Politics

ICE Prosecutor Unmasked as Racist Troll Is Back at Work

FEATURE, NOT A BUG

James Rodden had previously been pulled from federal immigration court schedules.

ICE officers in Atlanta
Bryan Cox/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images

A prosecutor for ICE who was revealed last year to be behind a white supremacist X account has returned to his job in a Texas immigration court.

The Texas Observer identified James “Jim” Joseph Rodden as being the owner of an account known as @GlomarResponder on X, in an investigation last February. Rodden, then 44, was employed as an assistant chief counsel and working as a prosecutor for ICE in Dallas Immigration Court at the time of the report.

In response to the Observer’s reporting, Rodden was pulled from federal immigration court schedules, and three members of Congress sent letters to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security demanding an investigation be opened. The ICE Office of Professional Responsibility said at the time that it “understands the seriousness of the allegations and will ensure the allegations are addressed appropriately, fairly, and expeditiously” but has not provided any information since.

Responding to a tip-off, the Observer attended Dallas Immigration Court on Tuesday and discovered Rodden sitting at the prosecutors’ desk, seemingly back at work. The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for comment.

Rodden regularly posted racist and anti-immigrant sentiments to his X account, which has since been locked but which still has over 15,000 followers.

Examples of his posts include, ““America is a White nation founded by Whites” and “All blacks are foreign to my people, dumb f---.”

Rodden openly identified as a fascist on the account and asserted that freedom of association was abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“’Migrants’ are all criminals,” he wrote in August 2024. “Nobody is proposing feeding migrants into tree shredders. Yet.”

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. - JANUARY 2026: A Border Patrol Tactical Unit agent sprays pepper spray into the face of a protestor attempting to block an immigration officer vehicle from leaving the scene where a woman was shot and killed by a federal agent earlier, in Minneapolis, Minn. on Wednesday, January 7, 2026. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that a woman was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during a confrontation between federal agents and protesters in south Minneapolis. (Photo by Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Protests against ICE have erupted around the country in response to the killing of Renee Nicole Good. Star Tribune via Getty Images/Star Tribune via Getty Images

Rodden also shared information about ICE raids and arrest warrants on the account, which suggested it was operated by someone within the agency. The Observer was able to confirm his identity by comparing information shared on the account with federal court records and other public records, information from data broker sites, open-source investigation tools, other social media profiles, and interviews, and courtroom hearings.

Observer reports also observed Rodden scrolling through X in the courtroom, and saw him begin to draft a post for an account with the same profile photo as GlomarResponder. A minute later, a new post appeared on GlomarResponder’s account.

Thousands of people participate in a 'No Wars, No Kings, No ICE' protest against the policies of the Trump administration.
Americans have taken to the streets in their thousands to protest the death of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of ICE officer Jonathan Ross. Jason Alpert-Wisnia/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

The decision to welcome a known white supremacist back to work comes at a tense time for the agency, which is facing huge public hostility, particularly in the wake of the shooting death of 37-year-old mom-of-three Renee Nicole Good at the hands of ICE officer Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis.

A poll published on Tuesday found that 46 percent of Americans support abolishing the 22-year-old agency entirely—a significant increase from the 19 percent who supported its abolition in September 2024.

In addition, the personal information of some 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees was published online as part of the ICE List, an initiative designed to make it easier for Americans to hold ICE employees accountable.

The website’s founder, Dominic Skinner, told the Daily Beast, “It is a sign that people aren’t happy within the U.S. government, clearly. The shooting [of Good] was the last straw for many people.”

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