By Trump ShagsKids
January 15, 2026
In the chaotic aftermath of the January 6, 2021, insurrection, the lines between law enforcement and the lawless have grown disturbingly thin. New evidence reveals that the same extremist groups that stormed the Capitol are now finding a welcoming home within the federal agency tasked with enforcing the nation’s immigration laws. An investigation into the links between the far-right Proud Boys, Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the 2020 insurrection uncovers a pattern of coordination, recruitment, and shared ideology that threatens to erode the foundational principle that no one is above the law.
The Point of Contact: Trump’s Immigration Chief and a Proud Boys Associate
At the heart of this nexus is Tom Homan, the architect of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy. According to a Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) investigation, Homan has met on at least four separate occasions with Terry Newsome, a far-right activist who openly collaborates with the Proud Boys. The meetings, which took place in Chicago and Washington, D.C., were focused on deportation plans. In one instance, Homan directed local politicians to follow up with Newsome as his point of contact.
Newsome is not a peripheral figure. He has been filmed alongside Proud Boys members at protests, giving the “OK” hand signal favored by hard-right activists. More critically, he was present at the January 6 Capitol insurrection, recording himself on restricted grounds where Trump supporters were attacking police barricades. In a Facebook post sharing that video, Newsome wrote, “Thanks to J6, history will reflect how evil and corrupt the Democratic Party is”.
From Insurrection to Immigration Enforcement: The ICE Recruitment Pipeline
The connection between January 6 participants and federal law enforcement is not limited to informal meetings. In a January 13, 2026, letter, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, demanded answers from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE about the hiring of individuals connected to the Capitol attack. The letter states that “DHS appears to be actively courting pardoned January 6 participants” and has deployed recruitment campaigns that use “white nationalist ‘dog whistles’” seemingly aimed at extremist militia members, “including the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters—involved in the insurrection”.
This recruitment drive, offering $50,000 sign-on bonuses and relaxed vetting standards, has raised alarms about the infusion of violent insurrectionists into an agency with broad enforcement powers. The concern is not hypothetical. The letter cites the case of Jared Wise, a former FBI agent who stormed the Capitol, threatened police, and shouted, “Yeah, kill ‘em!” After receiving a Trump pardon, Wise was hired as a senior adviser to the Deputy Attorney General. The question now is how many more like him have been given guns and badges by ICE.
“In Contact with Folks in ICE”: Operational Collaboration
The ties extend beyond recruitment. The SPLC investigation found that Newsome “appears to be in direct communication with ICE officials.” In a January 2025 interview on Steve Bannon’s podcast, Newsome’s associate, Ben Bergquam, stated, “We are in contact with folks in ICE, and getting updates as [raids] happen”. Three days later, Homan, ICE officers, and other officials conducted raids in Chicago. This suggests a level of operational coordination between a far-right activist linked to the Proud Boys and federal immigration authorities.
The Bigger Picture: A Weaponized Immigration Force
These linkages paint a troubling portrait of an immigration enforcement apparatus being reshaped in the image of the insurrection. ICE officers now routinely wear masks and remove their names from uniforms, obscuring their identities. Raskin’s letter directly asks, “Who is hiding behind these masks? How many of them were among the violent rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6?”.
The implications are profound. An agency created to uphold the law is reportedly recruiting from a pool of individuals who sought to violently overthrow a democratic election. The shared ideology of nativism and anti-government grievance creates a feedback loop: the extremism that fueled January 6 is now being institutionalized within a powerful federal agency.
Conclusion: Accountability in the Shadows
The threads linking the Proud Boys, Trump’s ICE, and the January 6 insurrection reveal a systemic blurring of lines between extremist violence and state power. From high-level meetings between policy architects and militia associates, to the active recruitment of pardoned rioters, to operational collaboration during raids, the connections are multiple and concrete.
As Rep. Raskin’s demands for transparency suggest, the American people deserve to know how many insurrectionists have been welcomed into the ranks of federal law enforcement. The integrity of the nation’s institutions—and the safety of the communities they police—depends on exposing who is hiding behind the masks.