More than 150,000 “patriotic Americans” have applied to work at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help the agency carry out migrant deportation arrests, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Tuesday.
“ICE has received more than 150,000 applications from patriotic Americans who want to defend the homeland by removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the U.S.,” Noem said in a statement.
“We have already issued more than 18,000 tentative job offers,” the DHS chief added. “Americans are answering their country’s call to serve and help remove murderers, pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, and gang members from our country.”
The enormous interest from Americans in joining the agency comes after anti-ICE protests — that often turned violent — swept the nation this summer in response to Trump’s surge in deportations and criminal migrant arrests.
ICE launched a massive recruitment push in late July after his Big Beautiful Bill granted the agency $75 billion in extra funding to carry out the commander in chief’s crackdown on illegal immigration — including $30 billion for arrest and deportation efforts and $45 billion to expand detention capabilities.
As part of the hiring spree, some top recruits have been offered lucrative, six-figure salaries to join ICE, The Post previously reported.
Signing bonus of up to $50,000, student loan repayment and forgiveness, enhanced retirement benefits and “administratively uncontrollable overtime” for Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) Deportation Officers have also been offered as incentives for prospective ICE agents.
The agency has focused on bringing former federal law enforcement officers — many of whom quit en masse during the Biden administration — back into the fold.
ICE issued an “urgent call” to former officers back in July under a recruitment campaign dubbed “Operation Return to Mission.”
Last month, Noem also announced that ICE was ending the age cap for new hires, which barred the agency from bringing on employees over the age of 37 or 40 for certain posts.
ICE has conducted large-scale enforcement operations in several major US cities, including Los Angeles and Washington, DC, as part of Trump’s directive on illegal immigration.
DHS recently kicked off Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago to target criminal illegal migrants who “flocked” to the Windy City and state of Illinois “because they knew [Democratic] Governor [JB] Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” the department announced last week.
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