Every day, I log onto the internet and get a fresh dose of entertainment thanks to some raging leftist attempting to interfere with ICE doing their job of deporting criminals.
And while I love it, I know that I can comfortably watch them do their jobs because these men are just normal people doing a tough task that not everyone can, and doing so amidst a storm of political controversy continuously made worse by leftist entities framing them as President Donald Trump's Gestapo.
But, as much fun of a time as I'm having, the left's efforts to defame ICE are actually an issue, and it could very well become a huge problem for Republicans in the midterms. What's worse is that, sadly, the left's job of making ICE look like the bad guys is far easier than the right's job of maintaining the truth about their necessity and helpfulness.
A YouGov Poll recently pointed out that the willingness to abolish ICE has risen significantly, as reported by Forbes:
The poll published Jan. 13 from The Economist and YouGov found 46% of people support abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, compared to 43% who are in opposition of the movement; 12% were unsure.
It represents a significant change in public opinion since July, when the same polling group found 27% were in support of ICE’s abolishment.
When The Economist and YouGov asked the same question in 2019—a year after the “Abolish ICE” movement began—Americans showed an unfavorable opinion of the federal agency, but just 32% felt it should be eliminated.
Support for abolishing ICE has been rising since Trump began his second term, according to Civiqs, which found 25% were in favor of getting rid of the agency before Trump’s inauguration compared to 42% after the death of Good, which has triggered nationwide protests and renewed interest from Congress.
Do I think this is the whole story on public opinion? Not by a long shot. YouGov tends to oversample leftists, for starters, and if you look into the numbers, you'll find that the massive rise in wanting to abolish ICE comes from a massive jump on the side of Democrat voters.
So why do I mention it?
Because while you and I might know that the poll is a bit on the junk side and can see the devil in the details, the normie typically does not know any of this. They see this poll being thrown around and think that there must really be something to this "abolish ICE" thing because, as social animals, the more people are attracted to something, the more attractive it becomes to others.
All they need to do is get the normie to believe that ICE is Trump's jackbooted thugs who came straight out of a portal from 1940s Germany, and you may very well have yourself a solid chunk of voters that could help sway elections during the midterms.
In a world without leftist hysterics, ICE would do its job, deportations would be a thing that happens a lot, then they would taper off as fewer and fewer illegals remain. The organization would go from a front-page issue to one that posts stats on the DHS website you can look up when your curiosity piques. The country would be a lot safer and a whole lot less corrupt.
But we don't live in that world. The left is ready and willing to do whatever it takes to generate shock and outrage about anything they can to gain and maintain power, even if it means people will die, including their own AWFLs. Which means that if ICE is going to continue doing its job, it has to win a PR war, and one that it has to fight very, very loudly.
How does it do that?
The left is doing it for them already.
I was going to post a ton of different clips, but a TikTok account put together a nice collage of the left's reactions to ICE already.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you ICE's PR weapon, leftist meltdowns.
Look at all these retаrds 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/Q401Kiz4kP
— Dr. Clown, PhD (@DrClownPhD) January 15, 2026
And these aren't hollow threats. On the front page of RedState, you'll notice that actual attacks are happening on ICE all the time.
This gives us two weapons.
Firstly, we need to highlight the hysteria. These people are embarrassing to watch. Hyper-emotional, overdramatic, and they look like fools while they do it. These are the people claiming that ICE is the latest manifestation of fascism, a word they can rarely define. If ICE, or more accurately, the Trump administration as a whole, can successfully highlight the wackadoos as the source of these hyperbolic claims, then it would make the normie stop and think about whether or not ICE is as bad as the left says it is.
Let their own embarrassing behavior be the argument against them.
Secondly, the ones that actually do encourage violence are mostly internet tough guy talk. These people won't do a thing, but that's not going to stop others from actually trying to use force to stop ICE. Renee Good, for instance, tried to run over an ICE agent with a car. Recently, ICE agents were attacked with shovels during an arrest.
UPDATE - ICE agents were ambushed in Minneapolis by two assailants wielding shovels from nearby apartments, while agents wrestled a Venezuelan illegal to the ground after a car pursuit ended in a crash. pic.twitter.com/UCHEbZnJ7m
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 15, 2026
As RedState reported, a woman attempted to get violent with ICE agents and was arrested for her efforts.
Read: Illegal Aliens Who Attacked ICE Agent ID'd As Walz and Frey Continue to Pour Gas on the Fire
The hysterics need to be reported in tandem with the violence by the White House, the DHS, and ICE's official accounts. Trump himself needs to highlight these things. The Instagram and TikTok accounts (whoever is operating those deserves a raise) need to be working overtime to get these stories out.
The goal isn't to make ICE look like your everyday guy who puts on his pants as you do, then puts himself in danger to keep America safer. They do, but sadly, that narrative can be dismissed too easily if you haven't won the heart or the mind of the person hearing that argument.
The strategy is to effectively do what Libs of TikTok does. Give the left the microphone and stand back.
