From Slave Patrols to ICE: The Unbroken Chain of Racial Control

Commentary by Feminist News

There is a well-documented historical connection between the origins of the American police force, slave catchers and slave patrols, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and the modern practices of organizations like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), all centered around systems of racial control and enforcement.

Slave patrols in the American South, beginning as early as the 1700s, were created to capture and return runaway enslaved people, suppress rebellions, and maintain discipline through organized terror. These patrols had broad authority to stop, search, and even brutalize Black people, whether free or enslaved. The laws supporting these patrols—such as the Fugitive Slave Acts—also involved federal agents and institutionalized violence to protect the interests of enslavers.

After abolition, local white supremacists, including many former slave patrollers, quickly moved to maintain racial hierarchies. The Ku Klux Klan arose during the Reconstruction Era to violently oppose Black enfranchisement and civil rights, often overlapping with local law 

enforcement—sometimes police themselves were members of the Klan, or looked the other way at their violence. As policing professionalized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Southern departments inherited these racist practices and structures.

The establishment of the modern U.S. Border Patrol in 1924 (later forming a core part of ICE) was rooted in staunchly racialized laws and policing. Many early Border Patrol officers came from groups already known for racist violence, such as the Texas Rangers and the KKK. The agency quickly developed a culture marked by racial profiling and brutality, disproportionately targeting communities of color—attributes that have carried through to ICE's practices today. Recent studies show ICE’s enforcement strategies—in particular, raids and sweeps—resemble historic slave patrol terror tactics, emphasizing the continuity of systems built to control and marginalize minority populations.