Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Tuesday that the agency has received over 100,000 applications in less than two weeks. The statement was released only a day after The New York Times reported that immigrant detainees in ICE custody had reached a "modern record" high of 60,000 people.
President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) on July 4, which appropriated nearly $75 billion to increase ICE's capacity to detain immigrants and conduct immigration-related arrests—making ICE the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the country. With this funding, the Trump administration plans to reach its stated goal of deporting 1 million undocumented immigrants a year and reach an unprecedented quota of 3,000 immigrant arrests per day.
To keep up with these demands, ICE has launched an aggressive recruitment campaign—bankrolled by the nearly $30 billion from the OBBBA appropriated for hiring—and seeks to add 10,000 officers to the agency's more than 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel by 2029. To meet this end, Uncle Sam has been repurposed by ICE to recruit "patriotic Americans" to apply. The agency has also sweetened the deal by offering high starting salaries—some can reach $90,000—a maximum $50,000 signing bonus over three years, up to $60,000 in federal student loan repayments, and retirement benefits.
