Because the movements of brokers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement come underneath intense scrutiny, it’s price noting that just a little greater than 100 years in the past, any other enlargement of federal policing – to put into effect nationwide Prohibition – additionally sparked national fear.
As a U.S. historical past student, I do know each the federal government businesses charged with implementing nationwide Prohibition within the early twentieth century and with mass deportation within the early twenty first century had been all of a sudden expanded. They had been requested to succeed in tricky goals and had been staffed via from time to time poorly skilled individuals who every now and then resorted to violence.
Nationwide prohibition enforcement
When Congress authorized the Volstead Act in 1919 that outlawed the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic liquors, it purposely restricted the choice of Prohibition enforcement officers because of power from tough dry lobbying teams, which supported the prohibition of alcohol gross sales and intake. Those teams idea the vast majority of the Prohibition policing could be accomplished via states.
The Volstead Act additionally exempted Prohibition brokers from civil provider rules, which might have required task candidates to go positive minimal requirements. The exemption used to be written into the legislation since the prohibitionist foyer handiest relied on dedicated “drys” – other folks resolutely devoted to keeping up an alcohol-free society – to do the implementing, and so they idea that they might regulate the appointments.
For the primary years of Prohibition, the Bureau of Prohibition belonged to a department of the Bureau of Inner Income – some had been transformed alcohol tax creditors. Then they turned into a part of the Bureau of Prohibition within the Treasury Division. And in 1930, they moved to the Division of Justice.
Those strikes to quite a lot of bureaus and departments mirrored makes an attempt to curtail corruption, cut back the affect of the prohibitionists on staffing, and building up effectiveness. Regardless of the strikes, investment and coaching for Prohibition brokers by no means advanced. Moreover, so to lower govt spending throughout the Nice Despair, the Herbert Hoover management lower Prohibition brokers’ in step with diem pay from US$6 to $5.
The preliminary workforce of Prohibition brokers had been both dedicated prohibitionists or “political hacks with little law enforcement experience,” in keeping with creator W. J. Rorabaugh. The hacks, Rorabaugh wrote, quickly outnumbered the prohibitionists.
Prohibition brokers sell off beer into Lake Michigan in Chicago on Oct. 9, 1919.
Bettmann/Getty Pictures
In 1927, Federal Circuit Pass judgement on William S. Keynon stated that “three-fourths of the 2,500 dry agents are ward heelers and sycophants named by the politicians.” The assistant lawyer common in command of Prohibition enforcement, Mabel Walker Willebrandt, stated that Prohibition brokers had been “as devoid of honesty and integrity” as those that violated Prohibition rules.
When Prohibition brokers had been positioned underneath the civil provider, 60% of them failed their civil provider assessments. In a six-year length starting in 1920, 752 Prohibition officers misplaced their jobs for delinquency or misconduct. Drunkenness and bribery had been the 2 major causes for dismissal.
In 1930, the 1,450 front-line Prohibition brokers dwarfed the 350 FBI box brokers around the nation. They had been the biggest federal legislation enforcement frame, and so they had been busy.
From 1921 to 1930, they averaged over a half-million arrests in step with 12 months. They seized over 45,000 cars, and via their very own account, Prohibition brokers killed 89 other folks.
Alternatively, the Affiliation Towards the Prohibition Modification calculated that about 1,000 other folks had been killed in implementing Prohibition.
Endemic violence
Federal officers approved Prohibition brokers’ use of violence. One authentic informed U.S. Sen. Wesley Jones, a robust prohibitionist, that some bootleggers “deserve a good killing, and I am not losing any sleep if now and then a bootlegger is killed.”
However Prohibition brokers didn’t simply shoot criminals. The Washington Bring in detailed in 1929 a development of reckless use of pressure, with prohibition brokers taking pictures on the tires of escaping automobiles and by accident firing guns. In 1924, inside of blocks of the U.S. Capitol, a Prohibition agent who used to be firing at a fleeing automotive wearing a bootlegger by accident shot Sen. Frank L. Greene of Vermont. Greene, wounded within the head, by no means absolutely recovered using one arm.
The creator Daniel Okrent illustrated the hyperlink between trigger-happy officials and shoddy recruitment and coaching when he detailed the case of “the first agent to kill a suspect bootlegger in the line of duty.” The Prohibition agent have been authorised into provider underneath a false title. He used to be now not a stranger to killing, as he had killed a person when he used to be 14. He had additionally served a couple of jail phrases. Certainly, he used to be given his badge when “still incarcerated at Dannemora State Prison,” in keeping with Okrent.
A federal agent lobs a tear gasoline canister towards protesters in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, 2026.
Kerem Yucel/ AFP by the use of Getty Pictures
The parallels between Prohibition and the Trump management’s mass deportation techniques aren’t an identical. Prohibition used to be extra unpopular in a lot of the rustic when put next with mass deportation. And Congress used to be now not prepared to adequately pay for Prohibition enforcement, whilst it has generously funded ICE.
A number of stories element ICE’s contemporary huge enlargement. In early January 2026, the company introduced it grew via 120%, including 12,000 brokers to the prevailing pressure of 10,000, which raised considerations amongst lawmakers about decreased coaching requirements to satisfy recruitment goals. Different accounts disclose lax vetting, inadequate coaching and previous officer misconduct.
However each efforts percentage necessary similarities. They had been all of a sudden constructed, with brokers who had been requested to do one thing very tricky, and staffed via from time to time poorly skilled individuals who had been approved to make use of pressure.
