A Hollywood comedian just proposed putting thousands of American law-enforcement officers in jail—simply for doing the jobs Congress gave them.
A celebrity punchline turns into a call to imprison federal agents
Former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Leslie Jones stepped beyond punchlines when she told MS NOW host Nicolle Wallace that if Democrats win back Congress after the midterms, she wants a “reckoning” that ends with all ICE employees behind bars. She did not limit her demand to specific alleged crimes or named officials. She said, “Everybody that work for ICE, I want them in jail. I just want a reckoning. Y’all know y’all did wrong stuff.”
The conversation framed the Trump era as having turned the country “upside-down,” with Jones blaming not only politicians but voters who supported Trump. She portrayed jailing ICE personnel as a way to restore moral gravity, implying that anyone who enforced Trump-era immigration law necessarily did “wrong stuff.” That framing treats an entire federal agency not as a mix of individuals accountable under the law, but as a collective villain to be punished by political power.
How ICE became Hollywood’s favorite punching bag
Immigration and Customs Enforcement was created in 2003 after 9/11 to handle interior immigration enforcement and other homeland security missions. Its officers execute laws passed by Congress and signed by presidents of both parties. Under Donald Trump’s first term, deportations increased, interior enforcement intensified, and family separation policies at the border drew fierce backlash from Democrats and celebrities, fueling “Abolish ICE” rallies and social-media campaigns.
Under Joe Biden, deportations decreased while border crossings surged, triggering charges of chaos and inhumanity from conservatives. Former acting ICE director Tom Homan called Biden’s approach “the most inhumane thing” he had seen in immigration policy. At the same time, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt noted that violent attacks on ICE agents jumped more than 1,000 percent, a spike she linked to demonizing rhetoric against law enforcement. Against that backdrop, a celebrity calling to jail all ICE workers does not land in a vacuum; it lands in a country where some people already feel licensed to treat agents as enemies.
The danger of turning political rage into collective punishment
Jones framed her demand as moral payback for Trump-era immigration actions, but she offered no evidence of specific crimes, due process, or legal standards. The logic is simple: work for ICE during the wrong administration and you deserve prison. That is not accountability; that is collective punishment. From the standpoint of basic American conservative values—individual responsibility, equal justice under law, and limited government—her approach runs directly against our constitutional grain.
Democrats already wrestle with perceptions that some in their coalition treat law enforcement as inherently suspect, from “defund the police” experiments in cities to hostility toward Border Patrol and ICE. When a prominent progressive-aligned celebrity calls for mass incarceration of civil servants, it hands their critics a powerful example of what looks like vendetta politics. Media outlets like Fox News and The Daily Wire highlighted the remarks precisely because they make mainstream Democrats look hostile to the rank-and-file Americans who wear a badge and take on dangerous work.
What a real “reckoning” would look like in a serious country
America has mechanisms to hold federal agents accountable when they abuse power: inspector general investigations, internal discipline, civil lawsuits, and criminal prosecutions when the facts support them. Those processes judge individuals based on evidence, not group identity. If an ICE agent violated the law, that agent should face consequences—no conservative principle protects someone from responsibility for genuine misconduct. But punishing thousands of people for lawfully carrying out congressional mandates is something else entirely.
Calls like Jones’s shift the conversation away from hard questions—how to secure the border humanely, how to deter cartels, how to reform asylum laws—and toward theatrical revenge fantasies. That might win applause in certain media bubbles, but it corrodes the civic space where serious adults try to solve problems. When celebrities normalize the idea that political victories should be followed by mass jailing of the other side’s public servants, they flirt with the kind of politics Americans usually associate with unstable regimes, not constitutional republics.
Sources:
SNL Alum Leslie Jones Wants All ICE Agents Thrown In Jail: ‘I Need A Reckoning’
Democratic policy priority: Sen. Josh Hawley criticizes…
Leslie Jones Demands ICE Reckoning and What the …