ICE struggles to vet recruits amid US immigration enforcement push, internal email shows

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is struggling to keep pace with vetting new hires during its historic recruitment push and is laying out a process to deal with allegations of past misconduct among recruits, the agency said in an internal email on Monday, underscoring concerns about ICE’s rapid expansion.

The email, sent to supervisors with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division and seen by Reuters, said the “high volume of new hires” and stalled background checks could create uncertainty for field offices when allegations arise related to actions before joining ICE, and that allegations should be referred to the internal Integrity Investigations Unit. “If a Field Office receives derogatory information about a newly hired employee’s conduct prior to ERO employment (e.g., termination or resignation in lieu of termination from another law enforcement agency for misconduct), please refer the matter to IIU,” it said.

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President Donald Trump’s Republican administration hired thousands of ICE officers last year to support Trump’s mass deportation drive, a fast pace that raised questions about the vetting and quality of recruits. Trump portrays migrants as criminals and a drain on U.S. communities, and says the deportations are needed after high levels of illegal immigration under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. But public support for Trump’s immigration approach has declined in recent months as federal officers arrested non-criminals, including families and children, and clashed with residents, killing two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, said in January it had hired 12,000 ICE officers on top of an existing force of 10,000 officers, although a federal workforce database showed fewer hires, creating a net gain of 6,200 when factoring in departures.

DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis denied ICE was struggling to process background checks and said the email was meant to inform supervisors of resources available to them.

“This was not highlighting any vetting problems, but rather a reminder of the services and resources ICE provides supervisors,” she said. “All new hires go through extensive background checks and continuous vetting when they are hired including criminal and financial checks.”

DHS said in late January that the lower hiring figures in the federal database were due to a lag in federal reporting.

An administration official said White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller last year pushed hard on conference calls for ICE to hit aggressive hiring goals before year-end.

“The president’s entire team has worked to make sure his agenda is implemented,” a White House official said in response to a request for comment regarding Miller’s role.

Democrats and some former ICE officials have raised concerns that accelerated recruitment could let unqualified or dangerous candidates into the ranks. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last year, compared ICE recruitment to a Border Patrol hiring push in the 2000s that was followed by more allegations against agents. Durbin, the second-highest-ranking Democratic senator, said ICE’s surge would “likely result in increased officer misconduct.”

Claire Trickler-McNulty, who was an ICE official under former Democratic President Joe Biden, said background checks help ensure officers have a history of following the law and detect prior actions that could make them vulnerable to blackmail.

“To speed, shortcut, or limit background checks or training puts the public and other law enforcement officers at risk,” she said.