NEW ICE, SAME COLD FEELING:

By Omniyah Boukrra

Source: Mother Jones illustration; Amy Katz/ZUMA; Getty

Since the beginning of Trump's new administration, thousands of people have been ripped from their homes and placed in detention camps. Across the United States there have been nonstop protests to try to protect undocumented immigrants, so they can be treated more humanely by ICE. Now, instead of proposing any actionable reforms, President Trump has engaged in a series of X posts that indicate he is considering changing ICE’s official name.

An initiative has been undertaken by the president to change the name of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to NICE (National Immigration and Customs Enforcement). This would imply that people would have to start calling ICE agents "NICE” agents across the board, not just on social media, in newspapers and on news platforms. The federal government's strategy aims to rebrand ICE without actually rebranding it. Supporters argue that changing the name forces media outlets to start using "NICE" in headlines. By changing the acronym from ICE to “NICE”, it’ll cause a decrease in the type of cognitive dissonance being observed by those who support the agency. It will change the current juxtaposition of what ICE claims to stand for and how the world actually sees ICE, toward an association of the renowned aggressive immigration organization with a more desirable image of a kindness.

It is a classic way of being a wolf in sheep's clothing. To put it simply, when people modify their language to lessen internal conflict, it reduces cognitive dissonance. In this case, the wolf, ICE, would only need to alter its name rather than metaphorically disguise itself as a sheep by implementing administrative change.

Source: President Donald Trump responds to a post suggesting he change the name of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on April 26, 2026. (Donald J. Trump via Truth Social)

Such behavior is disgusting. Every day, American citizens, along with the rest of the world, is seeing how the Trump administration increasingly dehumanizes. these people immigrants. Amongst other things, they call immigrants rapists, common criminals and animals; and ultimately, the point is that they are increasingly persuading ordinary Americans that because these families have left their homes, they should be treated as if they are subhuman. It is tiring to witness this administration being blatantly xenophobic and at the end of the day, if everyone returned to where they came from, the only people left in America would be the less than 5% of Native Americans that were not killed by Europeans and displaced by the United States.

However, while the president has endorsed the name change on social, he has, once again, failed to follow up on his social media post. All we have to do is wait and see how the coming days unfold.