'Noem's Willing Executioners'

'Hilter's Willing Executioners', - D.J. Goldhagen

A significant number of citizens of the United States of America have begun to compare the U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) department and its agents (officers) to the 1933-1945 Geheime Staatspolizei (State Secret Police shortened to Gestapo) of Nazi, Germany. At first, such a comparison seems ridiculous and hyperbolic. The Gestapo were ruthless ‘police’ who arrested, tortured, confined, deported and/or murdered and massacred people. People who were gay, Romani, Jewish, anti-NAZI political dissidents, priests, nuns … the list goes on.

How can so many Americans even begin to compare ICE agents to the Gestapo of the 1930’s and 1940’s? ICE was created to ensure the safety of American citizens. The Homeland Security and ICE agent Fugitive Operations Handbook clearly states: To detain an individual for further questioning, the ICE officer must have reasonable suspicion that the individual:

1. Has committed a crime, or

2. Is unlawfully present in the United States, or

3. Is an alien with status who is either inadmissible or removable, or

4. Is a non-immigrant required to provide truthful Information to OHS personnel upon demand (see 8 CFR 214.1(f)).

And, right there is the basis for the concerns of many Americans. Right there in the Department of Homeland Security, Fugitive Operations Handbook. As of late ICE agents don’t seem to be following their own guidelines as those arrested are not informed of their rights, are not permitted due process, are ‘disappeared’ and are treated in a cruel fashion. Cruelty and lack of empathy seems to be the modus operandi of too many agents and of course, Noem herself. Ms. Noem is doing her best to portray ICE agents as ruthless gestapo who are the police, judge and jury.

Agent prior to smashing car window of a suspected illegal immigrant.

Little girl arrested without the presence of parents or guardians and children facing court hearings without parents or guardians.

As of April 6, 2025, ICE is detaining over 48,000 people, including long-term residents of the United States, people seeking asylum, and survivors of trafficking or torture, (TRAC Immigration, April 6, 2025). Instead of finding refuge, these people are held in ICE custody for extended periods, enduring inhuman conditions such as solitary confinement (dubbed “segregation” by ICE), where they are isolated in small cells with minimal contact with others for days, weeks, or even years. In many instances, such conditions would meet the definition of torture, or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under international human rights law, (Endless Nightmare: Torture and Inhuman Treatment in Solitary Confinement in USA Immigration Detention, 2024)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Formed March 1, 2003. Criminal investigation resources of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service and United States Customs Service Employees 21,800+ (April 2025) Annual budget $9.13 billion (April 2025), (U.S. Immigration and Customs Website, April 24, 2024)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials declined to answer questions about tactics, but former officials said one reason federal immigration agents wear street clothes is to avoid giving away their presence before an arrest. They also can wear face coverings to avoid being singled out and doxxed online.

But the agency also admitted to using Ruse Tactics: ICE employs "ruses" to control the time and location of an encounter. This can involve misrepresenting their identity or purpose to make the target less likely to resist or flee. Masks can be a part of this tactic, making it harder for the target to recognize the officers and also the tactical consideration that masks create an element of intimidation which is believed to help control the situation during arrests, (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Fugitive Operations Handbook).

What are my reasons for writing this piece and sharing this information? Information that most readers are already aware of. I will try to state my reasons concisely utilizing historical fact.

Reason Number One: To remind ICE employees that although their reasons for seeking employment with the Agency were based on the important purpose and the professional ethos of that Agency … things change.

Reason Number Two: To remind ICE employees that the people they seek to arrest are people. They may be wounded emotionally, or spiritually or behaviorally … but they are people.

Reason Number Three: To remind ICE agents that they may BELIEVE they are disgusted by or despise the people they arrest and that they will not feel bad when those prisoners are injured, are afraid, are deported or killed. This is a false belief and a lie for 90% of those who were or are ‘agents of pain and sorrow’ for others.

Reason Number Four: To let ICE agents know they WILL suffer from PTSD, and all that that infers, if they participate in behaviors that fly in the face of their beliefs, values, morals and ethos.

Reason Number Five: To let ICE agents know that as a young person who is filled with the desire to be ‘a soldier for their country and for what is right’ will think and feel differently as they age. As they age not only physically but spiritually. Look at the little girl in that picture, the child wearing the Winnie the Pooh shirt. Someday those officers WILL regret their actions. They WILL wonder what happened to that little girl? They WILL wonder how they could have been so cruel to a little child like that? These feelings will be experienced ten fold when those officers have children of their own or if, someday, they are treated like they treated the child.

I have just completing reading numerous articles as well as books on the topic of the secret police (gestapo), the regular police and the non-Nazi (Wehrmacht) soldiers who were involved in the rounding up, transportation and deportation of prisoners to camps and/or executing people (usually the infirm, old people, babies and children that could not travel) outside of town in the years 1933-1945. War movies usually portray the gestapo and the SS as sociopaths or psychopaths…. that only the worst of the worst volunteered for these roles.

As you may have guessed or already know this is a myth perpetrated by the victors. The assumption of sociopathy or psychopathy of these Germans is not as simple as it seems, and in fact, is quite complicated. In some cases the people didn’t know what their role would be. In other cases the role that they signed up for, to serve as police protecting the public, changed to becoming executioners of a death squad. Often times the Germans in these role BECAME inured to all of the death, became inured to their participation as executioners and/or feared for their own safety if they did not follow orders. Even being labeled as a coward, someone unable to execute a prisoner, was dreaded.

It has been discovered that most of the executioners were drunk at the time of the executions, to include their chain of command. A significant number of executioners pretended to shoot the prisoners but shot into the dirt. Another significant number of executioners snuck away during the executions. Executioners would not look at the prisoners they had to kill so that they remained non-humans. Others refused to kill women, or children or to participate in one-on-one executions. PTSD from executing prisoners became a real problem. Himmler and others experimented with ways to ‘save the souls’ of the German police and the soldiers while still carrying out the final solution.

The normalization of murdering prisoners only sufficed for a short while. Threats to those who wouldn’t kill didn’t work. More and more secret police, policemen and soldiers began to suffer and become ineffectual in their jobs. Extermination camps, executing a maximum number of people in one day, propaganda, shooting at groups of prisoners instead of one-on-one were some of the ways that were initiated to decrease the stress on soldiers and police.

A most interesting new policy was also required to be used by all officers. Police and soldiers were no longer given the option to execute a prisoner or not. They were ordered, they were made, to execute prisoners. This, lack of choice, made it easier for the executioners to rationalize their behavior. It wasn’t their choice, their fault. They had to obey the orders of their commanders.

In the end, when the war was over, most of the police and the soldiers felt terrible regret for their behaviors. They were ashamed of what they had done and for the thousands that died because of their actions.

Dear ICE Agents …. you are American citizens. You are humans with hearts and souls. You probably are good people with good intentions. There IS a place for deporting non-American citizens who are criminals and intent on harming others. BUT … it is clear Trump and Noem are changing the rules.

Why else would you feel there need to wear sunglasses or face masks?

Why else would you feel the need to drink before, during and/or after your shift?

Why else are you beginning g to feel ashamed of what you do?

I’m sure you can come up with other examples.

Americans like me don’t hate you. Many of us are worried about you. We worry that YOU will commit suicide, become a drunk, beat your own family because of what you are participating in as an ICE Agent.

Act according to your oath to support the constitution. If you are a religious person, then live up to the words and guidance of your faith. All humans are sacred and precious and deserve a modicum of respect. Are innocent until proven guilty.

Be a good man or woman. Create, don’t destroy. Especially don’t destroy because some deranged cult leader with no ethos tells YOU to do the dirty work. Many if not most officers in the Gestapo never executed anyone … or even harmed anyone. Hitler never even saw a concentration camp.

Please, be the type of law enforcement officer that is doing the right thing. The thing that so many veterans fought for, died for and have suffered for. Our constitution is worth living and dying for … don’t besmirch it like Trump and Noem and Miller are asking.

Hitler’s Willing Executioners, D.J. Goldhagen

Ordinary Men, C. R. Browning

How and why did ordinary people across Europe contribute to the persecution of their Jewish neighbors?, Holocaust Museum

Endless Nightmare: Torture and Inhuman Treatment in Solitary Confinement in U.S. Immigration Detention, Harvard University.

The “Willing Executioners”/ “Ordinary Men” Debate, 1996 Symposium