Leadership at some local and state law enforcement agencies across the country — including agencies that have been supportive of federal immigration enforcement efforts — grew frustrated this week with efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to recruit new deportation officers and investigators from their ranks, according to several sources familiar with the matter.
Earlier this week, ICE sent a recruiting email blast directly to officers at sheriffs’ offices and other agencies who were trained by ICE to support the federal 287(g) program that allows local officers to perform certain law enforcement functions related to federal immigration enforcement.
The email left some local law enforcement leaders upset that after agreeing to have their officers help ICE, the agency was now trying to pull those officers away, sources said.
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In the email addressed to the “287(g) community,” ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said that this is a “critical time for our nation,” and “we hope to welcome you to the ICE team soon.”
“As someone who is currently supporting ICE through the 287(g) program, you understand the unique responsibility we carry in protecting our communities and upholding federal law. Your experience in state or local law enforcement brings invaluable insight and skills to this mission — qualities we need now more than ever,” said the email, which was reviewed by ABC News.
“ICE is actively recruiting officers like you who are committed to serving with integrity, professionalism, and a deep sense of duty. This is more than a job; it’s a continuation of your service to our country,” the email said.
The email said that new recruits can receive a signing bonus of $50,000, paid over five years.
In Florida, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told ABC News that the outreach from ICE was “wrong.”
“The State of Florida and Florida law enforcement agencies have expended significant resources and invested in our personnel to ensure that we are properly staffed so that we can provide the best law enforcement services to our residents and visitors,” Gualtieri said in a statement to ABC News.
“We have partnered with ICE like no other state to help ICE do its job of illegal immigration enforcement,” Gualtieri said. “ICE actively trying to use our partnership to recruit our personnel is wrong and we have expressed our concern to ICE leadership.”
One Trump administration official told ABC News that the administration understands the frustration and values its partners, and that ICE would love to attract quality law enforcement officers who wouldn’t need to be trained for as long as a new hire off the street.
Not everyone was upset by ICE’s latest recruitment effort.
In Texas, Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, a Border Patrol veteran, said that while all of his deputies received a recruitment email from ICE, he is supportive of it.
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“I have a deputy who is interested and I’m supportive. I want to see my employees succeed at whatever their plans may be,” Cleveland said in a statement to ABC News. “I’m retired Border Patrol and I’ve received an email to come back as well.”
“Both agencies are beginning to recruit.” Cleveland said. “In the past, Border Patrol loses a lot of agents to ICE, due to there being more desirable locations in the interior of the U.S. as opposed to border towns.”
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
