Get ready for ICE to flood your social media feeds.
Dangling bonuses of up to $50,000, federal officials are launching a massive recruitment campaign to hire more than 14,000 immigration agents, attorneys and other workers to help execute President Donald Trump’s border crackdown. The president is newly flush with billions in funding and wants to deport 1 million people annually with the help of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“America needs you,” reads one of the ICE recruiting ads, featuring a finger-pointing Uncle Sam, evoking WWI recruiting posters. “America has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need YOU to get them out.”
The federal spending plan funds the hiring of 10,000 new ICE agents, making ICE the single-largest law enforcement agency in the country, larger than the FBI, DEA, ATF and other agencies combined. For comparison, the FBI only has about 13,700 special agents, according to the Department of Justice.
Even before the new hires take their posts, the dramatic expansion of public ICE operations has upset communities from coast to coast, and raised questions about the tactics agents have used as they’ve chased suspects across Home Depot parking lots, farm fields and into medical buildings.
The aggressive recruitment efforts have also angered local sheriffs worried that deputies in already understaffed offices will be lured away by the big bonuses and higher pay.
“It is tone deaf and reflects a total lack of judgment and character on their part,” Jonathan Thompson, the executive director and CEO of the National Sheriff’s Association, said of a recruiting offer emailed to local deputies nationwide. “This is either galactically stupid or purposefully malicious. You’re just robbing Peter to pay Paul. And in this case, you’re robbing the poorest of Peter to pay the richest of Paul.”
Massive media blitz, incentives and job offers
Bolstered by new staffing, federal officials have promised to further flood Democrat-run cities with deportation officers in response to a lack of cooperation in executing Trump’s get-tough approach that has targeted undocumented immigrations with or without criminal records.
The Department of Homeland Security has already begun hiring for the new jobs. Federal officials are planning a massive social media blitz to reach recruits, potentially advertising on YouTube and SnapChat, but also on connected TVs via Hulu and Amazon Prime.
In addition to the signing bonuses, ICE is offering up to $60,000 in student loan forgiveness, although applicants don’t need to have college degrees to be considered for some of the jobs.
ICE officials on July 31 announced they’ve made 1,000 job offers since Trump signed the funding law. Among those receiving job offers are retired ICE agents who quit during the Biden administration, said acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons in a statement.
“They couldn’t do the jobs they signed up to do,” Lyons said. “Now, people are lining up to work with us because they know our officers and agents are allowed to enforce immigration law fairly and across the board, and that’s a cause people really believe in.”
Applicants ‘should expect a certain level of risk’
White House officials say there’s been an 830% increase in assaults against agents through July 14th, compared with the same period last year, and the recruiting materials say applicants “should expect a certain level of risk,” but that they will be trained to take “every precaution” in remaining safe.
How quickly ICE can bring aboard the new employees remains uncertain. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has long struggled to hire Border Patrol agents, who typically take more than 300 days to bring aboard, according to a 2024 GAO study.
Joe Gamaldi, the national vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police union, said he suspects ICE will face the same recruiting challenges as local departments. He said years of demonizing law enforcement by some politicians, activists and media has created a “toxic cocktail” that will make hiring challenging.
“Truth be told, all police agencies are competing for a small pool of people who are still willing to serve and literally die for their communities,” he said. “Bonuses and better pay will help, but ultimately police officers, and those interested in police work, want to serve for an agency and communities that appreciate them and don’t treat them like scum.”
Local sheriffs furious about ICE recruitment efforts
The aggressive hiring efforts have frustrated local law enforcement leaders who worry their officers will flock to better-paying federal jobs. Without telling local sheriffs in advance, ICE officials directly emailed recruitment offers to hundreds of deputies across the country.
Thompson, of the National Sheriff’s Association, said sheriffs feel betrayed by the move. Thompson said sheriffs agreed to send deputies to special immigration enforcement training designed for local police, only to then have ICE try to simply poach them away.
“It’s become a wildfire of discontent, and not how partners treat partners,” he said. “This is an embarrassment to this president, and it’s sad.”
Thompson said some sheriff’s offices currently have vacancies of 40% and predicted the ICE hiring spree could further winnow the ranks of local law enforcement.
Other policing experts have raised concerns about the risks of hiring so quickly.
National-security expert and commentator Garrett Graf, who investigated Border Patrol hiring surges after 9/11, said in a Substack post that ICE risks a surge of applications from Americans “specifically attracted by the rough-em-up, masked secret police tactics, no-holds-barred lawlessness that ICE has pursued since January.”
Graff added: “If you’re excited to dress up like you’re taking Fallujah for a raid of hard-working roofers in the Home Depot parking lot, working for ICE or CBP shouldn’t be for you.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ICE is recruiting agents with ads, incentives. Sheriffs aren’t happy.
