How the September 11 terrorist attacks shaped ICE’s immigration strategy

Stephen Miller January 2026 Announcement to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials -Tell them that they haveImmunity to perform your dutiesThat no “illegal alien, leftist agitator, or homegrown rebel” can stop them may seem like an extreme statement outside the political mainstream.

And when agents use ICE Facial recognition software to monitor migrants To protesters, this may seem like an unacceptable violation of people’s privacy.

Although these cases are extreme, they are not unexpected. Miller’s statements and ICE’s surveillance extend the immigration enforcement framework that has evolved since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Immigration enforcement has been reorganized and It was reformulated after September 11especially by creating ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.

like A migration scholar In the United States, I find that the growth in aggressive immigration enforcement, both at the border and across the country, is a result of this change that occurred 25 years ago.

From crime to terrorism

In November 2002, The Homeland Security Act created the Department of Homeland Security. ICE was founded a few months later. like The agency notesIt was part of “the largest government reorganization since the creation of the Department of Defense.” Immigration enforcement was integrated into national security priorities whose primary goal was to defend…Homeland security“.

The idea of ​​immigrants as potential criminals was widespread before the creation of DHS.

In 1996, for example, President Bill Clinton signed the agreement Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act. That law The number of crimes expanded This can result in automatic deportation, including legal residents. Action is also limited Judicial review of deportation cases, while the title of the law itself portrays people in the United States who have no legal status as criminals.

But after the events of September 11, the relationship between immigration and law enforcement intensified and took on a new dimension: Combating terrorism. Immigration is no longer treated as a Civil case Immigrants are deported if it is proven through a civil court that they have violated the law.

Instead, immigrants were assessed as potential threats to the country.

Immigration trials, like overstay trials, are increasingly being conducted in closed hearings, with the government prosecuting. Secret evidence It was not shared with the accused. Those who were arrested for illegally crossing the border were imprisoned and faced criminal prosecution. Urgent deportations took place at the border and All over the countryeven for immigrants who have been in the United States for years.

More federal government practices linked immigrants to terrorism. the National security entry and exit system Or NSEERS, which was introduced in 2002, requires immigrant men from 25 countries — almost all in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa — to register with the federal government after they already reside in the country. It has been framed as an effort to defend internal security, and Hundreds of people Those who overstayed their visas by less than a month were detained.

UN human rights experts later criticized NSEERS for this Racial and religious profiling. Of the nearly 80,000 people registered, not a single terrorism-related prosecution has taken place. About 14,000 people were placed in deportation proceedings for visa violations, none of them for terrorism-related activities.

The Department of Homeland Security suspended NSEERS in 2011And it was It was terminated in 2016.

Lessons learned from 9/11

If the purpose of NSEERS was to identify terrorists, it has failed.

But it succeeded in treating migrants as potential terrorists. This connection has intensified since then.

The federal government’s investment in facial recognition technology grew dramatically after the events of September 11 Bipartisan support. And that was the goal Identify potential terrorists In American airports and cities.

today, Facial recognition has become a popular tactic ICE officers use them to identify not only immigrants likely to be detained but also Citizen observers.

Additionally, privately owned detention centers have grown in response to mass detentions of immigrants. According to human rights defenders, the treatment of migrants in these centers included “ill-treatment, Solitary confinementand medical negligence.” For years, ICE Detention Centers They were criticized for similar conditions.

Programs like NSEERS It produced fear It led to what policymakers called Self-deportationwhere immigrants leave the United States voluntarily. Today, self-deportation is commonplace Approved by the government program.

Research also shows that this has increased Immigration enforcement After the events of September 11, it prompted many immigrants, even those with legal status, to withdraw from the country Public lifeAvoid schools, hospitals and work. ICE produces today The same types of fear.

Bypass technical fixes

Immigration enforcement’s response to 9/11 paved the way for Miller’s language and the collection of everyday Americans’ data to become applicable.

Under this way of thinking, if the homeland is under threat, those who challenge immigration enforcement are “Domestic terrorists“. Investigations with ICE officers We are silent, because the officers are protecting the nation from an existential threat. Harsh tactics of detaining immigrants and convicting protesters have become not only permissible but advisable, according to immigrant rights advocates.

Perhaps technical fixes, such as a requirement ICE agents use body cameras or Requiring ICE agents to obtain bench warrants Before entering homes, some transgressions may be restricted.

But these measures do not address the basic premise since 9/11, which is that immigration has come to be viewed primarily as a threat to national security.