‘Low-hanging fruit’: Gee questions why ICE targets people with ‘least amount of power’ as arrest pace doubles

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests have roughly doubled as the agency has pushed to increase arrest rates, The New York Times reported.

KIRO host Gee Scott questioned the fairness of the enforcement push, arguing agents target workers with “the least amount of power” while ignoring potential visa violations at major tech companies.

“I’m not saying immigration should not be doing this job. I agree that immigration should be doing their job. They’ve always been doing that, sometimes more than others. So, I’m not saying what the law should be. I’m just saying that if a law only finds the person with the least amount of power, then to me it’s not being, it’s not a fair law,” he said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

Gee questioned why ICE isn’t conducting raids at big tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft, where visa overstays are also possible.

“Don’t you all believe that there is a potential that someone at Microsoft or Amazon, some of these big tech companies, there’s someone that’s overstayed their work visa?” he said. “You know that’s possible, right?”

Gee said instead, agents target neighborhood food trucks and construction sites.

“It’s like low-hanging fruit, if you will,” he said. “We go to the taco truck, where you go get some food, and somebody’s just trying to work to make a living. So it’s like go to the places where the people have the least amount of power.”

ICE filling quotas in the ‘shallow end’

Gee compared the arrests to a fisherman who needs to hit a quota, choosing to fill up in the shallow end before heading out to open water where the catch requires more permits, lawyers, and paperwork.

“This fisherman is like, ‘OK, I’m gonna go out there to the big waters, but before I do, let me go to the shallow end and get a whole bunch of fish in the shallow end. And the reason why I do that, because it’s less permits, lawyers, and paperwork that I have to deal with than when you go out to the big waters,'” Gee said.

“So ICE, immigration, and all of that, I’m not saying don’t do your job,” he continued. “I just question why do we only go to the taco trucks, to the roofing company, and we don’t go to the other places like the big tech companies? Because in my heart of hearts, my point is we go after the person, the young lady, the gentleman in the neighborhood that has the least amount of power.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.