Jonathan P. Baird

When I first heard Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett describe federal immigration raids as modern-day slave patrols, I was surprised. I had never heard that comparison. It made me wonder about the accuracy of the comparison since slave patrols are a part of history that has largely escaped notice.

From 1704-1865, slave patrols were organized government-sponsored groups of armed white men in the Southern states who monitored and enforced discipline on enslaved blacks. In South Carolina, slave patrol membership was limited to white men who either owned 50 acres or were 40 shilling taxpayers. There were slave codes that controlled almost every aspect of the lives of enslaved people. The slave patrol often rode on horseback in groups of four or five.

The slave patrols were a first line of defense against slave revolts. They had several explicit functions. They searched slave quarters and local communities for escaped slaves and for weapons of assault. They safeguarded the areas around plantations. They dispersed meetings of any group of slaves.

Like ICE now, they were based on racial profiling. They existed to round up black people who escaped or were trying to escape the chains of slavery. While we no longer live in slavery, there is a similarity to ICE’s mission as ICE is currently practicing it. ICE targets Latinos. They round up people based on skin color, ethnicity and accent. ICE has been given this permission by Justice Brett Kavanaugh in his shadow docket decision authorizing racial profiling.

Like slave patrols, ICE has been entirely indiscriminate in whom they pursue. Under President Biden, ICE had a priority to go after people with vicious criminal records. Now, under Trump, ICE goes after any immigrant without restriction. This includes 5 year old Minnesota pre-schooler Liam Ramos who was wearing a bunny-shaped winter hat and a Spiderman backpack. His photo made national news. ICE used the boy as bait to knock on his door so they could arrest more of his family.

ICE described Liam’s father as an “illegal alien” but Liam and his father had come to the U.S. in 2024 from Ecuador seeking asylum. They were legally following required immigration procedures. Their lawyer said Liam and his father are now being held in a detention center in San Antonio, Texas. His lawyer said he was trying to contact his clients.

The superintendent of Liam’s school, Zena Stenvik, said ICE had recently detained four students in her school district, including a ten year old and two 17 year olds. She said:

“The onslaught of ICE activity in our community is inducing trauma.”

Just like slave patrols, ICE is also asserting authority to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant completely contrary to 4th amendment protection. Supreme Court rulings prohibit law enforcement from entering a home without judicial approval.

The Associated Press obtained an internal ICE memo that authorizes ICE agents to enter residences based on an administrative warrant from the Executive branch. That is not a judicial warrant and it is contrary to Supreme Court authority but ICE continues to wrongly break into homes. This is essentially a conspiracy within ICE to deprive people of their constitutional rights. They have even publicized their extreme behavior using battering rams to smash doors and enter homes. They have been using spectacle as a means to engender fear.

Their approach is designed to frighten immigrants into self-deportation. They want to make people so miserable that they will choose to leave the United States. The slave patrols also used terror and punishment to keep slaves in line. The Ku Klux Klan was a later iteration of this approach. They did not have the benefit of the media to show their night riding but beatings, whippings, and murder were public events designed to set an example and scare slaves into submission.

I would suggest that ICE’s behavior is similar both to pre-Civil War slave patrols and post-Civil War Klan terror. ICE argues its agents have “absolute immunity” so they can rampage and murder without consequence. Before the Civil War and for almost 100 years after, Southern racists had their own version of “absolute immunity”. They lynched people without consequence. No crimes against black people were ever punished. ICE is shooting people. They argued that Renee Good’s murderer committed no crime and they will do the same for ICU nurse Alex Pretti.

Like the Klan used to do, the federal government will make up a story that flies in the face of evidence. Invariably people like Kristi Noem tell a story completely at odds with video of the event. Slave patrols and the Klan were never held accountable because a racist power structure protected them. The same thing is going on now. ICE has no rules prohibiting the use of excessive force and violence. Neither Good nor Pretti deserved to be shot. ICE has been viciously assaulting and pepper spraying in the face people who are already pinned down.

We have largely forgotten the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. That law created federal authority over the states so that all escaped slaves had to be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. ICE is trying to go around courts and effectuate deportations as soon as possible. Both the Fugitive Slave Act and ICE have tried to exercise unbridled power to detain and dispose of people. ICE has demonstrated about as much discipline as the Klan did. They just have to deal with the reality that video can capture some of their crimes.

Like the southern racists before and after the Civil War, ICE has a white supremacist agenda. The Klan wore sheets to disguise themselves. ICE masks and hides identification. ICE wants to remove as many people of color from the U.S. as possible. That is the Stephen Miller vision. I don’t know if Trump shares that vision 100%. He only cares about money and himself. I suspect he gravitated to anti-immigration when he saw how much response he got to his racist demagoguery in campaign speeches. He correctly saw it as his ticket to power.

Jasmine Crockett was right. ICE is the modern day slave patrol. Achieving accountability over a rogue agency like ICE is part of the battle we are facing against fascism in America.