Uncommon Sense

If you recall, when Trump was first elected he unleashed his attack dog, Elon Musk, under something called the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk’s “employees” (how his illegal department could have employees when they weren’t part of the previous year’s budget is worth attention) who were very young “bro-types” who crashed any number of government offices, firing people willy-nilly, locking them out of their offices, and confiscating their computers or hard drives.

Gee, I wonder where they are now? I think I know. They are now employees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, aka ICE, who have used the exact same tactics with regard to what are being called immigration issues. They claim that they are targeting illegal immigrants, especially “the worst of the worst,” for deportation to cooperating government in other countries, nasty, hell-hole countries, that Trump previously referred to as “shit hole countries.” (I thought we didn’t negotiate with terrorists or make deals with shit hole countries?)

ICE, through mid-October, have arrested 210,000 people, including 3300 in my state, Illinois. The people here were as young as four-years old and as old as 75. (How does one get to become one of the “worst of the worst” at only four? Seems like it would take much longer.)

None of the targeted individuals were shown an arrest warrant and many were denied legal representation, some of the families of whom couldn’t even find out where they were. Many were apparently shuffled off to Texas or Missouri which would make ICE in violation of the Mann Act having taken people across state lines for immoral purposes.

These Smash and Grab agents, masked to prevent identification, (Where are all the MAGAts screaming that masks were the tool of the Devil?) seem to brook no accountability with their Dear Leaders shrugging of court orders as if they were litter.

So, how did they know whether the people they dearly wished to deport were undocumented? If you were whisked off the street, other than a driver’s license, would you have documentation of your status as a citizen? (One of those arrested pulled his passport out of his pocket and it was confiscated.) A sizable percentage of those arrested were released after a few days. So, how did they know to arrest those people in the first place? Apparently 60% of those arrested by mid-October in Illinois did not involve a criminal charge or conviction, so no court records could be used to identify them. Government statistics show, unequivocally, that undocumented aliens are less likely to commit crimes that citizens are, which makes this an “othering” effort, in spades (to classify people as “other than us” to discriminate against them wholesale).The administration, of course, is claiming that all of these “worst of the worst” are drug traffickers, gang members, and rapists (Oh, my!). What they actually have in common is … brown skin. (How dare they!)

If there is any motivation for these outrageous and illegal ICE activities, it appears to be to intimidate all other “brown-skinned” folks not already citizens to “self-deport” and discourage other brown-skinned folks from trying to get here to create a better life.

Here is a Google AI Summary/Overview regarding “What percent of ICE arrests are criminals?”

AI Overview
A significant majority of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees have no criminal conviction, with recent data from late 2025 showing roughly 73-74% lack any criminal record, and even more lack serious or violent offenses, with many having only traffic violations or pending minor charges, according to analyses from think tanks like the Cato Institute and Syracuse University (TRAC). This challenges claims that most detainees are serious criminals, as many have no prior criminal history, making them non-violent, non-criminal individuals caught in sweeps or facing immigration violations.