ICE drops age limit to boost recruitment. Charts show how agency is growing under Trump
You can be as young as 18, older than 40 if you pass the physical fitness test, and you’ll get a signing bonus of $50,000 to join the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which has revised its hiring standards to boost deportations.
The ICE budget rose by $75 billion over four years after President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on July 4. Those funds came from the $170 billion allocated to the Department of Homeland Security for immigration and border enforcement.
ICE is using some of that money to hire 10,000 recruits, increasing staff levels to about 30,000 as the Trump administration seeks to fulfill a goal to deport 1 million immigrants every year.
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The federal spending plan will help make ICE the single-largest law enforcement agency in the country, larger than the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other agencies combined, Paste BN reported.
For comparison, the FBI has about 13,700 special agents, according to the Department of Justice.
How Biden ICE budget compares with Trump's
President Donald Trump's big, beautiful bill allocates $75 billion to ICE over the next four years. Here's how the ICE budget under President Joe Biden in fiscal years 2022-2025 comparess with Trump's planned budget through 2029:
Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocates about $18.75 billion per year. Here's how the budget compares to past fiscal years:
What are the ICE physical fitness test requirements?
Even with the removal of the age limits, applications still need to pass a fitness test consisting of four timed events. Recruits – including seniors – must complete the following events:
◾ Sit-ups: 32 in one minute or less.
◾ Push-ups: 22 in one minute or less.
◾Sprint: 220 yards in 47.73 seconds or less.
◾Run: 1.5 miles in 14 minutes, 25 seconds or less.
Some local sheriffs aren't happy with ICE's latest recruiting efforts, Paste BN reported. They worry that deputies in already understaffed offices will be lured away by the big bonuses and higher pay. Hundreds of local law enforcement organizations across the country partner with ICE.
"It is tone-deaf and reflects a total lack of judgment and character on their part," Jonathan Thompson, executive director and CEO of the National Sheriff's Association, said of a recruiting offer emailed to local deputies nationwide.
Read more:
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CONTRIBUTING Lauren Villagran, Trevor Hughes, Shawn J. Sullivan
SOURCE Paste BN Network reporting and research; Reuters; ice.gov; americanimmigrationcouncil.org