent confrontations with their deportation agents.

In fact, ICE is endangering its own agents. According to the Trump administration, ICE agents suffered about 90% fewer assaults under President Joe Biden than under President Donald Trump. Biden’s ICE better protected agents by adopting interior enforcement policies that reduced chaotic interactions with the public.

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is doing the opposite, demanding agents conduct operations in ways they’ve rarely done before. According to my analysis of ICE records, ICE is arresting 1,100% more people on the streets — that is, outside of jails, prisons or police custody — than it did even in 2017 during the first Trump administration. Most of these people have no criminal records.

https://www.cato.org/commentary/ice-blamed-me-assaults-agents-rather-agencys-own-recklessness#