Rep. Maxine Dexter just vowed to "dismantle and abolish ICE altogether" if Democrats retake power.
President Trump picked the exact Nebraska town that proves exactly why that would be a disaster.
What ICE found waiting in that town is the clearest answer yet to Dexter's promise.
ICE Dragged an Alleged Four-Time Assassin Out of This Same Nebraska Town
Trump is heading to Grand Island, Nebraska, on Monday to campaign for Sen. Pete Ricketts and Gov. Jim Pillen.
He didn't pick that town by accident.
Grand Island is where federal agents captured Gerson Emir Cuadra Soto, a Honduran national accused of running an MS-13 assassination squad called "El Combo."
Cuadra Soto, known by the alias "Fantasma," is wanted for four murders in Honduras.
One of the men allegedly gunned down in a 2022 nightclub ambush was the son of a former Honduran president.
Cuadra Soto didn't sneak past a wall somewhere.
He walked into the country illegally in 2022, got himself a California driver's license, and settled into American life like nothing happened.
Federal agents finally caught up with him in Grand Island last December.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis didn't mince words about who let that happen.
"Radical Democrats allowed criminals to pour into our country," Bis said.
She's right, and she's not finished.
Sanctuary-city Democrats released men like Cuadra Soto into American neighborhoods, then screamed about ICE being too aggressive when agents went looking for them.
Operation Take Back America Keeps Finding Killers Democrats Lost Track Of
Grand Island isn't even the first Nebraska town where this exact scene has played out.
Back in July, federal agents busted two senior MS-13 leaders in the Omaha area, one of them on El Salvador's 100 Most Wanted list for five homicides.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin had a blunt message for the politicians who let it happen.
McLaughlin didn't dress it up, calling them "the kinds of scum-bags sanctuary politicians are protecting and letting walk free."
Both busts came through Operation Take Back America, the Justice Department initiative Trump's team built specifically to go after cartels, MS-13, and the sanctuary jurisdictions shielding them.
Gov. Pillen's own state patrol fed the intelligence that cracked the Omaha case wide open.
Nebraska Republicans aren't theorizing about border security.
They're the ones hunting down the killers Washington Democrats lost track of.
This playbook isn't new either.
Back in 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions armed federal task forces with every tool available specifically to destroy MS-13, declaring they'd use "whatever laws we have to get MS-13 off of our streets."
Democrats fought that crackdown then, and they're fighting its successor now.
The difference is Trump's version is actually catching four-time killers hiding in towns most of the country couldn't find on a map.
Why Trump Needs Nebraska to Hold
Ricketts is defending his Senate seat against independent challenger Dan Osborn, who nearly knocked off Sen. Deb Fischer by seven points last cycle running as a populist outsider.
Osborn says he's running because "Congress shouldn't just be a playground for the rich."
Ricketts' campaign isn't buying the populist act for a second.
A Ricketts spokesman fired back that Osborn would "side with Chuck Schumer over Nebraska families" and back the same open-border policies Nebraska voters just watched produce an alleged four-time killer in their own backyard.
Midterms punish the party in power, and Nebraska Republicans know a close race when they see one.
He's standing in the exact spot where his administration's immigration crackdown delivered a result Osborn and national Democrats can't match with a single talking point.
An alleged four-time killer is sitting in federal custody instead of walking Grand Island's streets, and Trump intends to remind every voter in that county exactly who put him there.
Rep. Dexter can keep promising to dismantle ICE from a podium in Washington.
Grand Island just keeps showing voters exactly who that promise would send back onto their streets.
Sources:
- Louis Casiano, "Trump rallies in city where alleged MS-13 'assassination squad' leader was busted," Fox News, October 5, 2026.
- "House Dem compares Trump's illegal immigration crackdown to 'terrorism,' vows to abolish ICE," Fox News, 2026.
- Tom Stanton, "ICE Takes Down High-Ranking MS-13 Gang Leaders in Omaha," KLIN, July 11, 2025.
- "MS-13 leader wanted for assassination of four people in Honduras arrested in Grand Island," Nebraska Rural Radio Association, December 9, 2025.
- "DOJ Issues Memo Establishing Operation Take Back America," Immigration Policy Tracking Project, March 6, 2025.
- Anders Hagstrom, "Jeff Sessions Approves New Tools to Annihilate MS-13," The Daily Signal, October 23, 2017.
- "Nebraska independent takes another run at unseating a Republican senator," Associated Press, 2026.
