Kansas has long stood for law, order, and personal responsibility. We back the men and women who wear the badge, serve the public, and put themselves in harm’s way to keep our communities safe. That’s why it’s time our state took the lead in recognizing another group of public servants who rarely get credit for the hard work they do: the agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Kansas should declare a “We Support ICE” Day.
That’s of particular importance now, while ICE officers attempting to enforce law and order in various spots across the country are subject to counter-culture violence, threats of “doxxing” – publicizing their identities to make personal targets out of them and their families, and out-and-out threats of murder.
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ICE officers aren’t politicians. They don’t make the immigration laws or set the border policy—they enforce the laws Congress passed. Their daily work in Kansas and across the nation includes investigating human trafficking rings, stopping the smuggling of fentanyl and meth across state lines, and locating dangerous fugitives who exploit our open system. Many of those cases begin right here in the Midwest, where interstate highways make Kansas a crossroads for both commerce and, unfortunately, the crime that plagues the nation’s larger metropolitan areas; where local governments and officials refuse to protect their own citizenry.
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These agents face real danger in the field, and they do it without much recognition or thanks. Too often, they’ve been turned into political scapegoats for enforcing the very laws our representatives enacted. That’s not justice—that’s hypocrisy – and it’s an attack on the precepts of American law and order.
A “We Support ICE” Day wouldn’t be about politics or partisanship, although we know who’s on the right side of this one. It would be about gratitude—about standing up for the rule of law and an acknowledgement of the Kansans who value it. We already honor our police, firefighters, and soldiers with days of appreciation. ICE deserves no less.
The agency was founded in March 2003 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks – a merger of the investigative and interior enforcement elements of the former U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. It now has some 20,000 law enforcement officers and support personnel in 400 offices across the U.S., and it has never been more crucial or more under attack from some elements of the “enlightened” public than today.
So a date in March seems appropriate to mark a day of tribute for ICE, but it would be a shame to wait that long.
Here in Kansas, we know that safety starts with accountability. Supporting ICE means supporting legal immigration, border security, and the fair enforcement of our nation’s laws. It means standing with the men and women who keep drugs, traffickers, and criminal networks out of our communities.
Kansas should take this step as an example for the rest of the country to follow. Declaring a “We Support ICE” Day would send a simple message that Kansas still believes in law, order, and the people who defend it.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
