Even Trump's Own ICE Officers Say It's a Chaotic Disaster

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelfanone.substack.comThe ones warning that ICE is falling apart are ICE officers who voted for Trump.New reporting from the Washington Examiner has current and former agents describing an agency in a full morale collapse — burnout, canceled leave, and, most alarming, recruits being turned loose on American streets before they’re ready. And it’s landing in the middle of a string of deadly encounters.If you follow this channel or my Substack, you already know the recent run: two ICE traffic stops that ended in the fatal shootings of people who weren’t even subject to active immigration enforcement — one in Maine, one in Texas — and a third death in Florida, where a man was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer while fleeing an operation.Here’s how the people doing the job describe it. “We’re being pushed to a breaking point. I don’t know where it will go, but it’s nowhere good.” Another: “No one is happy. If you hear Tom Homan saying, ‘Morale’s stronger than ever,’ I say, No, it’s not. I’ve been out in the field. I see it.” And an officer with more than a decade on the job: “Many on the right will think this is an attack on Trump. I voted for Trump. I believe in immigration enforcement. But man, it’s so disorganized and chaotic.”When a Trump-voting ICE agent is the one calling it chaos, something is badly wrong.So what’s driving it? In May 2025, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller reportedly told ICE leadership he wanted 3,000 arrests a day. The administration has since touted roughly 900,000 arrests this term — call it about 1,600 a day. And the roughly 6,000 officers handling interior enforcement say that pace is simply unsustainable. Days off have become the exception. “They constantly call us into work on our days off,” one told the Examiner. “They get on our case about working only eight hours a day.” One Texas office reportedly doesn’t even have a working restroom — agents walk to nearby businesses, past protesters, to use the bathroom.But here’s the part that should worry you no matter where you land on immigration: the training pipeline is broken.On top of those 6,000 officers, ICE has around 10,000 new hires somewhere in the training process. And according to officers and a retired senior official still in contact with leadership, many of those recruits are being pushed into American cities before they’ve cleared background checks or received security clearances.That’s insane. You don’t hand a badge and a gun to someone whose background check isn’t finished and send them into the highest-stakes encounter there is — a stranger, a car, a split-second decision.And you get exactly what you’d expect. Go back to that Maine shooting. A voicemail the ICE shooter left on his ex-wife’s phone surfaced, and here’s what’s on it: “every single female in your bloodline is nothing but a disgusting, fat ass. All of you should have your throats slit.” That’s a man the administration handed a badge and a gun.So which is worse — the pipeline that put him on the street, or what happened next? After that shooting, the DHS Secretary announced a pause on traffic stops. One day later, Trump overruled it on social media and declared ICE would keep running traffic stops, and pursue them just as aggressively. The administration is courting death.Strip the politics out for a second. Undertrained — in some cases genuinely unhinged — recruits are being dropped into high-stakes encounters. Experienced officers are burned out and worked to the bone. Nobody’s getting a day off. That’s a powder keg, and frankly it’s a small miracle there haven’t been more killings.And the wildest part is who’s telling us. Not activists. Not sanctuary-city politicians. ICE officers — people who voted for Trump and believe in what they were hired to do — saying out loud that it’s a disaster.This doesn’t stop with more funding, more recruits, or Tom Homan going on Fox to insist morale has never been higher. It stops when someone in Washington admits the quota is the problem. I’m not holding my breath, because an armed, aggressive ICE has always been Stephen Miller’s dream — and a man who dreams that dream isn’t the one who pumps the brakes.🟧 Paid subscribers get 15% off your next merch order🟧 Founding Members get 20% off for lifeYou’ll get the link in your welcome email.GET DISCOUNTS BELOW! ENJOY!