The Truth About ICE, with Jason Houser

From calls to abolish ICE to deeply held misconceptions about immigration and criminality, few agencies generate more heat and less light than Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In this episode, we dig into the reality of how ICE actually operates, including the fact that the vast majority of people ICE arrests have no criminal record.

Jason Houser served as ICE Chief of Staff and is an Intelligence Officer in the Navy Reserve. He joins us to sort out truth from fiction: Why is the Trump administration redirecting criminal law enforcement agents to civil deportation work? Is that akin to defunding the police? How many ICE officers actually need to be armed? And what should the future of this agency look like?

Corrections: (1) Border Patrol has expanded checkpoint and search authorities within 100 miles of any land border or U.S. coastline. About two-thirds of the U.S. population live within this area, which includes Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City (but not Minneapolis). See: Explainer: U.S. Border Patrol Authorities and the 100-Mile Border Zone – National Immigration Forum (March 31, 2026). (2) Alas, the Nicolas Cage character in National Treasure is “an American treasure hunter and cryptologist,” not an HSI agent. But the Harvey Keitel character is an FBI special agent in charge of hunting down antiquities! If the stolen Declaration of Independence crossed an international border, surely he’d pull in HSI…