An official appears to have returned to his job as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement prosecutor this week after he was linked to a social media account that spewed brazen racism.
On Tuesday, the Texas Observer reported seeing James Rodden, an assistant chief counsel with ICE, sitting in the prosecutor’s chair at an immigration proceeding in Dallas. The Observer also snapped a picture of an individual they identified as Rodden wearing a staff badge.
The administration had pulled Rodden from immigration court schedules last year, after ICE said it launched an internal investigation in response to the Observer’s detailed reporting that linked Rodden to a pseudonymous social media account that claimed, “America is a White nation” and “‘Migrants’ are all criminals,” and said that “All blacks are foreign to my people.”
When the Observer questioned him in person about the account last year, Rodden declined to answer questions and told the outlet to contact his press office. In response to the reporting, Democratic Reps. Marc Veasey of Texas, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Jamie Raskin of Maryland demanded an investigation; ICE told Veasey in a March letter that its Office of Professional Responsibility would investigate the allegations. The Observer stated that ICE has provided no further information regarding that internal report.
The result? An ICE official evidently continues to support Donald Trump’s racist, anti-immigrant crackdown without an official answer one way or the other as to whether he’s behind a social media account that claimed, “I’m not a commie, I’m a fascist.”
MS NOW has not confirmed the Observer’s reporting, and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment. The news comes as DHS’ social media accounts continue to promote propaganda that echoes white supremacist themes and federal immigration officers face a growing national backlash over often violent, sometimes deadly tactics. Vowing not to let the story go “unnoticed,” Veasey told the Observer, “White supremacists should not hold positions of authority in our justice system, and I will do everything in my power to ensure that Rodden is held accountable.” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who last year voted for a bill to expand the Trump administration’s powers to crack down on immigrants, gave a pretty frank response to the report. “ICE hiring literal Nazis to represent them in court,” Gallego posted to X. “And instead of kicking him out for white supremacy, they reward him by keeping him on the job.”
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. 
