Must read article on Slate if you haven’t seen it yet. Liberal applies for an ICE job, gets hired and writes about the process. Here are a few highlights.  You can read most of it on Slate without being a subscriber. There is also a promo deal three months for five bucks. Support independent media.

By Laura Jedeed 

“The plan was never to become an ICE agent.  The plan, when I went to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Career Expo in Texas last August, was to learn what it was like to apply to be an ICE agent. Who wouldn’t be curious? The event promised on-the-spot hiring for would-be deportation officers: Walk in unemployed, walk out with a sweet $50k signing bonus, a retirement account, and a license to brutalize the country’s most vulnerable residents without consequence—all while wrapped in the warm glow of patriotism.”

“The expo event was part of ICE’s massive recruitment campaign for the foot soldiers it needs to execute the administration’s dream of a deportation campaign large enough to shift America’s demographic balance back whiteward.”

“When Donald Trump took office, ICE numbered approximately 10,000. Despite this event’s lackluster attendance, their recruitment push is reportedly going well; the agency reported 12,000 new recruits in 2025, which means the agency has more new recruits than old hands. That’s the kind of growth that changes the culture of an agency.”

“ICE’s recruitment push is so sloppy that the administration effectively has no idea who’s joining the agency’s ranks. We’re all, collectively, in the dark about whom the state is arming, tasking with the most sensitive of law enforcement work, and then sending into America’s streets.”

“..the entire process took less than six minutes. The woman took my résumé and placed the form she’d been filling out on top. “They are prioritizing current law enforcement first. They’re going to adjudicate your résumé,” she told me. If my application passed muster, I’d receive an email about next steps, which could arrive in the next few hours but would likely take a few days. ”

“The agent took the opportunity to gush about ICE’s new state-of-the-art semi-automatic tasers and brand-new pepper-ball guns. “It’s mostly very liberal cities—San Francisco, Los Angeles—where groups will come and try to stop ICE officers from arresting somebody. They’re like, ‘We’re going to form a human wall against you,’ ” he said. “When they do that, you can just pop ‘em up. Let them disperse and cry about it.”

“It takes a lot to remove somebody from the United States. Some people are subject to due process.”

“Somehow, despite never submitting any of the paperwork they sent me—not the background check or identification info, not the domestic violence affidavit, none of it—ICE had apparently offered me a job.”

“According to the application portal, my pre-employment activities remained pending. And yet, it also showed that I had accepted a final job offer and that my onboarding status was “EOD”—Entered On Duty, the start of an enlistment period. I moused over the exclamation mark next to “Onboarding” and a helpful pop-up appeared. “Your EOD has occurred. Welcome to ICE!”

“By all appearances, I was a deportation officer. Without a single signature on agency paperwork, ICE had officially hired me.”

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