Just about everybody in the U.S. who has recently paid attention to any news outlet is aware of Trump’s use of ICE. However, with different narratives being pushed out, not everybody is aware of the dangers to democracy at stake.

When Trump was elected as President, he declared a national emergency in reference to the number of undocumented immigrants in the country. To solve this issue, Trump decided it was necessary to use the U.S. military, along with ICE Agents. With this, the alarms were sounded and mass deportations began.

While mass deportations are not inherently a threat to the democracy of the U.S., it is the means by which Trump is carrying out these deportations that prove a threat to our democracy. Hypotheses from political scientists regarding democratic backsliding are important to look at when considering the dangers that ​​ Trump’s use of ICE is ​​ to democracy. Specifically,  ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​​​  ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​​​ Photo from Getty Images

Waldner and Lust believe that when institutions degrade three distinct features of democracy, then democratic backsliding could occur. These three features include vertical accountability, horizontal accountability, and governmental performance.

How Accountability Relates to Democracy

Vertical accountability is when citizens, media, or society holds any form of government responsible for its actions. As this specific case pertains to vertical accountability, citizens around the country have openly expressed their resentment to the recent use of ICE. The informal and casual response to innocent deaths caused by ICE Agents led to mass protests and outrage across the nation.

With killings of innocent bystanders by ICE Agents circulating the media, Trump and his team’s response to which still did not suffice. Whether it is blaming the media or the victims, Trump and his administration have failed to take accountability for these deaths in any way. The aggressive approach to recent arrests by ICE Agents along with the dismissal of complaints to the government proves the blatant threat to vertical accountability at hand.

Horizontal accountability revolves around one of the core democratic processes of the U.S., checks and balances. This system is in place in order to prevent overuses of power within the government, especially the executive branch. It has been questioned whether the recent use of ICE under Trump's presidency is an over step of executive power. However, the mere act of questioning that power imbalance has not proved to prevent it from happening.

ICE Agents seem to recently have new interpretations to rules and regulations set in place to ensure fairness and legality of judicial processes. This includes warrantless arrests, warrants shown without being signed by a judge, racial profiling, and much more. However, to combat this, awareness for what is and what is not legal as it relates to detaining or questioning potential illegal immigrants has spread online and throughout the media.

In May of 2025, it was revealed that Trump had a new quota for federal agents; arresting a minimum of 3,000 people a day. These high expectations for rapid mass deportation could be the reason why federal agents have been using such aggressive tactics when questioning, detaining, or arresting potential illegal immigrants.

The expansion of expedited removal of immigrants in the U.S. has bypassed the use of immigration courts. Via bypassing immigration courts, it denies those arrested the right to a fair hearing.. The result of this has led to an increase of wrongful deportations and holdings of U.S. citizens.

Waldner and Lust’s idea of government performance refers to the capacity of the government to produce desired results. It raises questions of whether the government is implementing effective policies, delivering high quality services to the public, and of course, carrying out their goals functionally.

Governmental performance also includes the idea that the government should avoid crises that can justify anti-democratic actions. A current crisis at hand is that the ICE Agents who killed civilians have not been prosecuted. While some officers have been suspended for a short period of time, they have not been tried in court. Failure to hold federal agents accountable for taking innocent lives is a large crisis in itself.

How Can We Move Forward?

Although the administration and federal officers have failed to take accountability for what has happened, that does not mean the country should ignore it. A strategy taken on by this administration to take the spotlight away from ICE, is to change gears to a different topic that provokes anger from citizens. While they are successful at making America angry again and again, it is extremely important to not lose sight of what is at stake.

Cutting off access to the courts erodes the fundamental protection of due process. The balance of power is being taken advantage of by this presidency and the administration from within. As the government bypasses core democratic processes, like checks and balances, it gradually normalizes these shortcuts in the eyes of the public. As what once may have sparked outrage throughout the country, it may eventually become routine. Over time, the democracy of the U.S. will continue to erode if the administration continues to take these shortcuts to achieve their goals.

The core democratic processes of this country are being overlooked in order to achieve items on an agenda. We have seen in the past that mass protests have changed immigration policy, if it worked once, maybe it can work again. The key is to not stop fighting for democracy, as well as the future of the country.