Now Hiring at ICE: 'Brave and Heroic Americans'

The agency responsible for carrying out President Trump's mass deportations is launching a recruiting campaign to find "brave and heroic Americans" to serve as new deportation officers, lawyers, and investigators for a major expansion of immigration enforcement. Flush with an infusion of money from Congress, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is offering up to $50,000 per recruit in signing bonuses, the AP reports. The campaign, which launched 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 "Defend the homeland" in all caps across the images.

• The pitch: "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 the signing bonuses, the agency promises overtime pay for deportation officers and benefits such as loan repayment or forgiveness options.
• The funding: The hiring spree is made possible by the package of tax breaks and spending cuts that Trump signed into law this month. It 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.
• The jobs: 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 US. Under Trump, those officers are in 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.

• The rollout: ICE said it will advertise the positions on college campuses, at job fairs, and through law enforcement networks, starting this week.
• A lesson: 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," said Jason Houser, an agency chief of staff during the Biden administration.
• Competition: The executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which studies policing issues, said the big money could hurt staffing in local police departments. "The environment for hiring law enforcement has never been more competitive," Chuck Wexler said.