DISTURBING follow up information regarding my brother's European vacation tour that happened to include an ICE agent...

[PeaceWave]

About a week or so ago, I posted that my brother had called from Europe and told me that his vacation tour of Portugal and Spain had randomly included both an ICE agent and an immigration attorney. Now that my brother is home, I have follow up information.

As for the immigration attorney, that guy apparently once worked for Homeland Security. Now, he defends immigrants. So, that guy turned out to be a good guy who had no qualms talking about what he does for a living. In contrast, the ICE agent (his name was Frank) initially tried to be vague about his employment. After a while though (perhaps after he'd had a little too much wine?), Frank opened up and started vigorously defending what he does. He referred to himself as a "patriot" and "big time Trump supporter. Disturbingly, at one point in the tour, he attempted to crack jokes about "capturing and deporting" an Indian couple that was also part of the tour. At that point, my brother - who can take on a strong resemblance to Robert De Niro when he contorts his face just so - said that he loudly let Frank know something to the effect that Frank's own day of reckoning would soon be coming. To which Frank piped down for the rest of the tour, possibly in his pea sized brain realizing that all the ICE agents who participated and were complicit in what is happening would be staring at criminal convictions.

Now, here's the part I found most interesting. Before Frank got put in his place, he offered some specifics about bonuses currently paid to ICE agents. He said that hiring bonuses run upwards of $60,000 and that $2,000 bonuses are paid for each and every arrest - regardless of whether or not that person turns out to be undocumented. Frank's European vacation had been paid for as a result of "capturing" a handful of American residents. So, there you have it - The Department of Homeland Security and ICE are, under Trump, financially incentivized to terrorize any and all Americans under a policy of...arrest first, get paid and ask questions later.

[CincyDem]

1. So what we really have are ICE Bounty Hunters...and the "crime"?...looking different from the average KKK member.

[Disaffected]

3. Worse than bounty hunters

because there is no actual bounty on some of the victims.

[slightlv]

24. I agree worse than bounty hunters...

these guys are rump's mercenaries... a private army all his own, turned against anyone and everyone rump hates... and that includes the whole world full of people because rump can't stand people. They just distract from his glory, you see...

[Disaffected]

28. Not unlike the Brown Shirts or SS in Nazi Germany.

Except AFAIK, even they weren't paid bounties.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

38. Want to bet those ICE agents are...

Former Proud Boys and Oath Keepers cashing in on that money? Many of the same people that were pardoned along with Stuart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio, who must be salivating at the thought of cashing in?

[CrispyQ]

2. Git while the gittin's good is the rule of the day.

Our treasury is Trump's piggy bank. We have $20-21 trillion coming in, according to Trump but we have to cut SNAP & Meals on Wheels?

[pandr32]

4. It dissgusts me that our money is funding this anti-American shit.

[sop]

5. Democrats need to clawback all that illegal incentive money.

It's illegal to pay salaried law enforcement officers a direct cash bonus for individual arrests. A departmental employment agreement (a contract), such as promising monetary incentives for individual arrests by law enforcement officers, would also be "against public policy," harmful to the community or society as a whole. Such fiinancial incentives for individual arrests create significant conflicts of interest, encouraging officers to make unnecessary, questionable, or unconstitutional arrests simply to increase their pay.

[calimary]

6. O. M. G.

[RockCreek]

8. THIS!!!

[sheshe2]

10. All this.

You are exactly right.

Such fiinancial incentives for individual arrests create significant conflicts of interest, encouraging officers to make unnecessary, questionable, or unconstitutional arrests simply to increase their pay.

And the more brutal the arrest, all the better. Like the woman that was dragged out of a car by her legs by two 'agents' and dropped on the pavement.

Figueroa was released from ICE custody at around 4 pm that day and returned home shaken. Her mother collected her from an ambulance in a parking lot in Lombard and rushed her to a nearby hospital, as she was injured, in shock and bleeding from her recent surgery.

https://www.msn.com/en-in/politics/government/shock-and-terrified-ice-agents-drag-chicago-woman-out-of-car-pin-her-after-vehicles-collide-watch-video/ar-AA1PMnyO

[mr715]

23. Abolish ICE, dismantle DHS nt

[Aimee in OKC]

31. ..."illegal to pay salaried law enforcement officers a direct cash bonus"-- What if that gets skated around

for a lot of them because they're not salaried ICE officials, but considered as employees/ subcontractors of their contractor? So maybe not being styled as a 'cash bonus' but rather like working on commission? Just trying to figure out the dodge.

[sop]

32. They've likely worded it as a bonus for exceeding certain job performance goals.

[dalton99a]

33. +1

[erronis]

7. I'll bet that those "bonuses for abuses" are tax free.

No records filed with trump's "treasury". Hard cash or otherwise untraceable.

[Lulu KC]

9. Yes! I've seen the ads on YouTube for ICE bonuses

Couldn't be creepier.

[llmart]

12. I just saw my first ad for hiring ICE while watching some program on TV.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The ad said $50,000 bonus to sign up.

[patphil]

11. $2,000 bonuses are paid for each and every arrest - regardless of whether or not that person turns out to be undocumente

That's why they are willing to take US citizens, green card holders, and people with valid work visa's.
When this is all said and done, one of the things that should happen to those ICE-holes is to seize all the money that got for their bounties, plus a two dollar fine for each dollar they got.
Of course they should also receive jail time, appropriate for their for their actions.

[TommyT139]

29. Only if the jail

...replicates the conditions of the ICE holes.

Otherwise it's a waste of money.

This entire category of thugs needs to be gotten rid of with no delay, no trial, no lawyers -- because that the "justice" they agreed to.

[Borogove]

13. Depravity is quite profitable these days.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

14. The $2000 per arrest expains their despatation to arrest anyone with dark hair

[electric_blue68]

15. Woah. That's certainly an "incentive" to grab people! Day-am!

[barbtries]

16. and we foot the bill

for this anti-American fascist bullshit. WE pay them money to torture people and destroy lives.

[Joinfortmill]

17. Jeezus, my anger knows no bounds.Trump regime is fascist through and through.

[DFW]

18. $2000 per head for picking up just ANYBODY??

If there were an uncorrupt Justice Department, that sounds like a prosecution under the RICO act.

[RussBLib]

26. if true, some Democrats need to holler this one from the rooftops

...a bounty for any arrest, regardless of warranted or not? the media seems unable to do their frikkin' jobs these days. Gotta force them to.

https://russblib.blogspot.com

[aggiesal]

19. I've always felt that they were paying a bounty for each person they captured ...

That's why ICEstapo fight for every capture they get.
It's almost like Big Game Human hunting.

[travelingthrulife]

34. And they go after the easiest targets because they are cowards.

Ministers, kids, women, people just driving down the street or doing their job.

I have never once seen video of ICE in an actual crime zone.

[cpamomfromtexas]

20. They charge them to get released even if

They are AMERICANS. I have a friend I have bailed out 4 times! Where is that money going?

[SupportSanity]

39. Wow!

Amazing.

[paulkienitz]

21. The incentive is horrifying. $2000 can be enough to turn around bad times.

[RecoveringJournalist]

22. Follow the money

It always has and always will come down to one simple principle - the Benjamins.

Follow... the... money.

[slightlv]

25. We won't be able to have nice things... let alone a functioning country...

until we find a way to actually deal with greed. We have to make it less desirable, more punishment whenever caught. Love of money is the root of all evil, and that's one truism I fully believe.

[summer_in_TX]

27. Now THAT is newsworthy.

Any investigative reporters here? Among your circle of friends?
Needs corroboration to have legs.

[SunSeeker]

30. $2,000 per arrest, regardless of immigration status? Sickening!

[MadameButterfly]

35. Two relevant songs worth hearing

One song by a new star, Jesse Wells. Another written by Woodie Guthrie in 1948 that hauntingly rings true today, which John McCutcheon brings to life with his signature storytelling.

[KS Toronado]

36. Kind of reminds me of Viet Nam vets always saying

"Kill them all, let God sort them out"

[Martin68]

37. Kudos to your brother for speaking up. The money being thrown at ICE agents is disgusting.

[SupportSanity]

40. This is great information. If you understand the incentive, you understand the brutality and the randomness of it.

Doesn't make it any better.

Yes, follow the benjamins. And don't forget the rubles.

[Ziggysmom]

41. Waste and abuse. All the money wasted on Ice could go towards helping Americans get

health care.