ICE Recruitment Drive Draws 150,000 Applicants Amid Hiring Push

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) received over 150,000 applications from citizens looking to join the agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a Sept. 16 statement.

An ICE vehicle sits near the Cook County jail and courthouse complex in Chicago, Illinois on Sept. 8, 2025 Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

“We have already issued more than 18,000 tentative job offers. Americans are answering their country’s call to serve and help remove murderers, pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, and gang members from our country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

DHS said that ICE is offering a “robust” package of joining incentives, including a signing bonus of up to $50,000, enhanced retirement benefits, and student loan repayment and forgiveness options.

The ICE recruitment drive, “Defend the Homeland,” was launched by the DHS on July 29. At present, the agency employs approximately 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel across some 400 offices in the United States and internationally.

ICE’s recruitment drive is backed by funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that allocated $170 billion for border security and immigration enforcement over a five-year period.

ICE was granted $76.5 billion, almost 10 times the agency’s typical annual budget.

Out of that, $30 billion will go towards hiring 10,000 more staff members, with the agency aiming to deport a million people annually.

In a Sept. 19 statement, DHS said that a recent career expo in Provo, Utah, was a “resounding success,” with over 1,500 people registering for career opportunities.

“In the first day alone, DHS extended more than 370 tentative job offers for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers. In total, DHS extended almost 500 tentative job offers, and we anticipate additional selections in the near future with over 200 more completed applications received,” Tricia McLaughlin, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, said.

A similar ICE job fair in Dallas, Texas, last month was also a success. Despite protests at the site against the agency and the Trump administration, the applicant flow did not stop.

Cecil Foster Jr., an attorney of 53 years who taught criminal law to military police, told The Epoch Times that he hoped to come out of retirement and serve as an attorney for ICE.

“I want to support the idea of legal immigrants as opposed to illegal immigrants, especially the criminal type. I want to support ICE in rounding up these bad guys,” he said.

Protestors demonstrate against ongoing ICE operations while blocking the Sixth Street Bridge between Boyle Heights and downtown L.A. in Los Angeles, on July 1, 2025. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Democrats have pushed forward multiple bills against federal immigration enforcement.

In July. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced the Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement (VISIBLE) Act of 2025 that would ban immigration enforcement officers from concealing their identity while conducting enforcement activities in public, the lawmaker’s office said in a July 14 statement.

Meanwhile, a similar bill—the No Secret Police Act—was passed by the California Legislature last week, according to a Sept. 11 statement from Sen. Scott Wiener’s (D-Calif.) office.

The bill bans federal and local law enforcement officers from concealing their identities using “extreme masking” in the state, the statement said.

“Law enforcement should never be easily confused with the guy in the ski mask robbing a liquor store, yet that’s what’s happening with ICE’s extreme masking,” said Wiener. “California must hold those who are threatening our communities accountable and restore confidence in our local law enforcement who are proud to show their faces.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom now has until Oct. 13 to sign or veto the measure.

In a Sept. 16 statement, the DHS called on Newsom to veto the Act, warning that forcing officers to show faces could put their lives as well as the lives of their family members at risk.

“Sen. Scott Wiener’s legislation banning our federal law enforcement from wearing masks and his rhetoric comparing them to ’secret police’—likening them to the Gestapo—is despicable,” said McLaughlin.

“Our federal law enforcement officers face a 1000 percent increase in assaults against them, unprecedented online doxing, and are having cars used as weapons against them. Once again, sanctuary politicians are trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers.”

Darlene McCormick Sanchez contributed to this report.