'Where's the agent's mask?': Ted Lieu slams the idea of renaming ICE to NICE

President Donald Trump on Sunday welcomed the idea of rebranding the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to National Immigration and Customs (NICE), taking a suggestion from one of his conservative followers. The White House later shared an AI-generated picture depicting a NICE agent comforting a child, and it drew backlash, with U.S. Representative Ted Lieu raising serious questions over the recent conduct of ICE agents.  

The name change was first promoted by conservative influencer Alyssa Marie in March, who wrote in a social media post, "I want Trump to change ICE to NICE (National Immigration and Customs Enforcement) so the media has to say NICE agents all day, every day." Trump later shared a screenshot of her post on Truth Social, adding, "Great idea, do it!!!" Other conservatives soon joined in with political commentator Nick Sortor, urging the newly appointed DHS Secretary, Markwayne Mullin, to make it happen. "100% agree! Make it happen, @SecMullinDHS!" Sortor wrote in an X post.

While a federal name change requires congressional action through legislation, it doesn't seem to stop the Trump administration from pushing on with its demands. The White House on Monday shared the AI-generated image on X, which was picked by Lieu. "Dear @WhiteHouse: Where’s the agent’s mask?" the Congressman asked in his post. "And is the agent comforting a kid that was just separated from his parents?" he continued. In another post, Lieu slammed Trump's "Border Czar" Tom Homan as well for saying that he wants to take Pope Leo XIV on ICE raids so that he could educate him on the Catholic teaching about deportations. 

The floating of a name change has faced deep criticism across the country following the agency's operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, which resulted in the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by federal agents earlier this year. Following the incidents, Democrats, including Lieu, have repeatedly called for new restrictions on ICE's operations, with some demanding the abolition of the agency entirely, as its funding has ballooned under the One Big Beautiful Act and from the Department of Homeland Security. The opposition moved to block funding for the DHS until their demands for oversight on ICE were met, and earlier this month, the Senate unanimously approved a bill to fund all of DHS except for ICE and Border Patrol, a measure that was shot down by House Republicans who demanded that the Senate GOP fund the DHS entirely, according to USA Today. 

Furthermore, earlier this year, ICE reported its 29th death of a detainee in its custody since October, which was the highest recorded death toll since the agency's inception in 2003. The previous record was 28 deaths in the entirety of 2004, according to NPR. On the subject, the DHS told the outlet that the deaths were attributable to the size of the immigrant population that the ICE is currently incarcerating. A total of 60,000 people are reportedly held in a mix of existing facilities, areas of jails run by local governments, and hastily built detention centers.