The State’s Insatiable Thirst for Control and the Human Cost of Borders

A critical look at Trump’s authoritarian push to ramp up ICE’s deportation numbers. 

The news that the Trump administration is yet again shaking up the leadership of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) due to “frustration with deportation levels” is not merely a bureaucratic reshuffle; it is a chilling testament to the state’s relentless pursuit of control and its inherent cruelty. For those who believe in true freedom and human dignity, this development is a stark reminder that the machinery of government, particularly its enforcement arms like ICE, exists to divide, oppress, and dehumanize.

ERO, the branch specifically tasked with “carrying out arrests and deportations,” is the sharp end of the state’s spear, plunging into communities to tear families apart and expel individuals from arbitrary lines drawn on a map. The very concept of “deportation levels” being a metric of success, something to be increased and optimized, reveals the cold, utilitarian logic of the state. Human beings are reduced to numbers, targets in a brutal campaign to enforce nationalistic fictions.

This isn’t an isolated incident. The history of immigration enforcement, particularly in the United States, is a history of violence, exclusion, and the suppression of dissent. From the explicitly anti-anarchist legislation of the early 20th century to the increasingly militarized border and interior enforcement we see today, the state has consistently used “immigration control” as a tool to consolidate power, scapegoat vulnerable populations, and instill fear.

The Trump administration’s demand for “3,000 daily arrests” — a fourfold increase from current rates — is not about safety or national security; it is about projecting an image of authoritarian strength and satisfying a base fueled by xenophobia. It exposes the true nature of borders: not natural divisions, but artificial constructs designed to limit movement, exploit labor, and dictate who is “worthy” of existence within a given territory.

From an anarchist perspective, borders are illegitimate. They are lines of control, enforced by the state, that deny the fundamental human right to free movement and association. ICE, as an arm of the state, is an instrument of this injustice. Its actions, whether under one director or another, are inherently coercive and destructive. The revolving door of leadership in ERO, driven by a thirst for more “removals,” signifies not a failure of individual leadership, but a systemic rot at the heart of the state itself.

Fuck the JD Vances of the world, and both the neo-Nazis who feed him his talking points and the billionaire class he works for. itsgoingdown.org/the-enemy-ar…

— It's Going Down (@igd.bsky.social) 2024-09-11T20:43:19.581Z

We are told this is about “law and order,” about protecting “our communities.” But what kind of order is built on the systematic terrorizing of people seeking a better life? What kind of community is truly safe when its members live in constant fear of raid, detention, and expulsion? The true safety and well-being of communities come from solidarity, mutual aid, and the dismantling of oppressive structures, not from increased policing and punitive measures.

This shake-up should not be met with despair, but with renewed resolve. It is a clarion call to action for all who believe in a world without borders, without prisons, and without the oppressive hand of the state. The answer is not to plead for kinder leadership within ICE, but to abolish ICE entirely. The answer is not to reform the system of immigration control, but to dismantle it.

We must stand in solidarity with those targeted by this monstrous apparatus, provide sanctuary, and build autonomous networks of support that resist state control. We must expose the lie that borders protect us, and instead champion the revolutionary truth that true security lies in shared humanity and the freedom of all people to move, live, and thrive wherever they choose. The state may shuffle its enforcers, but our commitment to liberation remains unshaken.

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash