US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – Bias and Credibility

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is rated Far right with Low factual reporting by Media Bias Fact Check.

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QUESTIONABLE SOURCE

A questionable source exhibits one or more of the following: extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency, and/or is fake news. Fake News is the deliberate attempt to publish hoaxes and/or disinformation for profit or influence (Learn More). Sources listed in the Questionable Category may be untrustworthy and should be fact-checked on a per-article basis. Please note sources on this list are not considered fake news unless specifically written in the reasoning section for that source. See all Questionable sources.

• Overall, we rate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Right biased and Questionable based on anti-immigrant propaganda, dehumanizing language, selective crime framing, misleading claims, and conspiracy-style “invasion” rhetoric. We rate ICE Low for factual reporting because official case details may be accurate, but the website’s public messaging repeatedly omits context, promotes fear-based narratives, and should not be treated as neutral or independently reliable.

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History

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law-enforcement agency within the Department of Homeland Security. According to its About ICE page, ICE was created in 2003 through the merger of investigative and interior-enforcement elements of the former U.S. Customs Service and Immigration and Naturalization Service. ICE says it has more than 20,000 law-enforcement and support personnel in more than 400 offices in the United States and worldwide.

ICE’s primary directorates include Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), and Management and Administration. The agency states that its annual budget is approximately $8 billion, while the FY2027 budget request lists $10.5 billion, 21,828 positions, and 21,799 full-time equivalents for ICE. ICE is funded by taxpayers through congressional appropriations and has no independent commercial revenue model.

Read our profile on the United States government and media.

Funded by / Ownership

ICE is owned, operated, and funded by the U.S. federal government as a component of the Department of Homeland Security. Its funding comes from congressional appropriations, meaning it is taxpayer-funded. ICE’s website, press releases, videos, and public communications are official government communications produced to support the agency’s enforcement mission.

Analysis / Bias

ICE is rated Right-biased and Questionable because its current public-facing messaging consistently supports hardline immigration enforcement and frames immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, as criminals, gang members, terrorists, and national-security threats. This framing aligns with right-wing anti-immigration politics and the Trump administration’s enforcement agenda rather than neutral public information.

For example, HSI Omaha leads investigation resulting in federal prison sentences for 2 criminal illegal aliens who conspired to steal millions from ATMs reports on a real federal criminal case involving ATM jackpotting and alleged Tren de Aragua links. However, the release repeatedly uses loaded terms such as “criminal illegal aliens,” “violent, dangerous criminals,” “terror,” and “invasion,” while adding that one defendant entered “under the Biden administration.” This language turns a law-enforcement case into political messaging and reinforces a broader narrative that immigrants are inherently dangerous.

The central problem is not that ICE reports arrests or convictions; those are legitimate government functions. The issue is selective framing. ICE’s news section disproportionately highlights crimes by immigrants while omitting broader context that immigrants are generally less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. Research summarized by the Migration Policy Institute finds that immigrants, including unauthorized immigrants, commit crimes at lower rates than the U.S.-born population. Cato’s 2024 incarceration-rate analysis similarly found illegal immigrants incarcerated at 674 per 100,000, below the native-born rate of 1,195 per 100,000.

ICE-aligned messaging also repeats misleading claims about immigrant criminality. For example, FactCheck.org found that border czar Tom Homan’s claim about “over 600,000 illegal aliens with criminal records” was misleading because the figure included legal immigrants, people charged but not convicted, and people who may already have been incarcerated. FactCheck.org also reported that as ICE arrests increased, the share of ICE detainees with criminal convictions fell sharply; in January 2026, roughly 29% of those detained by ICE had criminal convictions, while the number with no convictions or pending charges rose substantially.

ICE’s credibility is further reduced by enforcement controversies and use-of-force concerns. DHS acknowledged that new ICE recruits received 56 days of training plus an average of 28 additional days, and CBS News reported that ICE later extended training after backlash over the shortened academy process. Reports also document fatal encounters involving immigration enforcement, including the ICE killing of U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good and fatal ICE shootings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in 2026, both of whom were reportedly not primary targets of the operations.

In the Lorenzo Salgado Araujo case, passengers disputed DHS’s claim that Salgado tried to run over officers, telling a federal court that officers were not in the vehicle’s path and that Salgado had parked when shots were fired. This illustrates why ICE’s official narratives should not be accepted uncritically, especially when agency statements involve deaths, alleged threats, or use of force.

Overall, ICE’s website contains factual law-enforcement information, but the current communication style is highly selective, politically loaded, and dehumanizing. It promotes anti-immigrant propaganda by spotlighting immigrant crime, using fear-based language, and advancing “invasion” and criminality narratives that are not supported by broader empirical evidence. This supports a Low factual rating despite the agency’s official status.

Failed Fact Checks

• Border Czar Makes Misleading Claim About Immigrants With Criminal Records — FactCheck.org found Tom Homan’s claim about “over 600,000 illegal aliens with criminal records” misleading because the number included legal immigrants, people charged but not convicted, and people who may have been incarcerated.
• As ICE Arrests Increased, a Higher Portion Had No U.S. Criminal Record — FactCheck.org reported that ICE detention increasingly included people with no convictions or pending charges, undermining the administration’s “worst of the worst” messaging.

Overall, we rate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Right biased and Questionable based on anti-immigrant propaganda, dehumanizing language, selective crime framing, misleading claims, and conspiracy-style “invasion” rhetoric. We rate ICE Low for factual reporting because official case details may be accurate, but the website’s public messaging repeatedly omits context, promotes fear-based narratives, and should not be treated as neutral or independently reliable. (D. Van Zandt 07/24/2026)

Source: https://ice.gov/

Last Updated on July 24, 2026 by Media Bias Fact Check

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