INSIDE ICE: Power, Policy, and the Fight Over Immigration Enforcement in America

ICE sits at the center of one of America's most polarizing political fights. Yet the agency itself is often reduced to slogans. INSIDE ICE examines what U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actually is, what its officers can legally do, how data and contractors help locate people, how detention and removal work, and how presidents, courts, Congress, states, and local governments reshape the system. Steven Thomas follows the evidence through administrative warrants and home-entry disputes, sanctuary policies and 287(g), body cameras and use-of-force cases, detention medicine, private contractors, citizenship errors, criminal investigations, deportation statistics, immigration courts, asylum, and the expanding technology behind interior enforcement. The book does not ask readers to choose between enforcement and constitutional restraint. It asks harder questions: What authority did government possess? What evidence supported the action? What procedure was required? Was it followed? What independent review exists afterward? The result is a documented, even-handed account of a powerful federal institution, including its successes, failures, and reforms that could survive the next change in political power. Enforce the law. Respect the Constitution. Tell the truth about both.