The Trump administration is ramping up a massive hiring spree at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, offering up to $50,000 signing bonuses, waiving age limits and invoking wartime-style imagery in a bid to lure thousands of new officers.
The campaign is part of a broader White House effort to dramatically scale up deportations, backed by a $150 billion border-security package signed into law last month by President Donald Trump, including $30 billion for ICE. More than 80,000 people have applied to join the agency since the recruitment drive began last week, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Posters with images like Uncle Sam or Trump have blanketed college campuses, social media and federal job boards, emblazoned with phrases such as “Defend the Homeland” and “America has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need YOU to get them out.” ICE is targeting first-time applicants with promises of student-loan relief and trying to entice retired US employees back into service.
ICE says it has made tentative job offers to more than 1,000 as hiring ramps up
In a post on X this week, DHS linked to an ICE hiring website and said, “Serve your country! Defend your culture! No undergraduate degree required!”
The aggressive tone and scale of the campaign are drawing comparisons to military enlistment drives — and stirring concern among outside observers who say the messaging risks casting immigrants as enemies of the state. Questions are also swirling about whether ICE can attract enough qualified applicants at a time when its masked agents regularly face hostility from ordinary people and most Americans say they don’t agree with how Trump is handling immigration.
“The administration is certainly trying, but I don’t think they have all the leverage in the world here,” said John Sandweg, a former acting director of ICE in the Obama administration. “I worry that a lot of people will say I would never take a job at ICE because it is so polarizing.”
While the Trump administration insists the effort is about restoring law and order after what it calls disastrous border policies under President Joe Biden, internal ICE data complicates that narrative. Only about 40% of those arrested since Trump returned to office in January have been convicted of any crimes in the US, weakening arguments that the majority of those detained are violent offenders or pose national security threats.
Morale boost
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who appears in one campaign image wearing a Kevlar vest and DHS hat, described the effort as both a staffing initiative and a morale boost.
“Retired agents want to come back and help,” she said in an interview. “They love the opportunity to work for an agency that’s finally allowed to do its job again.”
Noem announced Wednesday that DHS would waive age requirements for jobs at ICE, saying anyone 18 or above could apply. Previously, ICE required applicants to be no older than 37 for special investigators or 40 for detention and removal officers.
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She also said ICE, which has about 20,000 employees, is looking to add 10,000 officers. About 1,000 people have already been given conditional job offers since early July, according to DHS.
The agency got a publicity boost this week when Dean Cain, 59, an actor who played Superman in the 1990s TV series Lois & Clark, posted a recruitment video for ICE on his X account and then told Fox News that he plans to sign up himself as an immigration officer.
The staffing effort is key to ICE’s plans to step up immigration arrests. Noem touted plans to “flood the zone” in sanctuary cities like New York, sending more agents, equipment and legal firepower to mainly Democratic-led jurisdictions that have limited cooperation with federal immigration enforcers.
Since taking office, Trump has placed immigration enforcement at the center of his domestic agenda, treating it as a government-wide priority. He has authorized ICE to draw on personnel from across the federal bureaucracy — including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Marshals Service and even the Fish and Wildlife Service — to help conduct raids and process arrests.
The White House went even further in California. As anti-deportation protests swept through Los Angeles in June, Trump ordered the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops and active-duty Marines to protect federal buildings and agents.
The enforcement campaign is intensifying as most Americans say they don’t agree with how the administration is handling immigration. A recent Gallup poll found 62% of US adults disapprove of Trump’s approach on immigration, including 45% who strongly disapprove. Just 35% said they approve.
This week, ICE offered agents cash bonuses to speed up deportations before abruptly canceling what was supposed to be a 30-day pilot program hours later, underscoring the pressure to meet Trump’s immigration goals, the New York Times reported. Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said that no such policy had ever been in effect.
‘Return to mission’
To bolster staffing, the administration is actively trying to bring former government workers back into service. One email message sent to retired attorneys, titled “Return to Mission – Attorneys,” urges them to come back in the name of national service.
“You served the United States of America with distinction and honor. Now, your country calls upon you to serve once more,” according to the email seen by Bloomberg News, which was signed by Madison Sheahan, ICE’s deputy director.
“Due to the prior administration’s disastrous immigration policies, the men and women of ICE now face unprecedented challenges,” Sheahan said in the email. “Your experience and unwavering commitment are critically needed to support our frontline law enforcement colleagues in helping to secure our communities and uphold our laws.”
The message outlines five-figure incentives: an immediate $10,000 signing bonus, with another $10,000 paid if they completed their application by Aug. 6. And those who stick with it through the end of the Trump administration will be paid another $10,000 a year for as long as three years, according to the email.
Last week, DHS issued a formal request for information from vendors interested in supporting the recruitment drive through streaming platforms, TV and other digital channels, a move that typically signals pending federal contracts.
The campaign also includes a push by US Customs and Border Protection to rehire retired Border Patrol agents. They are being offered expedited hiring and along with the ability to collect both a retirement pension and full-time salary, according to a LinkedIn advertisement. The starting annual salaries are between $105,000 and $130,000 for returning border patrol agents.
In July, crossings at the US border with Mexico dropped to the lowest in decades, to just below 5,000.
With assistance from Rachel Adams-Heard.