ICE's top onscreen moments
ICE's top onscreen moments
Television and movies are full of depictions of law enforcement agencies in action. While not everything you see is accurate, positive onscreen depictions of law enforcement agencies can go a long way in helping raise the public profile of that agency. The viewership for a primetime TV show can receive more than 10 times the viewership of a news program. While U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not yet a household name, there are more and more instances of ICE onscreen.
Below are 10 examples of ICE on TV and in the movies.
Graceland
GRACELAND, premiering June 6 on USA Network, is a fictional TV series about a group of roommates who are actually undercover agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The 2005 made-for-TV movie Human Trafficking, starring Mira Sorvino and Donald Sutherland, highlighted ICE's role in combating human trafficking. The main protagonist is a dedicated ICE special agent, who is devoted to bringing human traffickers to justice.
Manhunters: Fugitive Task Force
Highlighting high-risk fugitives being investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service and ICE, this ongoing reality series, which started in 2008, showcased ICE's ability to investigate, locate and ultimately remove alien criminal fugitives.
When the series first aired ICE was not the primary agency. As the series progressed, viewers came to love the chemistry between the marshals and ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers.
Stationed at John F. Kennedy International Airport, HSI special agents crack down on criminals attempting to smuggle illegal goods and drugs into the United States.
This reality series, which started in 2011, was the first time the public saw HSI special agents actually interrogate suspects and attempt control deliveries.
Focusing on ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), National Geographic's series Border Wars started in 2010.
The reality series highlighted ICE's and CBP's efforts to combat drugs, arms smuggling, human smuggling and illegal border crossings.
Border Wars showed the ERO fugitive operations teams, a dive team, a special response team, the Border Enforcement Security Task Force and the tunnel task force.
Extreme Smuggling
The 2013 Discovery Channel reality TV miniseries highlighted some of ICE's largest investigations with surveillance footage, evidence, crime photos and interviews.
The TV show Homeland Security USA was the first time that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was featured in a reality TV series.
A 2009 episode, featuring intellectual property rights violations, highlighted ICE's continuing mission to combat intellectual property theft.
In this fictional movie, after meeting a gang member named Big Evil, a police officer decides to monitor his activities when he uncovers a vast human trafficking ring. However, ICE special agents arrive and tell the police officers to "lay low" due to possible reprisals.
This fictional TV series follows a group of the firefighters and paramedics working at the Chicago Fire Department. ICE was featured in one episode in the series' first season. In that episode, a trailer filled with illegal aliens is left locked under a bridge. All died but one 15-year-old girl. Chicago firemen and ICE helped get her to back to her family.
Hawaii Five-O is a remake of the 1960's classic fictional TV series, which follows an elite Hawaiian law enforcement team as they crack tough cases. ICE is highlighted in season two, episode eight, when an HSI special agent is found dead inside of a crashed plane.
This posting is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as an express or implied endorsement of the product or any non-federal entity affiliated with the production.
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