Inside ICE Expansion: How the US Federal Agency Is Scaling Up & Training New Agents

As immigration enforcement takes center stage in American politics again, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is undergoing its most aggressive expansion in years. Under a renewed push by President Donald Trump’s administration, ICE is ramping up hiring, training, and enforcement measures across the country, according to a recent report published by CNN.

Deportation officers from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) unit are responsible for identifying, arresting, and removing non-citizens from the US soil who are not authorised to stay in the country, including those who‘ve been ordered removed by immigration judges, overstayed visas, or reentered illegally.

Here‘s a breakdown of four major ways ICE is scaling up.

1. Massive Hiring Surge Underway

According to the report, ICE is pushing to add 10,000 new deportation officers to its existing force of 6,500 by the end of the year.

“We have already received 121,000 applications,“ Acting Director Todd Lyons told the American media network, while adding that many of them are former officers.

With $76.5 billion in new federal funding, including nearly $30 billion earmarked for staffing, the agency has launched a new recruiting website, introduced signing bonuses of up to $50,000, the report said. Additionally, it has also started appearing at career expos.

Training, the report said, will take place at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Georgia‘s Brunswick, where ICE is seeking to more than double its number of instructors.

Caleb Vitello, head of ICE training, told CNN that in order to speed up the process, the federal agency has dropped Spanish-language requirements, trimming five weeks off training. Vitello, the report said, also wants recruits to train more directly at field offices.

2. Preparing for Violent Confrontations

With a reported increase in arrests, the US federal agency is also seeing more conflict. From January 21 to August 5, ICE reported 121 assaults on its officers, in a seemingly sharp rise from 11 cases during the same period last year.

“Right now we‘re seeing and we are having to adapt to all different scenarios that we were never trained for in the past,“ Lyons said, per CNN.

ICE is reportedly issuing gas masks and helmets to new agents and deploying security teams to accompany arresting officers.

“We are not gonna allow people to throw rocks anymore,“ Lyons further said, adding, “We are going to have our own agents and officers there to protect the ones that are actually out there making that arrest.“

3. Expanding Special Response Teams

According to the report, ICE‘s Special Response Teams (SRTs) — the agency‘s version of SWAT — are being expanded. These elite units, the report further said, are trained for high-risk operations, like arresting potentially violent targets or overseeing deportations of dangerous individuals.

“Everybody is trained to serve a warrant,“ Vitello explained, while further telling the publication, “These guys are trained to serve high-risk warrants.“

There are currently around 450 SRT officers, with more expected to be recruited in coming days. With most of them already deployed in Los Angeles, Portland and Washington, the agency is now reportedly working on procuring more armoured vehicles for these units.

4. Clarifying Legal Boundaries

Withal, ICE recruits also receive instruction on immigration law and Fourth Amendment protections.

Vitello explained that in most cases, these federal agents carry administrative warrants, which don‘t allow entry into a home without consent.

“If somebody says ‘Get out,‘ and you don‘t have your target, you have to leave,“ he told the American broadcaster.

However, ICE can arrest people in vehicles, where Fourth Amendment protections don‘t fully apply. If a situation involves a motor home, officers are directed to consult agency lawyers to determine the correct legal steps.

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