WHAT WAS IMMIGRATION LIKE BEFORE ICE?

I produced, wrote, shot, and hosted this video for Vox.com

After being assigned to produce a video on ICE for Vox, I started poking around on the history page of their website. And I noticed they claim that their "functional history predates the modern birth of the agency by more than 200 years." We know that ICE was created in 2003. So what exactly do they mean by that?

In trying to unpack this claim, and I investigated the history of immigration in the US, tracing the slow evolution from labor management to law enforcement that culminated in the creation of ICE in 2003.

I talked to some brilliant professors, sorted through some very cool archival photos and documents, and pieced together a timeline. It's impossible to mention every important moment in this over 200 year history that influenced this modern era of immigration enforcement, but I still think it's really important to try. ICE did not happen overnight, and we need to look at how US history led us to this moment.