ICE Has a Lot of Money with Unchecked Authority | Spolitics

What this episode is about

The discussion highlights the immense power and financial resources of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which will receive $170 billion over the next few years, granting it virtually unchecked authority. This unprecedented budget, surpassing that of several foreign countries and exceeding the combined budgets of major U.S. federal law enforcement agencies, raises concerns about its impact on immigration policy and enforcement practices rooted in a narrative surrounding deportation and systemic issues related to white supremacy.

Key takeaways

• ICE's budget eclipses 15 countries' defense budgets—it's like funding a 'Super Bowl' for bounty hunters.
• With $170 billion and unchecked authority, ICE has become the ultimate goon squad in the U.S.
• We prioritize funding for ICE over universal healthcare—talk about misplaced values in national priorities!
• Renee Good's case echoes George Floyd's—narratives constructed by officials often stray far from the truth.
• The normalization of police violence is chilling; if we don't pay attention, it risks becoming just 'another video.'

Who speaks in this episode?

• Jemele Hill (Host) · 15 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: ICE, universal health care, FBI, paid maternity leave
2. 3:00 – 6:00: New York Times, Ahmad Arbury, Bana Taylor
3. 12:00 – 15:00: racial profiling, American citizens, documentaries

Notable quotes from "ICE Has a Lot of Money with Unchecked Authority | Spolitics"

• ICE has 37.5 billion dollars for this year. That is bigger than the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, the US Marshalss, the DEA, and ATF combined.

  about ICE · at 2:08

• Own thoughts to it. I want us together to watch a piece that was done by the New York Times' digital team. I have my issues with them, but I thought this piece was excellent…

  about New York Times · at 3:42

• The Supreme Court gave ICE the ability to racially profile. Meaning that they could stop anybody on the street that they feel like doesn't fit the description of who is supposed to be an.

  about racial profiling · at 13:00

• This is exactly what you get. And I have a feeling in the years to come when there are documentaries done and deeper reporting done about who exactly is part of ICE where we've heard about them assaulting people that they've detained,.

  about documentaries · at 14:08

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Ahmad Arbury — Person · Referenced comparison case · 1 mention · first at 3:15
  Cited alongside George Floyd as an example of repeated traumatic incidents that risk desensitization and normalization through repeated video exposure.
  Afraid we'll become desensitized and it'll be just another video. I was afraid of that with George Floyd. I was afraid of that with Ahmad Arbury. I was afraid of that with Bana…
• Bana Taylor — Person · Referenced comparison case · 1 mention · first at 3:16
  Mentioned with Floyd and Arbury as part of a pattern of traumatic incidents and media exposure shaping public perception and normalization.
  It'll be just another video. I was afraid of that with George Floyd. I was afraid of that with Ahmad Arbury. I was afraid of that with Bana Taylor's. Like as we see more of…

Companies & orgs

• ICE — Company · Primary organization under critique · 3 mentions · first at 0:03
  Presented as a massively funded, increasingly unchecked federal force whose tactics and narrative framing are implicated in Renee Good's death and broader abuses.
• FBI — Company · Budget comparison benchmark · 1 mention · first at 2:10
  Used to emphasize ICE's scale by stating ICE's budget exceeds the FBI combined with other agencies.
  ICE has 37.5 billion dollars for this year. That is bigger than the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, the US Marshalss, the DEA, and ATF combined.
• Bureau of Prisons — Company · Budget comparison benchmark · 1 mention · first at 2:13
  Listed among agencies whose combined budgets are said to be smaller than ICE's, reinforcing the argument about ICE's unprecedented funding.
  ICE has 37.5 billion dollars for this year. That is bigger than the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, the US Marshalss, the DEA, and ATF combined.
• DEA — Company · Budget comparison benchmark · 1 mention · first at 2:13
  Cited as part of the set of federal agencies whose combined budgets are claimed to be eclipsed by ICE.
  ICE has 37.5 billion dollars for this year. That is bigger than the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, the US Marshalss, the DEA, and ATF combined.
• ATF — Company · Budget comparison benchmark · 1 mention · first at 2:16
  Used in the combined budget comparison to underscore ICE's scale.
  Year. That is bigger than the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, the US Marshalss, the DEA, and ATF combined.

Concepts & topics

• racial profiling — Concept · Core practice under critique · 1 mention · first at 13:00
  Speaker claims ICE was granted authority to racially profile, expanding risk to Latinos, Black people, and even other Americans.
• American citizens — Concept · Impacted group / expansion of threat · 1 mention · first at 13:34
  Used to argue ICE power threatens not only undocumented people but citizens as well, with Renee Good cited as an example.
  Media in the last day or so is you might not be the appetizer, the entree, but you definitely on the menu. So, American citizens are also on the menu because this woman is an American citizen.
• universal health care — Concept · Policy contrast / opportunity cost · 1 mention · first at 2:30
  Contrasted with ICE funding to argue national priorities favor enforcement over social welfare.
  Especially when we're in a country, we put that much money into ICE where we still don't have universal health care.
• paid maternity leave — Concept · Policy contrast / opportunity cost · 1 mention · first at 2:41
  Cited to emphasize perceived misallocation of resources toward enforcement rather than family supports.
  We're still one of few developed nations that does not have paid family leave, paid maternity leave. we don't have any of these things. But we have a goon squad that is running around this country terrorizing people, killing people,.

Media & podcasts

• New York Times — Media · Referenced media source / evidence provider · 2 mentions · first at 3:46
  Its digital team's video analysis is used as key evidence to dispute official claims that the agent fired defensively because he was being run over.
• documentaries — Media · Future media accountability mechanism · 1 mention · first at 14:10
  Mentioned as a likely future format for deeper investigation into ICE membership, abuses, and institutional failures.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 I hope we all have an understanding of just how powerful ICE has become because I think that's part of what we have to understand as we try to make sense of this incident. And I don't even think we can make sense of it. We can't in one regard. If you understand anything about white supremacy, you totally know how this happened or the mechanisms that put this into place. But ICE over the next four to five years will have $170 billion. They will have virtually unchecked authority. They are essentially a goon squad at this point. Unchecked, lots of money and built on the premise of deporting people and cleaning up the country from the undesirable undocumented people or people here illegally, which is all part of this narrative sale. And I want you all before I start talking about the unfortunate news that happened to Reneica to take a look at something that I think is important as we put this into

1:03 context about ICE. Now, this is a nifty little graph that I found about ICE um and about its unprecedented annual budget growth. All right. Under ICE, that arm of the government has gained 37 billion dollars. It eclipses the budgets of other every domestic law enforcement agency. All right? And if you look here, this is ISIS budget versus the countries of other defense budget. ICE has a bigger budget. A bigger budget just by themselves than the entire defense budget of Italy, Israel, the Netherlands Brazil Switzerland Algeria Spain Taiwan Paraguay Iran Singapore Morocco Sweden and Indonesia. That's multiple countries.

1:53 ICE alone, that's the kind of budget they're dealing with. Larger than 15 other countries. All right. Then you look at just American federal law enforcement agencies by themselves. ICE has 37.5 billion dollars for this year. That is bigger than the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, the US Marshalss, the DEA, and ATF combined. So that's a lot of money and unchecked authority. Especially when we're in a country, we put that much money into ICE where we still don't have universal health care. We're still one of few developed nations that does not have paid family leave, paid maternity leave. Like, we don't have any of these things. But we have a goon squad that is running around this country terrorizing people, killing people, and we're and they have a budget that's bigger than the US Marines.

2:58 That's where we are now. Generally speaking, when it's these vid uh these videos that incite a level of trauma, I don't like to show them because one, I'm afraid we'll become desensitized and it'll be just another video. I was afraid of that with George Floyd. I was afraid of that with Ahmad Arbury. I was afraid of that with Bana Taylor's. Like as we see more of this um that it's going to become normalized just by the sense that we're seeing more of these things. So, I'd like to be a little more judicious in it, but I want to play and let's watch this together. And this video is a little lengthy, but I'll be stopping and starting it and adding my own thoughts to it. I want us together to watch a piece that was done by the New York Times' digital team. I have my issues with them, but I thought this piece was excellent where they broke down what happened with Renee Good in Minneapolis.

3:56 Minneapolis, a m a mother of three. So, she had two children from her first marriage. She had one a six-year-old uh with her second marriage and she was a widowerower. Her I think I believe that the her second husband is is no longer with us. So, she has three kids and she was in a a relationship. She had a she had a partner and I'll show you how that so how once it was discovered that she was partnered with a woman, how that also changed the narrative. But I want us to watch this video with the New York Times that the New York Times has put together analyzing this incident together because once again, there are a lot of people out there despite the fact that we can all see what happens in this video, they playing in our face and telling us that what we see is not what actually happened. So, let me go ahead and play this video by the New York Times. And I I really want you guys to pay attention.

4:57 On Wednesday in Minneapolis, a federal agent fatally shot a motorist. 37year-old Renee Nicole Good. Trump administration officials said these were quote defensive shots fired because the officer was being run over.

5:12 And a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over. But our analysis of bystander footage filmed from different angles appears to show the agent was not in the path of the victim's SUV when he

5:26 Now I want to stop it there because it's important that we understand how many times have we seen this before. I don't have it readily able to toss it up, but if you remember when George Floyd was murdered, do you remember what that original police report said? The original police report was so far away from what we saw from the video. It was an outright lie, a propaganda lie. They made it seem as if George Floyd just had his own medical incident that was not at all induced by the fact that somebody knelt on his neck for nearly 10 minutes and that's how he died.

6:10 And so now we're seeing the same thing here with Renee Good. The description that Christy Gnome said of what this incident was in no way matches the video. That woman was not trying to run over the officer from ICE. But so they're already trying to frame in your mind that the reason that she's dead is because she caused her own death by using her weapon by using her vehicle as a weapon, which law enforcement officials will tell you they are not supposed to shoot someone who's fleeing. But if you use your vehicle as a weapon against them, they have a license to kill. But let's continue to watch. THREE SHOTS [screaming]

6:54 at close range. Here's how events unfolded. Moments before the shooting, the victim's maroon SUV is stopped in the middle of the street. Multiple unmarked federal vehicles are idling nearby. Secretary Gnome alleged the motorist quote was blocking the officers in. Bystanders are blowing whistles and yelling at federal agents.

7:21 Go home to Texas. Then federal vehicles start moving toward the maroon SUV with sirens and lights blaring.

7:32 A federal agent films the scene on his phone. The driver rolls forward slightly, turning left, then stops and waits for others to go ahead. Two agents exit this silver pickup and walk toward the vehicle.

7:51 Moments later, shots are fired. Let's look at the scene again more closely. This is the agent who shoots the driver. He walks around the car filming and disappears from view. Other agents pull up and order the driver to exit her vehicle. One of them grabs at the door handle and reaches inside.

8:17 The SUV reverses, then turns right, apparently attempting to leave. At the same time, the agent filming crosses toward the left of the vehicle and grabs his gun. He opens fire on the motorist and continues shooting as she drives past.

8:33 So, let's just get this clear about the sequence of events that we're seeing right now. She is clearly just trying to escape them because I don't know about you all, but I'd probably be pretty terrified if a man wearing a mask with a gun and while they may have appear to have on some law enforcement gear coming at me, I think I'd be pretty terrified in that case. And I'm sure at this point because of the reputation of ICE and because of where they've been, especially in Minnesota where over 3,000 of them have been deployed according to reports that that's a very scary situation to be in.

9:13 And if this officer really felt like he was in danger, I'm wondering how he's [clears throat] filming cuz I hope y'all peep that he's filming at at the same time. All she does is turn her wheel and he has that gun ready to kill her. He shot her in the face. Like that wasn't a situation where he was trying to neutralize. She didn't open her car door. So he thought that gave him license to shoot her in her face and kill her.

9:42 The moment the agent fires, he is standing here to the left of the SUV and the wheels are pointing to the right away from the agent.

9:52 This appears to conflict with allegations that the SUV was ramming or about to ram the officer. President Trump and others said the federal agent was hit by the SUV, often pointing to another video filmed from a different angle. And it's true that at this moment in this grainy lowresolution footage, it does look like the agent is being struck by the SUV. But when we synchronize it with the first clip, we can see the agent is not being run over. In fact, his feet are positioned away from the SUV. The SUV crashes into a white car parked down the road.

10:32 A bystander runs toward the collision. The federal agents on scene do not appear to rush to provide emergency medical care.

10:42 Eventually, the agent who shot the motorist approaches the vehicle. Seconds later, he turns back around and tells his colleagues to call 911.

10:51 Shame. You shot someone. You shot someone. Agents block several bystanders who attempt to provide medical care, including one who identifies himself as a physician.

11:04 Can I go check a pole? No. Back up now. So, that last part that you saw, you have a man who says that he's a physician and he wants to just go check her pulse and they say no. Which is also something they're not supposed to do, you know, at this point. And especially given the fact we've had this conversation a million times in this country about law enforcement. And I I hate to have to make this disclaimer, but I think it should be obvious. No, not all police officers, not all those in law enforcement are bad people. Not all of them are dishonest. Not all of them use Americans as as target practice. This is all very true. But the structure of the system, especially with ICE that they are a part of, lends itself to this kind of recklessness.

11:54 What we already know from what's been reported about ICE is they're not exactly getting the best and the best. They're not exactly getting highly trained qualified people who should be in law enforcement, particularly since they dangled a $50,000 bonus and also the ability uh to perhaps excuse your student loans. It is inviting and wants to have the kind of people a me a member of this law enforcement agency that are reckless that are that have a disdain for its own citizens. Like you can't pro say you're protecting America when you hate the people that you're protecting.

12:37 And it's very clear in a lot of these situations they hate the people that they're protecting. So you have this rogue law enforcement force that again is well funded and supported by a government that has made it clear that there are certain people in this country that are the enemy just simply because of what they look like. The Supreme Court gave ICE the ability to racially profile. Meaning that they could stop anybody on the street that they feel like doesn't fit the description of who is supposed to be an American. And I think you all can guess who that is. And it's not just Latinos.

13:19 It is also black people. It's also any of us. As I saw someone say on um social media in the last day or so is you might not be the appetizer, the entree, but you definitely on the menu. So, American citizens are also on the menu because this woman is an American citizen. She's a white woman living in Minneapolis who I believe is originally from Colorado. Mother of three. That's who became the target in this. and she became the target because when you have people who are amped up on this much power and have an administration that has told them that they have full immunity from whatever they're doing, this is exactly what you get.

14:08 This is exactly what you get. And I have a feeling in the years to come when there are documentaries done and deeper reporting done about who exactly is part of ICE where we've heard about them assaulting people that they've detained, physically assaulting them, sexually assaulting them. We've heard all of these horror stories already. You're going to find out that a lot of these people had no business at all being put in a position to quote protect citizens. And the shame of it is, especially for those of us, you know, who are black, who have been speaking about these kind of law enforcement abuses for years, if not decades, if not centuries.

14:53 is that we have now reached a point in this story and this plot where even and this is this is what is so this is what is so perplexing and also for some people so intoxicating about white supremacy because that's where all of this is rooted on. If you listen to Stephen Miller for two seconds, you know already what type of time he's on. He wants to e ethnically cleanse America. He has made no secret about this. So this addiction to white supremacy that this country has consider people like Renee Good to be just collateral damage and worth the price of preserving whiteness because that's all this is about. Not just specifically well whiteness as a concept but also specifically white male dominant power. That is all this is about. But Elon Musk Literally, I think it was today or yesterday, he agreed with and retweeted somebody who said that there needs to be white solidarity because if white people lose control,

16:11 essentially what's going to happen to them is the same kinds of crimes and oppression that they have inflicted on everybody else, which is really what this entire what this entire experiment has been about. I wouldn't even call it an experiment. is what it is the way of life in America. It is what it is. And and white people can try to deny it and run from it, but we I got way too many receipts, way too much evidence. It's too many books that have been written about this is that this entire exercise, this show of force, it was it's about instilling fear, instilling order, and instilling submissiveness because they want people to be scared.

16:54 They want people to fear what's coming next because then you won't challenge authority. And in a way that is what Renee Good was doing. She was challenging the authority of what was happening and it cost her her

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "ICE Has a Lot of Money with Unchecked Authority | Spolitics"?

Jemele Hill (Host).

What is "ICE Has a Lot of Money with Unchecked Authority | Spolitics" about?

The discussion highlights the immense power and financial resources of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which will receive $170 billion over the next few years, granting it virtually unchecked authority. This unprecedented budget, surpassing that of several foreign countries and exceeding the combined budgets of major U.S. federal law enforcement agencies, raises concerns about its…

What is mentioned in this Jemele Hill episode?

13 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including ICE, New York Times, racial profiling, American citizens, universal health care, Ahmad Arbury. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "ICE Has a Lot of Money with Unchecked Authority | Spolitics"?

The episode runs 17 min; the transcript is about 2,596 words in 29 timestamped sections.

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