Spectrum News: Pair of Democratic senators press for information on hiring, training standards for ICE agents
By Maddie Gannon
Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey are pressing the Department of Homeland Security for information on its standards and practices for hiring and training new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, warning the administration’s full-force effort to surge the number of officers it employs suggests it may be “cutting corners” and “loosening” requirements.
In a letter sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE acting Director Todd Lyons and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, the Democratic senators argued that since the beginning of the year, when President Donald Trump returned to office, the department has “dropped the eligibility criteria and training requirements to dangerously low levels.”
The lawmakers went on to lay out a list of recent high-profile incidents involving ICE agents, including one in which an officer was seen on camera pushing a woman to the ground, to make the case they “reveal systemic deficiencies” at DHS, ICE and CBP that require oversight and reform.
“The authority to detain and use force, including, in extreme circumstances, deadly force, is not a game, and it is not a performance,” the senators wrote.
Padilla and Booker also specifically pointed to an article from NBC News, which reported that more 200 newly recruited ICE agents have been dismissed while they were already in training for failing to meet the department’s hiring requirements. The move suggests the recruits were put in training before clearing the standards-check process and raises the “alarming possibility” that some could currently already be on the job, they argued.
“This amounts to government malpractice that endangers public safety,” the senators wrote.
In the letter, the pair included a list of questions about the department’s hiring and training standards and requested answers within two weeks.
DHS, ICE nor CBP responded to an inquiry from Spectrum News about the letter.
Trump returned to office this year with a sweeping agenda to forcefully crack down on immigration and carry out a massive deportation campaign. As part of that effort, the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE and CBP, has looked to significantly ramp up recruitment of new agents, launching an official campaign to do so in July that has included distributing materials on college campuses, job fairs and more.
The full-force recruitment push, dubbed “Defend the Homeland,” includes incentives such as signing bonuses, student loan repayment and forgiveness options, and enhanced retirement benefits. It’s drawn more than 200,000 new applicants to join ICE as of Nov. 7, according to DHS.
In August, Noem also announced DHS was waiving requirements for potential new officers to under a certain age as part of the effort to surge hiring.
And Trump’s signature tax-focused legislation passed by Republicans in Congress and signed into law by the president this summer, designated billions of dollars to the immigration enforcement effort, which DHS noted will allow it to hire 10,000 new ICE agents and ultimately achieve the administration’s goal of 1 million deportations a year.
But the impacts of Trump’s ambitious immigration agenda have already been playing out on the ground in cities across the country. The administration has carried out enforcement actions on workplaces and farms and launched specific operations such as the one that took place around Charlotte, North Carolina, this week that was dubbed by the department as “Charlotte’s Web” and led to more than 350 arrests in the state, agents said.
Padilla’s and Booker’s home states of California and New Jersey have also seen particularly high-profile incidents involving ICE. A lawmaker who represents New Jersey in Congress was indicted over an incident with immigration officers at a detention facility while Los Angeles was the first city to see Trump deploy National Guard troops in a bid to quell protests over his administration’s immigration enforcement actions.
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