Get ready to see 10,000 more agents take to the streets as ICE becomes biggest police force in US

The passing of Trump’s new law by Congress will drastically change law enforcement in the U.S. by giving a huge amount of money to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This wide-ranging law sets aside around $170 billion for DHS, with nearly $30 billion of that going directly to ICE, an agency already known for its strict deportation policies.

The White House has made its goal clear to hire 10,000 new ICE officers. This would more than double the current number of agents, greatly increasing the agency’s ability to carry out its work. However, reaching this goal will not be easy. According to The Guardian, a 2017 report from the DHS inspector general, written after a similar push to hire 10,000 new officers under a past administration, found that hiring that many people would require interviewing about 500,000 candidates.

Still, MSNBC reported that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) faced an even bigger challenge back then, needing around 750,000 interviews just to hire 5,000 new agents. Now, eight years later, recruiting new agents for ICE and other government agencies will likely be even harder, unless the standards drop, which is likely to happen.

ICE will get more agents and Trump’s Gestapo grows to unheard of proportions

Since 2020, police departments at all levels have had major problems hiring and keeping officers, a trend that affects public-sector jobs in general. Another issue is that ICE’s pay is not very competitive, even with all the new funding. The highest base pay for federal law enforcement is about $75,000 before adjusting for local living costs, and current job listings for ICE “enforcement and removal operations” roles show salaries ranging from roughly $50,000 to $90,000.

By comparison, the New York Police Department (NYPD) starts rookie officers at just over $60,000, with pay rising to more than $125,000 in less than six years—yet even the NYPD can’t fill thousands of open jobs. I’m a former law enforcement officer myself and can confirm the pay isn’t as high as those numbers show when you consider how much is taken out of the paycheck for retirement and things like that, which don’t use Social Security benefits.

Ongoing public protests against ICE will likely make hiring even more difficult. People choose jobs based on both pay and how respected the job is. While ICE’s pay is lower than that of many police departments, the constant protests also hurt the agency’s reputation, making it a less appealing career choice. Unlike ICE agents, local police usually stay closer to home and work for departments that often have better public support, yet they still struggle to find enough recruits.

When it’s over, ICE will be bigger than the FBI’s enforcement and other departments. This is just to round immigrants up by assaulting many of them and taking them to detention centers. This is not similar to other law enforcement that protects the country from real threats of terrorism and criminals.