ICE says employees who commit provable misconduct will be held accountable
Bailey, 58, was arrested by the St. Tammany Parish sheriff’s office, which said in a statement that he entered his ex-girlfriend’s apartment without her permission near Covington, a New Orleans suburb on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. She was not in the apartment at the time, the sheriff’s office said. Investigators booked him under a Louisiana offense defined as the “intentional entry without authorization into any inhabited dwelling … used … as a home or place of abode by another person.”
Bailey works for an ICE office in Oakdale, Louisiana, and lives in Lecompte, about a half-hour’s drive northeast of Oakdale, according to the sheriff’s office. Covington is about three hours by car west of the ICE office. The sheriff’s office referred to Bailey as a federal officer but did not provide details about his specific role within ICE. A LinkedIn page under Bailey’s name describes him as an ICE “agent.”
A bond amount had not been set, according to St. Tammany Parish jail records. It was not immediately clear whether Bailey had an attorney.
An ICE spokesperson said Friday that the agency could not comment on Bailey’s arrest “due to the sensitive nature of these charges and pending litigation.” The spokesperson said ICE “stresses integrity and ethical behavior, and the vast majority of [agency] employees perform their duties with professionalism and honor.”
“ICE takes all allegations of employee misconduct seriously,” the statement said. “Any allegations of misconduct are investigated by the appropriate agencies, and any employee who has committed provable misconduct will be held accountable.” The agency also said it takes “swift and appropriate action” when criminal conduct by an employee is suspected or alleged.
St. Tammany Sheriff Bret Ibert said the arrest would be handled according to the facts. “Regardless of where you work or what position you hold, the law applies equally to everyone,” Ibert said. “When someone enters another person’s residence without permission, we are going to investigate the circumstances and take the appropriate action based on the facts of the case.”
If convicted, Bailey could receive up to six years in prison and a maximum fine of $1,000.
The arrest adds to a pattern of criminal charges against ICE employees and contractors that the Associated Press has documented in recent months. The AP reported in February that at least two dozen ICE employees and contractors had been charged with crimes since 2020, involving physical and sexual abuse, misuse of authority and corruption. The AP later reported that rapid recruitment and expansion at ICE, as the Trump administration prepared to implement its mass-deportation agenda, had set the stage for an influx of employees with questionable qualifications.
In late July, border chief Tom Homan told CNN that he doubted whether an ICE officer involved in a fatal shooting “should have ever cleared vetting.” Homan made the comment after the July 13 shooting of Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. News outlets later identified the officer as David Brouillette, whose two ex-wives publicly described alleged abusive, violent and threatening behavior during their relationships with him.
Asked whether someone with those issues should be an ICE agent, Homan said: “No, if those … are facts … I don’t think he should ever have cleared vetting.”
A poll conducted by PBS News, National Public Radio and Marist after immigration agents’ killings of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis in January found that 65% of respondents believed ICE had gone too far in enforcing the Trump administration’s immigration policies.