Overview
- ICE plans to hire 5,000 new employees by the end of December, reporting on Wednesday said, and most of the recruits are expected to work as deportation officers in Enforcement and Removal Operations.
- The agency has already grown to roughly 29,000 staff after prior hiring drives, and the new surge would increase its force by about 17 percent.
- Reports and internal memos say ICE still faces a vetting backlog of roughly 7,500 recruits who are waiting for full background checks, and past waves put some people to work before final vetting was completed.
- Investigations and whistleblower accounts describe problems from earlier rapid hiring that led to limited screening, hundreds of firings or departures, and at least one shooting by a recent recruit, raising safety and oversight concerns.
- Congressional funding reportedly enabled the expansion with more than $100 billion directed to immigration enforcement, and independent experts warn that thorough multi-stage background checks and training typically take months and may not be completed on the announced timeline.