Immigration and Customs Enforcement has ignored minimum standards for recruitment and accepted hundreds of unvetted new agents into training. This includes some with criminal records, no background checks, no fingerprinting, no drug screening or failed drug tests. According to NBC News, with 150,000 applicants and heavy pressure to meet Trump’s quota of 10,000 officers, ICE’s human resources office put recruits into training before proper standards were met, in violation of agency policy.
More than 200 recruits have already been dismissed for failing the most basic physical, academic, or ethical standards. The Atlantic reported that 33% of recruits at the Georgia ICE training facility cannot pass the minimal fitness test of just 15 push-ups, 32 sit-ups, and a 1.5-mile run in under 14 minutes. “It’s pathetic,” said one career ICE official, describing what happens when standards are erased to meet a political goal.
The “One Big, Beautiful Bill”, tripled ICE’s funding to $170 billion and bankrolls this dangerous mess. That amount is greater than the combined annual spending of every police department in this country. Trump has fired 17 inspectors general and dismantled internal oversight, leaving no mechanism to stop abuses.
ICE abuses of power are primarily systemic mistreatment and unlawful detention, including arrest, detention and deportation of U.S. citizens, and threatening or brutalizing detainees and peaceful protestors and observers who document arrests. These practices are revealed in multiple reports and lawsuits, including claims of withheld bond funds, prolonged confinement, psychological and physical harm, and widespread abuse in detention centers. Independent investigations and advocacy groups also flagged misconduct among border and ICE-affiliated officers—ranging from trafficking and bribery to sexual assault.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s shows us what effective leadership looks like — having established a new Accountability Commission that documents every instance of federal harassment, brutality, and illegal detention. Congress must do the same. We must demand immediate hearings to investigate ICE’s hiring, vetting and training practices and establish humane treatment and independent oversight across DHS. An armed force of under-qualified, unvetted, cruel thugs is not in the interest of national security, but a threat to us all.
Chris Berrie
Tillamook, OR