The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) has launched a recruitment drive to rent “brave and heroic Americans” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to sort out unlawful immigration, the DHS mentioned in a July 29 assertion.
The “Defend the Homeland” recruitment initiative goals to rent people as federal regulation enforcement brokers and take away “the worst of the worst criminal illegal 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 compensation and forgiveness choices, additional time pay, and enhanced retirement advantages.
Recruitment supplies will probably be distributed throughout main school campuses, regulation enforcement networks, job gala’s, and cities nationwide beginning this week, DHS mentioned. ICE encourages People with a dedication to upholding the rule of regulation to use, it added.
“Your country is calling you to serve at ICE. In the wake of the Biden administration’s failed immigration policies, your country needs dedicated men and women of ICE to get the worst of the worst criminals out of our country,” Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem mentioned within the assertion.
“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.”
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 “significant new funding” from the One Large 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 geared toward guaranteeing accountability from immigration enforcement companies.
On July 8, Senate Democrats launched 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 signify throughout enforcement actions.
The invoice would additionally prohibit the usage of nonmedical face coverings by such personnel throughout these operations until required for security causes or covert operations.
“When federal immigration agents show up and pull someone off the street in plainclothes with their face obscured and no visible identification, it only escalates tensions and spreads fear while shielding federal agents from basic accountability,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), co-sponsor of the invoice, mentioned in a press release.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) mentioned the invoice is geared toward strengthening belief between regulation enforcement and the general public. Lack of correct identification has “created confusion, stoked fear, and undermined public trust in law enforcement,” he mentioned.
In an emailed assertion to The Epoch Occasions, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin rebutted such arguments.
Officers are going through a “nearly 700 percent increase in assaults,” she mentioned, including that some personnel have been doxxed or have been focused together with members of the family. Protecting gear, together with face coverings, reduces these dangers, McLaughlin mentioned.
“While 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 trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorists,” she mentioned.
In a July 20 assertion, DHS mentioned that greater than 300,000 unlawful immigrants have been arrested below the Trump administration up to now and that 70 p.c of ICE arrests have been of legal illegals with convictions or legal costs. Funding from the OBBB Act will enable ICE to arrest and take away “even more criminal aliens,” DHS mentioned.
Chase Smith contributed to this report.
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