The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) has launched a recruitment drive to rent “courageous and heroic Individuals” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deal with unlawful immigration, the DHS mentioned in a July 29 statement.
The “Defend the Homeland” recruitment initiative goals to rent people as federal regulation enforcement brokers and take away “the worst of the worst prison unlawful aliens from America’s streets,” the assertion mentioned.
ICE is providing engaging incentives for brand spanking new recruits, together with signing bonuses of as much as $50,000, scholar mortgage reimbursement and forgiveness choices, time beyond regulation pay, and enhanced retirement advantages.
Recruitment supplies shall be distributed throughout main faculty campuses, regulation enforcement networks, job festivals, and cities nationwide beginning this week, DHS mentioned. ICE encourages Individuals with a dedication to upholding the rule of regulation to use, it added.
“Your nation is asking you to serve at ICE. Within the wake of the Biden administration’s failed immigration insurance policies, your nation wants devoted women and men of ICE to get the worst of the worst criminals out of our nation,” Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem mentioned within the assertion.
“It is a defining second in our nation’s historical past. Your abilities, your expertise, and your braveness have by no means been extra important. Collectively, we should defend the homeland.”
At current, ICE employs greater than 20,000 regulation enforcement and help personnel throughout greater than 400 places of work in the US and globally.
In keeping with DHS, the ICE recruitment drive is backed by “vital new funding” from the One Huge Lovely Invoice (OBBB) Act that was signed into regulation by President Donald Trump on July 4. The OBBB Act has allotted $150 billion to help immigration enforcement.
The act allotted practically $30 billion to ICE for hiring and coaching extra personnel, together with signing and efficiency bonuses.
Whereas the Trump administration is strengthening ICE, Democrats are pushing ahead measures they are saying are aimed toward making certain accountability from immigration enforcement companies.
On July 8, Senate Democrats introduced the VISIBLE Act of 2025, which requires ICE officers, Customs and Border Safety personnel, and others engaged in immigration enforcement to show their title or badge quantity and the company they characterize throughout enforcement actions.
The invoice would additionally prohibit the usage of nonmedical face coverings by such personnel throughout these operations except required for security causes or covert operations.
“When federal immigration brokers present up and pull somebody off the road in plainclothes with their face obscured and no seen identification, it solely escalates tensions and spreads worry whereas shielding federal brokers from fundamental accountability,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), co-sponsor of the invoice, mentioned in an announcement.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) mentioned the invoice is aimed toward strengthening belief between regulation enforcement and the general public. Lack of correct identification has “created confusion, stoked worry, and undermined public belief in regulation enforcement,” he mentioned.
In an emailed assertion to The Epoch Occasions, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin rebutted such arguments.
Officers are dealing with a “practically 700 p.c enhance in assaults,” she mentioned, including that some personnel have been doxxed or have been focused together with relations. Protecting gear, together with face coverings, reduces these dangers, McLaughlin mentioned.
“Whereas ICE officers are being assaulted by rioters and having rocks and Molotov cocktails thrown at them, and our CBP officers are being shot, Sanctuary politicians like Alex Padilla and Cory Booker are attempting to outlaw officers carrying masks to guard themselves from being doxed and focused by recognized and suspected terrorists,” she mentioned.
In a July 20 statement, DHS mentioned that greater than 300,000 unlawful immigrants have been arrested underneath the Trump administration to this point and that 70 p.c of ICE arrests had been of prison illegals with convictions or prison costs. Funding from the OBBB Act will enable ICE to arrest and take away “much more prison aliens,” DHS mentioned.
Chase Smith contributed to this report.
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