Do you have any “on the fence” friends or family who think ICE shouldn’t matter to law abiding citizens, or that DHS isn’t really that bad? Are they in the same camp that condemns runaway government spending?
Try sharing California Senator Adam Schiff‘s eye-opening report on ICE (PDF) with them. The photos alone serve as a stark warning of the department’s overreach. Many details appear to prepare this agency specifically for attacking the general public, beyond whom they label as criminals in their raids.
From the intro of Schiff’s report (our emphases added):
In just one year, ICE’s spending commitments on weapons, ammunition, and accessories surged fourfold – an increase of over 360 percent – when compared to ICE’s contracts in 2024…. This new spending in 2025 includes contracts by ICE and CBP for:
- Tens of millions of dollars to buy lethal weapons, including thousands of AR-style rifles, pistols, and large quantities of accessories, such as optical sights for firearms and suppressors;
- More than $30 million for ammunition; and
- More than $25 million to purchase significant quantities of so-called “less-lethal” weapons and crowd control devices, such as TASERs, pepper sprays, tear gas canisters, and canister launchers.
This massive surge in contracts to procure lethal and “less-lethal” weapons has coincided with DHS’s active deployment of thousands of agents around the country and the department’s drive to rapidly recruit and hire thousands of new ICE and CBP agents, which has reinforced serious concerns about DHS’s vetting and training standards for these agents. Moreover, records show that DHS’s procurement of weapons at immense scale is just beginning, as these contract awards contemplate even greater spending moving forward.
The uncovered data compiled in this report serves as a stark warning to the American public. The heavily armed nature of immigration enforcement endangers all of us and heightens the risk that federal immigration agents resort to using weapons when escalation and lethal force are unwarranted and avoidable. As Americans across the country have already witnessed, and media footage and crowd-sourced photographs and videos have documented, federal agents have brandished and used such weapons with increasing frequency in communities across the country, including against peaceful observers and protestors – with tragic consequences.
Or, if you or your friends need a more entertaining yet broadly researched report on the context and history of DHS, do share the John Oliver video from two weeks ago.
The above post quotes “Armed for Violence: ICE and CBP’s Multi-Million Dollar Surge to Amass Weapons and Munitions” (ICE and CBP Weapons Spending Report) by Sen. Adam Schiff, February 2026.
Photo credit: Chad Davis, Chad Davis Photography, CC by 4.0, Link. “Federal agents ram a man’s vehicle and demand identification at Park Avenue and 35th Street in Minneapolis on January 12, 2026. The Latino man says he was let go once they realized he was a US citizen. While doing so, a crowd as well as more officers continued to arrive before releasing tear gas and pepper spraying members of the media and their cameras. Park and 35th Street is 2 blocks away from where ICE agents shot and killed Renee Good on January 7, 2026.”