The Agency That Investigates ICE Agents Is Investigating ICE's Critics Instead

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - JUNE 02: A person holds a sign outside the Delaney Hall Immigration Detention Center in Newark, where ICE is housing detained immigrants on June 02, 2026 in Newark, New Jersey. The city of Newark lifted a curfew Tuesday evening, allowing protesters to gather again in front of Delaney Hall. Despite the state police taking over security outside, the protests have become increasingly tense, and come amid reports of poor living conditions inside the facility for the detainees. (Credit: Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

An office built to police ICE's own agents now spends much of its time on a different kind of target: the public. According to a Wired investigation, the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility has opened upward of 100 inquiries into private citizens accused of threatening ICE personnel or posting their personal details online — a pivot that has civil liberties attorneys asking whether an internal-affairs unit has effectively become an outward-facing enforcement arm against dissent.