How 9/11 shaped ICE’s immigration strategy

After 9/11, the connection between immigration and law enforcement intensified.

Stephen Miller’s January 2026 announcement to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers —telling them that they have “ immunity to perform your duties ” and that no “illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist” can stop them—may seem like an extreme statement outside the political mainstream. And when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents use facial recognition software to monitor immigrants and protesters, that might seem like an unacceptable invasion of people’s privacy.While extreme, these cases are not too unexpected. Both Miller’s statements and ICE’s monitoring extend from the framework of immigration enforcement that grew from the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Immigration enforcement was reorganised and reframed after 9/11 , particularly through the creation of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security . As a scholar of immigration in the U.S, I find that the growth of extreme immigration enforcement, both at the border and across the country, results from this change 25 years ago.