As ICE boosts recruitment, critics concerned over changes to hiring and training standards

Geoff Bennett:

ICE is in the midst of an aggressive recruitment campaign in a scale never seen before. The agency has reportedly signed on thousands of new agents since President Trump's return to the White House.

And, as Liz Landers reports, there are concerns about the agency's recruitment tactics and changes made to hiring and training standards.

(Music)

Liz Landers:

Slickly produced social media videos...

Narrator:

Join ICE and help us catch the worst of the worst.

Liz Landers:

... televised ads targeting local police and a celebrity endorsement.

Dean Cain, Actor:

We need your help to protect our homeland and our families.

Liz Landers:

These are all part of a major multimillion-dollar recruitment campaign launched by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, ICE, to enact a key campaign promise of President Trump.

President Donald Trump:

On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history.

Liz Landers:

His deportation agenda was supercharged when the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July. It included almost $75 billion extra for ICE, making it the highest funded law enforcement agency in the U.S. government, outstripping the FBI.

And the agency announced a lofty recruitment goal of hiring 10,000 new agents by the end of the year, which would more than double the number of deportation officers from roughly 6,000 to 16,000.

John Sandweg, Former Acting ICE Director:

We have never seen an expansion of ICE like this.

Liz Landers:

John Sandweg served as acting ICE director under President Obama and says the hiring goal may lead to compromises.

John Sandweg:

How realistic this goal is and whether you can maintain those standards all depends on the time frame. Unfortunately, I think we're seeing that the administration is so eager to get them deployed that we're seeing a couple of things. One is a reduction in those standards.

Liz Landers:

To make its recruitment quota, ICE has removed all age requirements and cut its training program length in half. The administration is also offering student loan forgiveness and lucrative overtime packages and signing bonuses of up to $50,000.

It's pushing those perks in traditional places like job fairs, as well as almost anywhere potential recruits spend their time online.

Joseph Cox, 404 Media: That's going to be on social media. It's going to be through streamers, so YouTube and other places where user-generated content is, but also large-scale broadcast and streaming platforms like Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, all of this sort of thing.

Liz Landers:

Joseph Cox is an investigative journalist at 404 Media and has reported on ICE's recruitment strategy. He says the agency aims to target two main groups, people with military and law enforcement experience and Gen Z.

Joseph Cox:

They're really trying to do essentially everything they can to target and find these people.

Liz Landers:

ICE has spent millions on broadcast ads aimed at police officers frustrated with their city's enforcement of immigration law.

Narrator:

You took an oath to protect and serve, but in too many cities, dangerous illegals walk free as police are forced to stand down.

Liz Landers:

And on social media, the Department of Homeland Security has launched a campaign it describes as aggressive. It's posted a meme referencing the video game Halo to its official X account with the slogan -- quote -- "Destroy the Flood."

Joseph Cox:

That's very dehumanizing language. The Flood is an insect parasite enemy in the video game. And you go through the replies and there are people who find it absolutely abhorrent and disgusting.

Liz Landers:

It's also shared images using wartime imagery, like Uncle Sam, and slang, like in this post with the caption -- quote -- "Want to deport illegals with your absolute boys."

But some critics worry this will draw recruits with the wrong motivation.

Wendy Via, Global Project Against Hate and Extremism: They're normalizing extremism, but also warping what it means to be a person who protects your country.

Liz Landers:

Wendy Via co-founded the Center for Global Hate and Extremism. She's tracked the campaign, including posts shared by far right groups like the Proud Boys.

Wendy Via:

The recruitment for the new staff is very much saying, come with us and we're going to make America different than what it is. They present it as a violent but white place.

Liz Landers:

When asked about their social media recruitment posts, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said -- quote -- "These are the type of smears that vilify our brave ICE law enforcement and are leading to 100 percent increase in assaults against them. ICE only recruits patriotic professionals who have the integrity and moral compass to perform such critical roles in keeping America safe."

While the agency emphasizes its mission to protect public safety and national security to potential recruits, a recent New York Times analysis found the majority of immigrants arrested and detained by ICE do not have U.S. criminal records and roughly 8 percent have been convicted of a violent crime.

Chad Wolf, Former Acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security: When you talk about millions of individuals on a final order of removal here in the United States that all should be deported or removed, but yet you don't have the officers to go out there and to target them and apprehend them and remove them, you need to beef up their resources.

Liz Landers:

Chad Wolf, who led the Department of Homeland Security AS acting secretary during the first Trump administration, says the agency's recruitment tactics are not a main concern.

Chad Wolf:

Once you get those recruits, right, into the pipeline, and you start vetting them, you start talking to them, you start interviewing them, that's where the rubber meets the road, right? That's when you're really going to determine whether or not that person is suitable for that type of job, based on their background, based on their temperament, based on a variety of different factors.

Liz Landers:

But the agency has reportedly rushed new recruits into its training program before being properly vetted, leading some trainees to drop out due to failing background checks, academic requirements or fitness standards.

John Sandweg:

Yes, I mean, some of these moves, frankly, have resulted in some embarrassing candidates. ICE agents have tremendous authority when they're out there on the streets. We have to know that these people, A, have that integrity, are going to -- when no one's looking, are they going to do things the right way?

And, secondly, they're getting into this for the right reason. Obviously, there's a tremendous concern as well that the administration is going after individuals who harbor some animus towards immigrants.

Liz Landers:

Assistant Secretary McLaughlin defended the agency's vetting process, saying -- quote -- "Any individual who desires to join ICE will undergo intense background investigations and security clearances, no exception."

Man:

From Texas to California, Border Patrol agents are being hired at a breakneck speed.

Liz Landers:

Former ICE Director John Sandweg sees parallels with the scramble to expand Border Patrol under President George W. Bush.

John Sandweg:

When we rushed to hire Border Patrol agents, we ended up getting individuals who just weren't well suited for some of the stressful encounters you have as a law enforcement agent. They resorted to force too quickly. They resorted to force that was unreasonable.

Liz Landers:

After loosening its hiring standards and training standards, arrests of CBP officers for misconduct increased, including for high-profile corruption cases involving agents working with cartels to smuggle drugs across the border.

Do you have concerns that this explosive growth in ICE could lead to some of those same problems that we have seen in the past?

Chad Wolf:

I understand the concern. I think that is a challenge, but it is doable. It's not -- I mean, we're the United States. I think we can figure out how to hire thousands of individuals and give them the right training and put them out on the streets to do a job.

Liz Landers:

So far, the administration says its recruitment campaign is working, recently announcing that it will finish hiring 10,000 agents within days, an effort that is reshaping the face of law enforcement on America's streets.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Liz Landers.