The proposal started as a joke on social media and ended up with the endorsement of the U.S. president. Donald Trump has backed renaming the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to National Immigration and Customs Enforcement — NICE — a play on the acronym.
“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,” conservative influencer Alyssa Marie wrote in March. More than a month later, Trump picked up on the idea and made it his own with a post on Truth Social: “Great idea! Do it,” he wrote on Sunday night.
The move fits into the president’s political logic, as he has made language yet another tool in his agenda. Renaming things — even if it doesn’t always succeed — is part of that strategy. He has already done so with the Department of Defense (which the administration refers to as the Department of War, even though the change hasn’t been officially made).
In this case, the initiative comes at a particularly sensitive time for ICE, the agency tasked with enforcing the stricter immigration policies that have defined Trump’s second term. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that deaths in ICE custody have reached their highest level in more than two decades, even surpassing the numbers during the pandemic years. The rate, which stood at 13 deaths per 100,000 detainees in 2023, skyrocketed to 31.8 in 2024, to 47.5 in 2025, and to 88.9 in early 2026.
The surge coincides with a sharp increase in the prison population, which has risen from about 39,000 to more than 70,000 following an intensification of raids and arrests. The report points to structural flaws: limited access to medical care, lack of supervision, and conditions that, in many cases, make it impossible to even determine the cause of death. In nearly half of the cases analyzed, the cause remains unclear.
ICE has reported 29 deaths in custody so far this fiscal year, the highest number since its creation in 2003. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, says that the increase in deaths is due to the growth in the detained population. “Death rates in custody under the Trump administration are 0.009% of the detained population,” the department stated, adding that many migrants receive “the best healthcare they have received their entire lives.”
Similarly, ICE remains one of the most criticized agencies in the current administration. So much so that a debate is still underway in Congress over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, with proposals ranging from restricting the agency’s operations to injecting tens of billions of additional dollars into it. Although ICE already received millions in funding in 2025, the debate remains open.
As for the name, officially changing it from ICE to “NICE” does not depend solely on the president: it would require Congress to pass a law amending the legislation that created the agency within the Department of Homeland Security. Furthermore, it would entail updating regulations, budgets, contracts, and all types of documents and systems where the current name appears — a lengthy and costly process. Trump could use “NICE” informally or for political purposes, but without that legislative approval, the agency’s legal name would remain ICE.
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