Every single day, individuals log in to an online forum for present and former Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officers to share their ideas on the information of the day and complain about their colleagues in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“ERO is simply too busy dressing up as Black Ops Commandos with Tactical physique armor, drop down thigh rigs, balaclavas, a number of M4 magazines, and Punisher patches, to do an Admin arrest of a non felony, non-violent EWI that weighs 90 kilos and is 5 foot 2, inside a safe Federal constructing the place everybody has been screened for weapons,” wrote one person in July 2025. (ERO stands for Enforcement and Removing Operations; together with HSI, it’s one of many two main divisions of ICE and is answerable for detaining and deporting immigrants.)
The discussion board describes itself as an area for present and potential HSI brokers, “designed for the seasoned HSI Particular Agent in addition to candidates for entry degree Particular Agent positions.” HSI is the division inside ICE whose brokers are usually answerable for investigating crimes like drug smuggling, terrorism, and human trafficking.
Within the discussion board, customers focus on their discomfort with the US’s mass deportation efforts, debate the way in which federal brokers have interacted with protesters and the general public, and complain in regards to the state of their working situations. Members have additionally had heated discussions in regards to the capturing of two protesters in Minneapolis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and the methods immigration enforcement has taken place across the US.
The discussion board is one in every of a number of associated boards the place individuals working in numerous components of the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) share experiences and focus on particular particulars of their work. WIRED previously reported on a discussion board the place present and former deportation officers from ICE and Customs and Border Safety (CBP) equally complained about their jobs and mentioned the way in which the company was conducting immigration raids. The HSI discussion board seems to be linked, even together with among the identical members.
Folks don’t want to indicate proof of their employment to hitch these boards, and the platform doesn’t look like closely moderated. WIRED has not confirmed the person identities of those posters, although they share particulars that probably can be identified solely to individuals intimately aware of the job. There are greater than 2,000 members with posts going again to at the least 2004.
DHS and ICE didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Following the killings of each Good and Pretti, the discussion board’s members had been closely divided. In a January 12 thread, 5 days after Good was shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, a poster who has been part of the discussion board since 2016 wrote, “IMHO, the scenario with ICE Operations have gotten to an unprecedented degree of violence from each the Suspects and the Common Public. I hope the AG is wanting on the momentary suspension of Civil Liberties, (throughout and within the geographic locales the place ICE Operations are being performed).”
A person who joined the discussion board in 2018 and identifies as a just lately retired agent responded, “This is a superb thought and nicely warranted. These are organized, nicely financed civil disturbances, dare I say an INSURRECTION?!?”
In a January 16 publish titled “The Capturing,” some posters took a extra nuanced view. “I get that it’s a good shoot legally and all that, however all he needed to do was step apart, he practically shot one in every of his companions for Gods sake!” wrote a poster who first joined the discussion board in March 2022. “A USC girl non-crim shot within the head on TV for what? Simply does not sit nicely with me … A seasoned SRT man who was in a position to execute somebody whereas holding a telephone appears to me he may have merely received out of the way in which.” SRT refers to ICE’s elite special response team, who bear particular coaching to function in high-risk conditions. USC refers to US residents.
