The Gestapo Just Got A Fresh New Rebrand And It’s Now Called “ICE”
A photo of Gestapo officers during a WWII operation in Sweden. Source: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
Similarities To Today
Once upon a time, the term Gestapo evoked black-and-white footage, grainy documentaries, and the distant memory of totalitarian horrors. Now, with a fresh rebrand fit for 21st-century America, it’s starting to feel uncomfortably close to home. Enter the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): a government agency operating with militarized force, anonymity, and the unchecked authority to disappear people off the streets—often without cause, oversight, or consequence. Gestapo, much like ICE, was actually an acronym that stood for “Geheime Staatspolizei” or “Secret State Police” in English. They operated in trench coats and fedoras, and while they did not wear masks, their outfits were deliberately designed to be as anonymous as possible and to obscure their identities.
In the U.S. today, masked agents have become the new normal. Not just behind riot shields at protests, but suspiciously stalking around courthouses, in unmarked vans outside high traffic areas, snatching individuals without identifying themselves. This is actually happening, in American cities, under the banner of immigration enforcement. The optics aren't just chilling—they’re deliberate. The anonymity of these officers is the point. When agents conceal their identities, it raises a chilling question: if they believed in the righteousness of their actions, why would they hide?
Source: Squarespace/ Unsplash
Unchecked Abuse Of Power
It’s deeply troubling that ICE agents and police officers are now routinely wearing masks—not for health reasons, but to conceal their identities while carrying out arrests, raids, and street detentions. In a democratic society, transparency and accountability are supposed to be foundational principles of law enforcement.
When ICE agents and police officers hide their faces, it erodes the public’s ability to hold individuals or institutions responsible for abuse, misconduct, or even simple mistakes. Masks sever the human connection between enforcer and citizen, replacing it with fear, anonymity, and impunity.
The disappearances have gotten so bad in some neighborhoods that missing persons posters are starting to go up. The handmade posters of immigrants have become a symbol of quiet resistance, lining windows, fences, and community boards with messages that humanize rather than criminalize. They’re not just expressions of solidarity; they’re acts of defiance against a system that tries to render people invisible. They remind passersby that behind every policy are real lives, and behind every crackdown, a community trying to hold itself together.
The dystopian implications of ICE’s unchecked power also hit home in dramatic fashion this week when New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democratic mayoral candidate, was arrested by ICE agents while escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza. His wife confirmed the details, while New York Governor Kathy Hochul condemned the arrest as “total bulls---” in a blunt post on X. The incident underscored just how politicized and unaccountable the agency has become—targeting not just undocumented individuals but elected officials engaged in due process. If ICE can detain a high-profile public servant in broad daylight, in one of the most visible buildings in lower Manhattan, it raises the question: who exactly is safe, and what lines won’t be crossed?
Source: Squarespace/ Unsplash
Targeting Neighbors or Business Rivals
If the current trajectory continues, it’s easy to imagine a future—barely distinguishable from our present—where petty grievances turn into ICE tips. A loud neighbor. A bitter coworker. A minor dispute spiraling into government-sanctioned harassment. It feels like there is nothing stopping the Trump Administration from using ICE to go after business rivals as a way of getting an edge in the competitive marketplace. In an administration where loyalty often matters more than legality, it’s easy to imagine scenarios where business owners who criticize the president or refuse to play ball find themselves targeted by surprise workplace raids. Suddenly, a restaurant loses half its kitchen staff, a construction firm is paralyzed mid-project, or a warehouse is shut down indefinitely, all under the guise of immigration enforcement.
What we're witnessing today—where government agencies like ICE could be used to intimidate or dismantle businesses under the pretense of immigration enforcement—echoes disturbing patterns from history. During World War II, the Nazi regime systematically targeted Jewish business owners, stripping them of property, licenses, and livelihoods in a process sanitized as “Aryanization.” One of the most infamous examples was Coco Chanel, who took advantage of anti-Semitic laws to wrest control of her perfume empire from her Jewish business partners, the Wertheimer family. She used the machinery of occupation and collaboration to position herself for personal gain while her former partners fled for their lives.
The parallel is not identical, but the pattern—using state power to disrupt, punish, and absorb targeted enterprises—is hauntingly familiar. In today's context, it's not about overt anti-Semitic laws, but about creating a climate where selective enforcement by ICE can devastate a business, clearing the way for competitors with closer ties to power. If a presidential administration can unleash immigration raids on political adversaries or uncooperative CEOs, it signals not just an abuse of authority but the emergence of a political economy where power determines survival, and opportunists thrive in the wreckage.
Who knows—at the rate things are going, the White House could decide to weaponize ICE to arrest and deport Elon Musk under the flimsiest of pretexts, whether to settle a political score, send a message to other billionaires who step out of line, or simply flex its power in the most chaotic and headline-grabbing way possible.
History has already shown us how quickly the veneer of legality can be used to justify theft, persecution, and consolidation of control. We’d be foolish to think it can’t happen again.
Source: Squarespace/ Unsplash
The Danger Of Normalization
What makes this moment feel so dangerous is how normalized it’s become. The silence is louder than the screams. The machinery of fear is humming, well-oiled and emboldened, and too many are pretending not to hear it.
We’re not living in a prequel to some Orwellian novel. We’re already in it. And if history is any guide, it doesn’t end with the masked enforcers maintaining power—it ends with them facing the same fate they once delivered.
After World War II, many of the Gestapo agents who disappeared people into the night were themselves rounded up, tried, and executed. The tools of state terror they once wielded with impunity became evidence of their crimes. They were not remembered as patriots or protectors, but as villains who served a regime built on cruelty and control.
