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Immigration and Customs Enforcement hopes to step up its hiring. As NPR's Ximena Bustillo reports, ICE is now recruiting retired federal workers and local law enforcement.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: The agency is recruiting former employees who worked at a wide range of agencies, like the Agriculture and Justice Departments. It's offering them a $50,000 signing bonus over the course of several years. The Homeland Security Department wants to recruit 10,000 people to work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. New money from Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency. Here's Doris Meissner, senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
DORIS MEISSNER: Well, Congress has not in the past appropriated this much money and this much of a percentage change, let's say, or this degree of growth in any of the immigration enforcement agencies.
BUSTILLO: She said the rapid expansion of Border Patrol in the mid-2000s led to cutting corners on training and eased standards on vetting applicants, which increased misconduct.
MEISSNER: It's a question of upholding standards and maintaining professional responsibility at the same time as a major hiring effort, and a major effort with the pressures of getting people into jobs in the field.
BUSTILLO: In its year-end report, ICE reported struggling with growing its workforce over the past decade and across administrations of both political parties. The administration has a goal of deporting 1 million people a year. Even proponents of that goal say hiring will not be easy.
RJ HAUMAN: So you've got, you know, security clearances, polygraphs and background checks that simply cannot be skipped.
BUSTILLO: That's RJ Hauman, visiting fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation. He said it takes 12 to 14 months for someone to be onboarded.
HAUMAN: You're going to have competition from, you know, CBP, DEA, ATF, FBI and other local agencies, so recruitment will never be easy - again, due to resource constraints and the pool that is needed.
BUSTILLO: That competition for personnel is already starting, as DHS casts a wide net for applicants. Emails also went out to local law enforcement officers who are already helping with immigration enforcement. In a statement to NPR, National Sheriffs Association executive director Jonathan Thompson said the group is, quote, "deeply disappointed and angry" that federal partners are trying to, quote, "steal personnel and critical resources."
Ximena Bustillo, NPR News.
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