Photo: Anadolu/Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” may have gotten a lot of flak for adding an $3.4 trillion to the federal budget deficit and stripping millions of health insurance, but it has also allowed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to star in a new photo-op and the Trump administration to entice new ICE recruits with promises of cold hard cash.
The Department of Homeland Security this week rolled out a Uncle Sam-themed website and a “Defend the Homeland” initiative offering a $50,000 signing bonus to “heroic Americans” who join Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “deport criminal invaders” and “save America,” as senior White House adviser Stephen Miller put it.
“Backed by significant new funding through the recently signed One Big Beautiful Bill, ICE is rolling out patriotic recruitment posters and benefits to attract the next generation of law enforcement professionals to find, arrest, and remove criminal illegal aliens,” DHS said in a statement.
More than $4 billion from the government spending bill signed into law this month was allocated for the hiring and training of up to 10,000 new ICE agents. ICE received the biggest windfall of all federal law enforcement agencies from the bill, with its annual budget set to soar from $8 billion to about $28 billion.
The influx of cash has allowed DHS to offer a “robust package” of incentives to new hires, including “enhanced” retirement benefits and student loan repayment and forgiveness — even as Trump has suspended student loan forgiveness for many other Americans.
The funds also apparently went towards posters featuring Noem and President Donald Trump, as well as other “recruitment materials” that DHS says will be distributed on college campuses and at job fairs across the country.
White House border czar Tom Homan insisted Wednesday that the dramatic recruitment campaign should not be viewed as a sign ICE is having trouble recruiting new agents amid mass deportations.
In fact, he said, ICE has the “highest recruiting numbers” ever, so much so that he had to get rid of his LinkedIn account.
“I used to have a LinkedIn account but it got jammed up with thousands and thousands of emails” from retired law enforcement officers wanting to return to work, he said, blaming the Biden administration for a dwindling workforce.
“So, we gotta bring 10,000 on quickly,” he said.
