Washington – President Trump says that he wants to hire 10,000 new American immigration and customs agents and 3,000 new border patrol agents, but the experts and the history of the hiring forces of the police suggest that the process could be difficult, long and possibly lead to problematic hires.
The massive financing bill signed this month by Trump Earmarks this month around $ 170 billion for the application of borders and immigration, including tens of billions for new deportation agents and other staff members. Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Security, Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement at Times, said the agency would deliver the president’s job directive.
“In June, our 2025 career exhibition successfully recruited 3,000 candidates and generated 1,000 provisional job offers-nearly 564 from 2023,” she wrote. “Our recruitment strategy includes targeted awareness, in -depth verification and partnerships with local and local police.”
During his first mandate, when Trump called for American ice and customs and border protection to hire 15,000 people collectively, A July 2017 report By the Inspector General of Internal Security, found important backhands.
“Although the DHS has established plans and launched actions to start an aggressive job push, in recent years, the department and its components have encountered notable difficulties related to long rental hours, an appropriate staff allowance and the supply of human resources,” said the report.
The independent watchdog concluded that to reach the target of 10,000 new immigration agents, Ice would need more than 500,000 candidates. For CBP to hire 5,000 new agents, it would need 750,000 candidates.
It does not seem that one or the other objective has been achieved. In 2017, Ice hired 371 deportation agents of more than 11,000 requests and took 173 days on average to finalize hires, the media Director of government reported. And Cronkite News reported That when Trump left his duties in 2021, Border Patrol decreased by more than 1,000 agents.
“The simple hiring mechanics that many people are difficult and take time”, ” said John PfaffProfessor of law at Fordham University who studies American incarceration and sought the challenges of hiring that Ice is confronted.
When The initial version Among the financing bill, adopted the House of Representatives, it set an objective of at least 10,000 ice agents, agents and support staff, specifying a minimum of 2,500 people during the year 2025 and 1,875 people in each following year until 2029.
The legislation did not describe specific hiring objectives for customs and border protection, the parental agency of Border Patrol, although Homeland Security said that in addition to the 3,000 border patrol agents, the funding will also support the hiring of 3,000 additional customs agents to entrance ports.
The Senate has changed the bill and on the final adoption, the law has deleted these hiring details, which means that the ice can use funding for various purposes. Ice has More than 20,000 members of the law enforcement and support. CBP A 60,000 employees, including around 19,000 border patrol agents.
Studies on accelerated hiring efforts have shown that, in some cases, contracts were poorly managed. Ten months after a 2018 contract with the professional service company Accenture, when CBP had paid $ 13.6 million, The Inspector General found that only two people had accepted job offers.
Residents face ice agents and agents of the border patrol on their presence in their neighborhood on the Atlantic boulevard in the city of Bell on June 20.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The hiring of thousands of employees would be an even larger elevator today, said PFAFF.
He underlined the fact that since 2020, the country’s police services have also had trouble recruiting and retaining officers. The employee immigration officer is lower than that of wages recruited in law enforcement organizations in major cities, such as the New York Police Service.
A job publication For a deportation agent Offers a salary range of $ 50,000 at $ 90,000. Pfaff compared this with NYPDWhere officers’ salaries start just over $ 60,000 and reach more than $ 125,000 in less than six years.
Another recruitment push led to a large -scale wave of corruption case.
During a border patrol hiring meat from 2006 to 2009, job and training standards were reduced, around 8,000 agents were caused. The Associated Press reported The number of employees arrested for lack – such as civil rights violations or offenses on leave as domestic violence – developed each year between 2007 and 2012, reaching 336, an increase of 44%. More than 100 employees have been arrested or accused of corruption, in particular by taking bribes to pass drugs or people.
A 2015 report Of an internal audit of an CBP advisory council said that “the arrests for corruption of CBP staff are far, on a basis per capita, such arrests in other federal law enforcement organizations”.
Josiah Heyman, professor of anthropology who heads the University of Texas at the center of interameric and border studies of El Paso, studied the madness of the mid -2000s. He said that smuggling organizations have not become more sophisticated since then, as well as security measures, it is therefore more useful for smugglers to “buy someone” instead of trying to bring people or drugs detected.
Beyond corruption, Heyman said that he is concerned about the desire to quickly increase internal security personnel could lead to the expulsion of Americans, as well as an increase in cases of aggression and abuse and death of detainees.
“”Get 10,000 [new employees] Mostly means hiring people who cross the door because you try to hit your quota, “he said.” Rapid, the money insurance lends itself to errors and the cup of the corners. “”
Federal agents stage the Dodger Stadium door on June 19.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Recruitment problems in Border Patrol led to reforms, such as the 2010 law on anti-border corruption, which included compulsory polygraph tests for candidates (although this requirement was not implemented for ice candidates). Polygraphic tests have revealed that some candidates had the history, including some who would have links with organized crime.
The reforms also slowed down the hiring while two thirds of candidates for the border patrol began to fail in the polygraphic exam by 2017, The Associated Press reported.
If the government is unable to achieve its hiring objectives, it could turn to entrepreneurs, American military and local police to help make an aggressive repression of Trump against immigration. It is likely to continue its expansion of program 287 (G), which exceeds the application of local law to operate as deportation agents. Homeland Security said that the new budget will fully finance the 287 (G) program.
PFAFF said that if the use of the local police to make immigration arrests could help in the short term, many large cities and states, including California, have already prohibited agreements or limited cooperation with ice. Always, Propublica reported that more than 500 organizations responsible for the application of laws have signed 287 (g) agreements since January.
Jason Houser, who was the chief of staff to the ICE under the Biden administration, said that the training of new hires took approximately a year and that the courses are generally capped with 50 students.
Houser said that another short -term bypass solution for permanent personnel could be the use of entrepreneurs.
Most of the immigrant detainees are held in establishments managed by private prison companies, including the GEO group based in Florida and Corecivic, based in Tennessee.
But these companies have a limited inventory of detention space. The CBP could also use its funding to erect temporary installations on a soft scale on military bases in the 100 miles of the American border, in which CBP has the power to carry out immigration control points and other improved application activities.
HOUSER said that temporary facilities could be created by October, and that they may have military personnel of the National Guard or American Guard in administrative, nurses, food and sanitation.
Federal law generally prohibits soldiers from arresting civilians. But internal security officials said the soldiers have the power to temporarily hold anyone who attacks an immigration agent until the police can arrest him.
But Houser fears that the placement of young soldiers, who are not trained to conduct civilian detention, in charge of these facilities will lead to injuries. He also worries that without other countries agreeing to accept more deportees, the number of immigrants detained for months could quickly ball.
As of June 29, nearly 58,000 immigrants were detained in detention, according to Trac, a research organization on non -partisan data. It is well beyond 41,500 detention beds approved by Congress this exercise.
“It’s 9/11 style money,” said Houser. “Think of money in counter-terrorism after September 11.
