Overview
- White House border czar Tom Homan acknowledged a high fail rate on physical tests, which require 15 push-ups, 32 sit-ups and a 1.5-mile run in 14 minutes.
- Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin says ICE has received more than 175,000 applications for 10,000 roles and issued tens of thousands of tentative offers, but she did not specify hires.
- ICE is offering signing bonuses up to $50,000 on a starting salary near $49,700, spending over $10 million on a national ad campaign and hosting in-person career fairs.
- DHS disputes that standards have been lowered, noting the waiver of age limits alongside retained medical, drug, fitness and background checks, earlier fitness screening and a plan for rolling onboarding through December.
- Internal and media reporting describe trainees failing basic physical benchmarks and open-note immigration and constitutional law tests, with analysts warning of risks seen after CBP’s 2000s hiring surge cited by a 2012 GAO report.