ICE entices new recruits with patriotism pitch and promise of $50,000 signing bonuses

WASHINGTON (AP) — The agency responsible for carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportations is launching a recruiting campaign to entice “brave and heroic Americans” to serve as new deportation officers, lawyers and investigators as the government gears up for a major expansion of immigration enforcement thanks to a recent infusion of money from Congress. The icing on the cake: a promise of up to $50,000 in signing bonuses.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement campaign, which rolled out late Tuesday, recalls recruiting posters from World War II with images of Uncle Sam and the words “AMERICA NEEDS YOU.” There also are photos of Trump and top homeland security officials with the words “DEFEND THE HOMELAND” across the images.

“Your country is calling you to serve at ICE,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a news release. “This is a defining moment in our nation’s history. Your skills, your experience, and your courage have never been more essential. Together, we must defend the homeland.”

In addition to appealing to prospective applicants’ patriotic fervor, Homeland Security is making a pocketbook pitch. The agency is promising up to $50,000 in signing bonuses, the potential for lots of overtime for deportation officers and other benefits such as loan repayment or forgiveness options.

Lots of money is coming to ICE

All of this is made possible by a big infusion of money to ICE.

The package of tax breaks and spending cuts that Trump signed into law this month includes about $170 billion for border security and immigration enforcement, spread out over five years.

ICE is set to get $76.5 billion, nearly 10 times its current annual budget. Some $45 billion will go toward increasing detention capacity. Nearly $30 billion is for hiring 10,000 more staff so the agency can meet its goal of 1 million annual deportations.

New hires include deportation officers responsible for tracking down, arresting and removing people who the administration determines no longer have the right to remain in the United States.

Under the Republican president, those officers are high-profile roles — making arrests at immigration courts, in the streets and at businesses. They often are criticized by immigration activists and Democratic lawmakers for wearing masks while carrying out their duties.

On the recruitment webpage, the link to learn more about applying to be a deportation officer shows a photo of an armored vehicle rolling down a street with officers in military gear hanging onto the sides of the vehicle.

The government is also seeking criminal investigators and lawyers who will prosecute immigration cases.

The agency said it will advertise at college campuses, job fairs and law enforcement networks, starting this week. But the recruiting drive has raised concerns about what happens if the agency grows too fast.

Staffing is a long-standing challenge

ICE staffing has long been an issue, said Jason Houser, a former agency chief of staff during the Biden administration.

At the beginning of the Trump administration there were roughly 6,000 officers within ICE tasked with monitoring noncitizens in the country, then finding and removing those not eligible to stay.

Those staffing numbers remained largely static over the years even as the caseload ballooned. During the Biden administration, when the number of people arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border skyrocketed, ICE workers were often pulled from their regular duties to go to the border.

“ICE does need more employees to handle the volume of what they’re handling,” Houser said.

But he is concerned about whether the rush to increase staffing could mean lower standards for recruits and training.

The Border Patrol’s rapid expansion during the early 2000s serves as a cautionary tale. To meet hiring goals, training and hiring standards were changed. Arrests for employee misconduct rose.

“If they start waiving requirements there like they did for Border Patrol, you’re going have an exponential increase in officers that are shown the door after three years because there’s some issue,” he said. At the same time, Houser noted the Department of Homeland Security has dismantled some of the key agencies that have provided some level of oversight over ICE and other DHS arms.

Houser estimated it would take three to four years to actually hire and train that number of new ICE staffers. In the meantime, he worries that ICE will rely on private contractors, National Guard troops and other federal law enforcement officers to meet the administration’s goal of 3,000 arrests a day.

$50,000 bonus is on the high end

Chuck Wexler is the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum which studies policing issues. He said police departments across the country have struggled to maintain staffing since the pandemic and the fallout from the death of George Floyd, and are often offering hiring bonuses as a result. He’s seen bonus offers ranging from $10,000 to as much as $60,000 or $70,000 for departments on the West Coast.

But he said the $50,000 topline bonus that DHS is offering is definitely on the high end, and Homeland Security’s hiring spree could end up having repercussions on police departments across the country if their officers try to get hired by ICE.

“The environment for hiring law enforcement has never been more competitive,” he said. “This could conceivably impact state and local agencies. You could have someone leaving a police department to get a $50,000 signing bonus with DHS.”