Extract from ABC News
The US has recruited more than 10,000 new ICE agents in the last year, amid a hiring blitz and immigration crackdown. (ABC News: Kylie Silvester)
On the home page of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Uncle Sam has a message.
"America has been invaded by criminals and predators," reads the text.
"We need YOU to get them out."
America needs you, the imposing red and white capital letters declare.
This is the first introduction to ICE — the federal immigration force now responsible for rounding up immigrants and detaining them in a nationwide crackdown by the Trump administration.
Its agents, now numbering more than 22,000, are authorised to stop, detain and arrest anyone they suspect may be in the United States illegally.
They carry pistols, tear gas, and tactical batons. They drive unmarked vehicles. They wear bulletproof vests and face masks.
Beneath that first message, in smaller print, the site adds: "You do not need an undergraduate degree."
For the thousands of "patriots" who've applied, a position with ICE is a source of pride.
Experts, elected officials and activists say otherwise — with some, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, labelling it an "unwanted, uninvited" force.
"They're indiscriminately taking people off the street," he said last week.
'Choose your mission': The ICE hiring process
According to its website, ICE is looking for individuals with "integrity and courage".
Recruits must be "in excellent physical condition", able to "tolerate environmental stresses", and have "strong critical thinking skills".
It invites you: "Choose your mission."
There are dozens of openings for "deportation officers" on the agency's recruitment portal, inviting recruits to sign up for work based out of 25 different field offices.
The starting salary is $US51,632 ($77,179.50) a year, or $US1,985.85 ($2,977.20) a fortnight.
Applicants must be US citizens and, according to the employment portal, pass a background check, an online assessment, and a pre-employment drug test.
They must pass a pre-employment physical fitness test and medical examination.
They must submit their resume and fill out an occupational questionnaire.
Immigration agents have become a familiar sight in some US cities. (Reuters: Seth Herald)
That questionnaire, seen by the ABC, asks candidates whether they've ever committed a federal offence.
It asks whether they have ever lost the right to own a gun, whether they have ever been convicted of domestic violence, and whether they've used drugs.
It asks whether they've committed sexual abuse in a prison or other institution — then asks whether they've been convicted of any sexual abuse at all.
Are they married to an illegal immigrant? Have they ever "harboured, concealed, transported, or employed" an undocumented person?
Has their credibility ever been questioned because of dishonesty or unethical behaviour?
How does their commitment to the US Constitution and the "founding principles of the United States" inspire them to apply for ICE?
How would they help "advance the president's executive orders and policy priorities"?
Submit. And wait.
Once the application is in, the agency's website promises that things will "move fast".
ICE academy slashed to just 47 days of training
A successful application means a stint at the ICE's training academy in the south-eastern state of Georgia.
As of 2015, according to publicly available documents, this was a 16-week program.
As of 2026, as the Trump administration works to staff a national immigration crackdown, that program is just 47 days long.
Training runs six days a week for eight weeks, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials said in August.
The physical fitness test requires recruits to perform 15 push-ups, 32 sit-ups, and run 2.4 kilometres in 14 minutes.
More than a third of recruits were failing the test as of October, according to training officials who spoke to The Atlantic.
Despite protests around the country, not everyone in the US opposes ICE.
Josh McConkey is an emergency physician, Air Force Reserve colonel, and disaster response liaison officer.
Asked about the shortened training program, he told the ABC: "It's reasonable to ask whether that has implications for readiness."
But he added that training was "not the only measure of capability".
"Before an ICE agent becomes operational, they must still demonstrate competence through firearms qualification, legal instruction, use-of-force standards, and scenario-based evaluations," he said.
"They are also expected to operate under the same constitutional and professional law-enforcement standards as any federal officer."
He also noted the shorter training time meant "greater importance" placed on field training.
"The agent must not only demonstrate capability before becoming operational, but they are expected to adhere to the highest professional law-enforcement standards every day in the field," he said.
"Maintaining those standards requires adequate training time, proper oversight, and accountability — especially during periods of rapid hiring."
In early December, Democratic senator and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin denounced what he called low hiring standards.
He claimed training had been slashed to just six weeks.
ICE was, he said, lowering the requirements agents needed before "unleashing them onto the streets of America".
"Recent reporting suggests that these new, lowered hiring standards have resulted in ICE recruits who have barely been able to read or write," he said.
"[They have] failed drug tests, displayed tattoos associated with gangs and white supremacists, was unable to meet basic physical fitness requirements, and even have pending criminal charges.
"These are the people that President Trump is attempting to release onto our streets to restore 'law and order.'"
'Defend the Homeland'
More than 220,000 "patriotic Americans" applied for ICE in the last year, according to an announcement made by the agency earlier this month.
At ICE hiring expos around the country, visitors were promised on-the-spot hiring opportunities and bonuses of up to $US50,000 over five years.
"Defend the Homeland", the signage urged. "Join ICE today."
At a two-day hiring fair in Texas last September, the agency said it made 700 job offers, conditional on applicants passing all medical and background checks.
Journalists from National Public Radio, who attended the ICE expo in Utah, described a job pool of veterans, university graduates, current law enforcement officers, and fired federal workers.
According to the Los Angeles Times, current and former law enforcement officials were funnelled into separate lines to speed up the process.
The ABC asked Dr McConkey what would make up the "ideal" agent for an organisation like ICE.
"Ultimately, the best agents are those who see service not as power, but as stewardship — protecting the country, supporting their teammates, and upholding the values they swore an oath to defend," he said.
But others have raised questions about whether the agents ICE is recruiting meet the calibre noted by Dr McConkey.
The killing of Renee Nicole Good sparked renewed protests across the United States. (Reuters: Seth Herald)
Former DC chief of Homeland Security and Intelligence, Donell Harvin, accused ICE of failing to practise proper police safety protocols.
He noted ICE officer Jonathan Ross, the agent who shot and killed 37-year-old Minneapolis mother Renee Nicole Good earlier this month, was "experienced".
"We have ICE agents that are rolling off the assembly line, so to speak, with far, far less training [than him]," Mr Harvin said.
"I will tell you that in many states, you can become an animal control officer, but you need twice as much training.
"Your local dog catcher will need more training to carry a firearm and execute warrants and arrest people than an ICE agent. And that's what's concerning.
"If you take the current DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at her word, the ICE agent who shot Ms Good was following his training, his tactics and policies.
"If that's the case … then we have a big problem.
"Because what we have are ICE agents that are not practising proper police or law enforcement officer safety and survivability."
Following that hiring blitz, little information has been made public regarding who made it through the process and onto the streets of America.
'We're going to carry out that mission'
Someone who has made himself increasingly more public, however, is the man leading the charge of Mr Trump's immigration crackdown.
Unmasked and donning a custom wool trench coat, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino has made himself a recognisable figure on the streets of cities along the US south-west.
The 55-year-old told CNN he wasn't dissuaded by the protesters or the backlash his agents face.
"We're going to carry out that mission," he said in October.
"And that's paramount, or else we shouldn't be here. We're going to carry out that mission.
"[If] someone steps in the way, then … that may not work out well for them.
"And if we need to effect an arrest of a US citizen or anyone else, then we'll do that."
Mr Bovino has repeatedly aimed at local officials, who he said had "better get used to" immigration officers being on the streets.
In October, a Chicago judge ordered him to appear in her courtroom every weekday at 6pm to explain any use of force by his agents on the city's streets.
That order was later blocked on appeal.
After Ms Good was shot and killed in her car on January 7, Mr Bovino was seen on the ground in Minnesota.
The rising tension has led to a surge in federal agents in the area.
Ms Good's death was at least the ninth ICE shooting since September.
Two days after that incident, a US border agent shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon, during a vehicle stop.
At one raid at a petrol station in St Paul on January 11, agents allegedly deployed pepper balls and tear gas against protesters.
Video captured of the incident appeared to show federal agents dragging a man from his car, then tackling a filming bystander.
Mr Bovino was photographed leading agents into a Target in the same city that day.
On January 15, the DHS said an agent shot a man in the leg after being attacked with a shovel and a broom during an arrest.
Officials said the agents had fired tear gas, not live rounds.
Jim Bueermann, a former California police chief who now runs research group the Future Politicing Institute, said shootings by immigration officers were not "one-offs".
"This is clearly developing into a pattern and practice of how they deal with people in the enforcement of immigration laws," he told NBC.
"To me, that's the most alarming thing we're seeing."
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