Richard Beam mentioned he all the time knew working at ICE can be a contentious and, at occasions, controversial place. However he believed within the mission, and in his job to tell the general public concerning the company – by telling the reality, he mentioned.
He remembered that every one modified at some point in 2025.
Beam was working in a cubicle at ICE’s Santa Ana discipline workplace when he hopped on a routine weekly name with colleagues and supervisors, he mentioned. The group would go over finest practices of their public affairs work, and Beam and his coworkers can be given updates, directives and steering from immigration and Division of Homeland Safety management in Washington, D.C, he recalled.
However this name was totally different, he mentioned.
For the primary time in his 20-year profession as a federal spokesperson, he was advised to answer inquiries not with the info of a case, however with spin, Beam mentioned. Criticize the Biden administration. Reward Trump. Omit data that doesn’t match the political narrative. Whether or not or not he answered any questions on a case was an afterthought, he mentioned.
“We had been offering responses that spoke to the prison historical past, nevertheless it didn’t all the time distinguish the distinction between being charged and being convicted of,” he mentioned. “And in some unspecified time in the future we might additionally see language within the responses that [was] political, particularly saying ‘because of the Trump administration, we’re doing X. Due to the Biden administration, we have now this consequence.’ And that’s not what profession public affairs officers historically do.”
From then on, it was made clear the Division of Homeland Safety wished a much bigger position in overseeing how ICE responded to questions on operations and arrests, in response to Beam. This was a departure from how they beforehand operated, he mentioned.
“None of us have ever had these loopy experiences the place the political appointees had been so concerned in what we did,” he mentioned.
Months later, Beam would ultimately come to an settlement to go away ICE after private objections and a threatened switch, he mentioned. His final day as a federal worker was Dec. 31, 2025.
In response to Beam’s claims that he obtained directions to have interaction in political messaging, DHS supplied a written assertion on Jan. 17.
“That is nothing greater than complaining by a former disgruntled worker. President Biden let in thousands and thousands of prison unlawful aliens and unvetted people into the U.S. Now, beneath President Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem we’re delivering on the President’s mandate to arrest the worst of the worst prison unlawful aliens together with murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members.”
Satisfaction in becoming a member of ICE
When Beam grew to become an ICE officer 5 years in the past, he may maintain his head excessive. The job was necessary, he felt, and rewarding.
“I felt very pleased with what ICE’s mission was once I bought there, as a result of it was actually eradicating those that had horrible prison convictions – not simply fees, however convictions,” he mentioned.
From October 2021 to September 2022, 78.2% of the typical inhabitants in ICE’s custody who had been arrested by ICE had prison convictions. That could be a sharp distinction to the 45.4% of the typical inhabitants with prison convictions arrested by ICE throughout the identical interval in 2024 and 2025, in response to ICE information archived by the Deportation Knowledge Mission.
Beam’s profession as a federal spokesperson started in 2005 when he grew to become a public affairs officer for the Veterans Affairs workplace in Lengthy Seaside. Serving to veterans was private to Beam. Certainly one of his older brothers, a Navy veteran, took his personal life within the late 90s after struggling along with his psychological well being.
“I get to do issues for veterans … I couldn’t save my brother, however what may I do for any individual else?” Beam mentioned.
In 2021, he started working for ICE.
For years, he took nice delight in offering the media and members of the general public with details about ICE’s operations. He mentioned he believed within the mission.
However the directive he obtained to have interaction in political messaging in 2025 angered him.
“Having taken an oath to [serve] the general public, having felt very proud about what this company did based mostly on the reality, I now felt like the reality was not the lead,” he mentioned.
New marching orders
That delight he felt in explaining the info about ICE’s work to the information media and public started to erode after Trump stepped again into the Oval Workplace, he mentioned.
Beam, personally, discovered it troublesome to abdomen some coverage shifts that got here beneath Trump 2.0 like when Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers started arresting folks exterior of immigration court docket.
“I simply felt much less and fewer pleased with eradicating those that had been contributing (to society) in lots of ways in which generally we don’t wish to handle or admit or settle for,” he mentioned. “I believe that’s once I grew to become essentially the most involved as a result of I couldn’t perceive a justification for arresting folks as they’re seeing judges.”
However, he added, “I hadn’t but gotten to the purpose the place I actually thought-about leaving as a result of I felt like… I used to be nonetheless concerned in very significant work.”
Regardless of the directive to have interaction in political messaging, Beam mentioned he caught to the info.
“Our basis wasn’t political converse, it was info. … No matter no matter my political opinions are and no matter celebration was in workplace, I’d have discovered that to be opposite to what the general public expects out of me, opposite to the job I took,” Beam mentioned.
Beam began altering the best way he delivered data to the media, he mentioned. If a response was one thing he had confirmed himself and based mostly in reality, he advised these in search of remark from the company it was coming from him. If it was spin coming from political appointees, he famous the excellence by attributing the remark to Washington D.C. officers. However that meant some feedback he shared with the general public side-stepped the info, he mentioned.
“Did I push out data that I knew was not 100% correct? … Or the total full reality? I’d say that sure, I did,” Beam mentioned.
Months later, he abruptly obtained an e mail stating he was being relocated to Washington, D.C. to work for the Federal Emergency Administration Company as a Congressional Affairs Specialist, and if he refused or ignored the reassignment, his job with the federal authorities may very well be terminated.
“Your project is a brand new alternative to proceed to help the DHS mission to safe the nation from the various threats we face,” states the reassignment memo obtained and reviewed by a reporter.
Beam had seven days to determine, in response to the doc.
Questioning the mission
Beam is partly of Mexican ancestry, and having labored for ICE throughout a time when federal brokers are violently rounding up individuals who appear to be him and a few of his members of the family grew to become personally “painful,” he mentioned.
“I’m a brown man… what occurs if [federal agents] see me mowing a garden? It’s a joke, however is it? Is it?” he requested himself.
Beam recollects voicing considerations to his boss that the directive to have interaction in political messaging when responding to journalists may corrode belief with the media and public.
“I simply thought it was a short-sighted mistake as a result of, I imply, any administration lasts at most eight years, however that harm might be a lot extra long-lasting than the administration that places one thing in place,” he mentioned.
“When you begin to inform issues apart from the info, I simply questioned, how does this impression my integrity?” Beam mentioned. He made it a degree to reveal every time a response to the media had been crafted by DHS officers or by him, he recalled.
Below the second Trump administration, DHS has confronted widespread scrutiny on the accuracy of its public statements. Native legislation enforcement, information organizations, and judges have recognized a number of cases the place DHS accounts of incidents involving ICE or Border Patrol brokers had been contradicted by video proof, authorized paperwork, or police stories.
Since widespread immigration raids started final June, DHS and ICE officers have repeatedly claimed, with out proof, that ICE officers have skilled a 1,000% enhance in assaults. Nonetheless, a Nationwide Public Radio evaluation discovered a 25% enhance in assault fees in opposition to federal officers from June by way of mid-September of 2025 in comparison with the identical interval a yr prior. Trump’s intensified immigration crackdown has led to extra confrontations between ICE officers and civilians throughout the nation, however to not the extent claimed by the White Home.
In June, federal officers accused 20-year-old Adrian Martinez of punching a federal officer throughout an immigration operation at a Pico Rivera Walmart. The prison grievance charging Martinez with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer included sworn testimony from a Homeland Safety Investigations agent that didn’t embody claims that Martinez had assaulted an agent. Safety footage from a close-by juice bar didn’t present the alleged assault, although Martinez was off digital camera at a number of factors.
Beam apprehensive directions to disseminate propaganda violated the Hatch Act, which was created in 1939 to stop federal workers working beneath the manager department of the federal government from partaking in politics.
Political exercise is outlined as any exercise directed towards the success or failure of a political celebration, candidate for partisan political workplace, or partisan political group, in response to the Division of Justice.
“Now we have not violated the Hatch Act,” a DHS spokesperson mentioned on Jan. 17 when requested if the political messaging directive Beam claimed occurred can be in violation of the 1939 legislation.
Beam continued on along with his job at ICE regardless of feeling conflicted, till he obtained the memo notifying him that he would not work for the company.
A blessing in disguise
On Aug. 5, 2025, he realized he was being reassigned to FEMA. And if he declined or refused the reassignment, he “could also be topic to elimination from Federal service,” the memo said.
“I simply can’t assist however to suppose that it was intentional,” he mentioned.
His son was making ready to start highschool and his son’s mom was receiving most cancers therapies. Each are rooted in Southern California and he wouldn’t depart them, he mentioned.
Lower than every week after getting that e mail, Beam obtained a certificates within the mail signed by DHS Secretary Troy Edgar commending him for his “unwavering help and professionalism” in a current immigration associated operation, states the certificates obtained and reviewed by a reporter.
Every week or two later, he mentioned he was advised by a former mentee on the VA that ICE posted a job itemizing for his position within the LA space.
“That simply tells me that the transfer to FEMA was a facade. I imply, in the event that they’re recruiting for the job that I held solely to maneuver me on the taxpayers’ expense to Washington, D.C.,” he mentioned.
In early 2025, President Trump said his intentions to shutter FEMA and mentioned states ought to tackle the accountability to arrange for and reply to main disasters.
Since then, the Trump administration has slashed FEMA’s workforce by 1000’s.
Since Beam has left his place, ICE has been embroiled in controversy following two deadly shootings in Minnesota.
In early January, the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by ICE officer Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis sparked nationwide outrage and protests throughout the nation. Inside hours of the taking pictures, Trump administration officers claimed there have been violent rioters on the scene and tried to color Good as a home terrorist who tried to make use of her car to run over and kill federal brokers. Video that emerged from the taking pictures in addition to Good’s personal historical past have contradicted these claims and ignited a fierce debate concerning the legitimacy of the taking pictures.
Weeks later, unidentified Border Patrol brokers shot and killed 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti whereas he was documenting federal immigration exercise in Minneapolis. Trump administration officers shortly labeled Pretti as a “home terrorist who approached brokers with a gun.” Movies from the scene contradicted these claims, which present Pretti holding a mobile phone whereas he stood between a girl who was shoved to the bottom by an immigration officer. Pretti was shot whereas being restrained by a number of federal officers. He had a authorized firearm however an officer appeared to take away it instantly previous to the taking pictures. It by no means appeared Pretti tried to make use of the weapon, in response to witness movies from the scene.
Federal officers killing civilians, Beam mentioned, was his “biggest worry come true.”
“Each engaged American should reconcile for themselves whether or not what we’re being advised by administration officers is per what we’re seeing. All People, no matter political ideology, deserve nothing lower than the reality to permit knowledgeable decision-making,” he mentioned. “At this time limit, two inarguable truths are that two People are actually lifeless. Based mostly on the restricted info made public, it seems that what we’re being advised isn’t solely unsupported by these info but additionally immediately conflicts with the rights afforded to all People beneath the First and Second Amendments.”
Beam mentioned he was positioned on administrative depart from ICE in mid-August after formally declining his FEMA reassignment.
He sees it as a blessing and a curse. He not has to work for an company whose actions he now finds questionable, however he’s out of a job.
“I’m within the curse part, however …I used to be the luckiest individual on the earth as a result of … I bought to expertise the very best of (working at ICE). I don’t know. Would I’ve had the braveness to go away if I hadn’t been pressured to go away, you realize?” he asks himself. “And I don’t know. We’ll by no means know.”
