ICE’s Record Day Wasn’t About Safety. It Was About Theater.

Agents lured migrants into field offices, snatching even those who played by the rules.

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, ICE bragged it had locked up 2,200 people in a single day, the most in its history. They said it like they were announcing the Yankees hit a new home run record. Except these weren’t home runs. They men and women, some with ankle bracelets, cell phones that pinged ICE headquarters on time every time, people who showed up to every check-in. People who played by the rules, because they were told that if they did, they could keep living their lives while their cases wound through the courts.

And then the government pulled the oldest con in the book: “Come on down, we just want to talk.” Hundreds of them walked into ICE field offices and never walked back out. Margaret Cargioli, a lawyer in Los Angeles, said her client went to every appointment, never missed one. ICE snatched him up anyway. “Very cooperative,” she said. That’s what he got for cooperating — a one-way ticket to a cell.