How could one imagine having an open border in the 21st century? Absolute insanity. — Dean Cain, ICE Special Agent
Dean Cain does not do interviews from a studio lot anymore.
The man who played Superman on television in the 1990s now carries a federal badge. He is a special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And when he sat down with Ian “Patches” Liburd in Washington, D.C. for the premiere episode of The Western Hemisphere, he did not come to promote a project. He came to deliver a situation report.
The conversation covered Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, Chinese influence in the Caribbean, energy independence, and the doctrine that underpins all of it: peace through strength. It was 30 minutes of unfiltered assessment from a man who traded the cameras for the front lines.
Why a Federal Badge Instead of a Screen Credit
Cain’s decision to join ICE was not impulsive. It was inherited.
His grandfather served in the U.S. Navy. His uncle served in the U.S. Air Force. His biological father was U.S. Army. Service, he says, has always been central to his family’s identity.
“I did not serve. I played football, which was a little bit different,” Cain told Liburd. “But I’ve done a lot of things with our military. I visit them overseas. I’ll do anything I can to support them because they’re real, real heroes.”
He acknowledges that joining ICE is not a career move that wins applause in his former industry. But he is clear about where he stands.
“Even for me, as an actor and a personality here in the United States, to join law enforcement, to support our president, it’s not the popular thing to do. But it’s the right thing to do.”
Inside the Pentagon with Secretary Hegseth
The day before the interview, Cain visited the Pentagon. He met with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a man he has known for over a decade.
Both attended Princeton University. Both co-hosted Fox and Friends. But Cain’s assessment of Hegseth is not based on personal history. It is based on results.
“All our recruitment numbers are up. Morale is super high. And all of the operations he has conducted have been nearly flawless,” Cain said. “If you cut his hand open, he would bleed red, white, and blue.”
Cain described meeting soldiers, airmen, and Marines during the visit, and said the state of military readiness under Hegseth’s leadership is unlike anything he has seen in his lifetime.
Venezuela: The Operation That Stunned the World
The capture of Nicolás Maduro, designated a narco-terrorist by the United States, sent a message that no diplomatic cable could deliver.
Cain described the operation as a demonstration of capability that shocked adversaries on three continents.
“It stunned the Russians. It stunned the Chinese. And it definitely stunned the Cubans protecting Maduro,” Cain said. “The ability to get in there and do that the way they did, that was an announcement: we’re for real. And your defenses, the things you thought were so advanced, aren’t. We know how to beat them.”
Maduro’s security had been provided by Cuban forces, funded through backdoor channels. With Maduro now sitting in a jail cell in New York City, the power structure that propped up Venezuela’s regime collapsed in hours.
Delcy Rodríguez made a deal. She is now in power. Flights to Venezuela have resumed.
Iran: 47 Years and Eight Presidents
Liburd raised a point that most commentators gloss over: Iran has been destabilizing the region through eight consecutive U.S. presidencies since 1979.
“Every president in the last 47 years has said Iran cannot have nuclear weapons,” Cain acknowledged. “But no one resolved it.”
He traced the line from the hostage crisis under Carter, to the Beirut bombing under Reagan, through Clinton, both Bushes, and Obama’s diplomatic engagement, which Cain characterized bluntly as appeasement.
“All of the trouble in the Middle East, you can point to one place, and that is certainly Iran. They sponsor Hezbollah. They sponsor Hamas.”
What changed, according to Cain, is that the current administration was willing to act rather than manage. He credits the four-year gap between Trump’s first and second terms as a period of strategic preparation.
“He came in ready to solve the problems. And if Iran had gone south, if it had not been as successful, he was risking everything. Tremendous courage.”
Cuba: The Next Domino
Cain does not believe the United States will need to topple Cuba’s regime. He believes it will fall on its own.
The logic is sequential: Cuban security forces were removed from Venezuela. Financial pressure is tightening through Treasury. Chinese and Russian influence is being squeezed out of the hemisphere.
“Cuba is sort of the next domino to fall,” Cain said. “And it’s not a domino we’re going to knock over. It’s a domino that’s going to topple on its own."
He credits Secretary of State Marco Rubio
for the strategic architecture behind the Caribbean and Latin American approach, and frames Cuba’s isolation as an inevitable consequence of cutting off the external lifelines that kept the regime solvent.
Chinese Passports in the Caribbean
This is where the conversation became personal for Liburd.
As a Caribbean native and former diplomat, Liburd has watched Chinese nationals acquire citizenship through the region’s Citizenship by Investment programs for years. He framed it plainly: the Caribbean depends on the United States for tourism and imports. Transit times from the U.S. are measured in hours. From Africa or China, they are measured in weeks.
“The Chinese are all over the world,” Liburd said. “In our country, there are more Chinese passports than perhaps the local population.”
Cain acknowledged the national security threat. Chinese passport holders in the Caribbean represent a potential entry vector into the United States. But he also called it a “paper tiger” that the administration is fully aware of and intends to address through financial and counterterrorism channels.
“I guarantee this administration is very aware of that issue and that problem, and they will address it.”
The Petrodollar Holds
The BRICS initiative to displace the U.S. dollar has failed. Cain said you do not even hear about it anymore.
U.S. energy independence has eliminated dependence on Iranian oil and the Strait of Hormuz. Secretary Bessent’s financial strategy has tightened the economic levers that once gave adversaries room to maneuver.
“The United States doesn’t need Iranian oil. We don’t need the Strait of Hormuz. We have become energy independent under this president because he understands that’s a national security threat.”
The result, Cain said, is that the dollar remains the world’s reserve currency, and the financial pressure on hostile regimes is increasing, not decreasing.
Drug Interdiction: A New Posture
The shift from passive interdiction to active destruction is not rhetoric. It is policy.
Under previous administrations, the approach to drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere relied on ship-rider agreements and Coast Guard interdiction. Vessels were stopped and seized. Under the current posture, they are destroyed.
“If you’re a narco-terrorist, the Southern Command will blow you up. That’s it,” Cain said.
He named Drug Czar Sara Carter as a key architect of the new enforcement posture in the hemisphere, and described the approach as cutting the head off the snake rather than managing the symptoms.
The Golden Age Ahead
Cain closed with a prediction he attributes to President Trump.
“Golden age of America. I believe these next three years are going to be transformative to the world.”
He is not speaking as a pundit or a partisan. He is speaking as a federal agent who has been inside the Pentagon, inside the White House, and inside the briefing rooms where these operations are planned.
Liburd's show, The Western Hemisphere, is built around a single premise: the safety and sovereignty of the Western Hemisphere is non-negotiable. Episode 1 makes the case that the team currently in place agrees.
Watch the full episode on Proud American Studios.
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