Corrupt by Design
ICE’s Culture of Abuse and Betrayal
As ICE's chief legal counsel in Seattle, Raphael Sanchez had privileged access to immigrants' most vulnerable moments; their deportation hearings, desperate appeals to remain in America, and confidential case files.
Sanchez used these files to commit identity theft, stealing $190,000 by opening credit cards in immigrants' names, and even exploiting the photo of a murder victim in his fraud scheme.
He was sentenced to four years in prison. Prosecutors said he "abandoned the principles he swore to uphold," but evidence suggests he never held them at all.
Yet Sanchez represents a troubling pattern, not an isolated outlier.
In the past decade, nearly 200 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees — including ICE personnel — were arrested on corruption charges, collectively accepting over $15 million in bribes.
Dozens more ICE agents and detention center guards have been charged with beating detainees, sexually abusing immigrants, smuggling drugs, and manipulating deportation cases for profit.
Andrew Golobic, an ICE deportation officer, turned his position into a sexual trafficking enterprise. He coerced immigrant women, threatening deportation to extort sex. When federal investigators closed in, he destroyed evidence and lied repeatedly.
He is now serving a twelve-year prison sentence for systematically abusing vulnerable women seeking refuge in America.
After ICE rapidly expanded hiring in the late 2000s, employee arrests for misconduct increased by 44% between 2007 and 2012 (source: DHS Office of Inspector General). Faster hiring meant looser screening, opening the door to corruption into their ranks.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP), facing similar scandals, implemented mandatory polygraph tests, resulting in a significant decline in employee misconduct.
ICE refused. Leadership knew corruption was widespread and chose not to strengthen hiring standards anyway.
This goes beyond the “few bad apples” narrative frequently invoked in law enforcement scandals. ICE has become a magnet for individuals seeking positions of unchecked power with minimal oversight, especially over marginalized communities lacking sufficient legal protection.
ICE special agents accept bribes from human traffickers they are meant to arrest. Detention officers sexually assault detainees entrusted to their care. Contract employees smuggle contraband, enriching themselves at taxpayer expense.
Each crime betrays the fundamental promise that law enforcement exists to protect the vulnerable, not exploit them.
When Sanchez's crimes surfaced, ICE made no meaningful changes to hiring practices. When Golobic's abuses came to light, ICE implemented no new screening standards for sensitive positions. Even after corruption arrests soared, ICE still refused mandatory polygraph tests.
They responded with statements framing incidents as isolated, praising honest officers, and referencing internal investigations as sufficient oversight. Yet systemic misconduct indicates the internal controls are broken by design.
ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility says it must "combat criminal and administrative misconduct," as though criminality is an external threat, not an internally cultivated disease perpetuated by willful institutional negligence.
This reality is clear in court documents, victim testimonies, conviction records, and government statistics. These cases demonstrate ICE’s fundamental failure to uphold basic standards of integrity and accountability.
The consequences of prioritizing rapid expansion over rigorous screening, political alignment over professional competence, and institutional defensiveness over transparency are now impossible to ignore.
Immigrants deserve protection, not predation. Americans deserve federal agencies staffed by people who enforce laws rather than break them.
A predictable result of prioritizing rapid hiring over rigorous screening, political loyalty over professional competence, and institutional protection over public accountability.
But a political leadership that continues to excuse corruption at the highest levels, taking bribes, pardoning insurrectionists, and overlooking criminal abuses, it’s setting a standard that trickles down into every law enforcement agency.
The solutions already exist in other agencies: mandatory polygraph testing, rigorous background investigations, zero tolerance for criminal behavior, and transparent accountability when misconduct occurs.
ICE simply refuses to implement them.
Every day ICE operates without meaningful oversight, it endangers the people it claims to serve. Every day Americans accept systemic corruption in federal law enforcement, they become complicit in abuses committed in our name.
A law enforcement badge should signify justice, protection, and service. But when criminals wear it, it symbolizes everything broken in the system.
Demand better. Advocate for transparency. Insist on accountability. Support reforms that protect everyone and restore integrity to law enforcement.
Your safety and your life depends on it.
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Sources:
Ex-ICE attorney sentenced to 4 years for stealing IDs of would-be immigrants
Former ICE supervisor from Cincinnati sentenced for sexually assaulting immigrants
Spike in Corruption Followed Last Hiring Surge at CBP and ICE
By Eliminating the Polygraph Test, Corruption among Border Agencies Could Run Rampant
Hundreds of immigrants have reported sexual abuse at ICE facilities. Most cases aren’t investigated
ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility combats employee corruption