Washington, DC — In the aftermath of Renee Nicole Good’s killing and renewed focus on ICE accountability and reform, former ICE chief of staff and CBP counterterrorism official Jason Houser has written a new USA Today op-ed, “I worked for ICE and CBP. Our current system makes everyone less safe.” As Houser notes, “Immigration enforcement in the United States has drifted away from its core purpose. What began as a public safety function—focused on serious threats and guided by professional judgment—has become something far more volatile: politicized, disconnected from local realities, and increasingly dangerous for everyone involved” (find more excerpts below).
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“The anti-immigrant agenda and mass deportation crusade is a threat to our democracy and makes all of us less safe, immigrants and citizens alike. When thousands of over-militarized, masked and armed immigration agents descend on American communities, it actively raises the likelihood of violence and stokes fear and conflict. Importantly, it also erodes essential trust between communities and law enforcement. We must find a better way that keeps all of us safe, and upholds, instead of subverts, our values.”
Below, read key excerpts from former ICE chief of staff and CBP counterterrorism official Jason Houser’s op-ed in USA Today: “I worked for ICE and CBP. Our current system makes everyone less safe.”
“The recent tragedy in Minnesota should force a reckoning. Not because it is unique, but because it is the inevitable outcome of where we are – and where we are headed – if we refuse to change course.
I’ve spent two decades inside the national security and homeland security system. I’ve worked alongside agents who take their oath seriously and understand the weight of the authority they carry. We also all know how fragile public trust is, and how quickly it can be shattered when enforcement loses its grounding in common sense and accountability.
What we are witnessing now is not enforcement designed to protect Americans. It is enforcement untethered from public safety, driven by optics, speed, daily arrest quotas and political pressure rather than judgment. And that makes everyone less safe.
When federal agents are pushed into fast-moving, high-visibility operations without clear prioritization or coordination with local partners, risk skyrockets, and officers are placed in volatile encounters with little margin for error. Split-second decisions carry life-or-death consequences – for both civilians and for agents. Second, this model undermines public safety instead of advancing it.
Public safety is not measured by arrest numbers or viral footage. It is measured by whether communities are safer tomorrow than they were yesterday. When immigration enforcement prioritizes volume over threat, resources are diverted away from the work that actually protects people – investigating violent crime, dismantling trafficking networks and disrupting transnational criminal organizations.
Every hour spent arresting noncriminal students, workers, parents, older people and decade-long leaders in our communities – people chosen for visibility, not threat – is an hour stolen from real public safety work. That tradeoff is rarely acknowledged, but it is real. And it compounds quickly. Investigations stall. Intelligence dries up. The system grows weaker even as it looks tougher.”
