ICE Looks to Hire 10,000 More Agents, Offers $50,000 Signing Bonuses, Student Loan Forgiveness

The ‘Defend the Homeland’ recruitment drive is made possible by a funding boost from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stand near a gate at o detention centre in Newark, N.J., on May 7, 2025. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking to hire 10,000 additional agents and legal staff, offering signing bonuses of up to $50,000 and student loan forgiveness as part of a major recruitment drive amid stepped‑up deportation operations.

In new postings on social media and its recruitment website, the agency highlighted openings for deportation officers, special agents, and attorneys in its Office of the Principal Legal Advisor—described in the post as one of the federal government’s most prestigious legal divisions.

ICE’s recruitment pitch stresses integrity, courage, and physical fitness, citing a mission to combat cross‑border crime and illegal immigration that “threaten national security and public safety.”

“Serve your country! Defend your culture!” an Aug. 5 post by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) states, noting that some enforcement roles do not require an undergraduate degree.

In an Aug. 4 appearance on Fox News, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said he’s “ecstatic” to see a surge of applicants for various positions since DHS launched the initiative—dubbed “Defend the Homeland”—several days ago.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in a July 29 statement launching the initiative, urged Americans to join ICE’s mission to remove the nation’s most dangerous alien offenders.

“Your country is calling you to serve at ICE. In the wake of the Biden administration’s failed immigration policies, your country needs dedicated men and women of ICE to get the worst of the worst criminals out of our country,” Noem said. “This is a defining moment in our nation’s history. Your skills, your experience, and your courage have never been more essential. Together, we must defend the homeland.”

The ICE hiring spree is made possible by a massive cash infusion from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act package President Donald Trump signed in July. It sets aside about $170 billion for border security and immigration enforcement over five years, including $76.5 billion for ICE alone—nearly 10 times the agency’s current annual budget. Of that amount, $45 billion will expand detention capacity, and nearly $30 billion will fund the hiring of 10,000 additional staff to help the agency reach its target of 1 million deportations a year.

Border Czar Tom Homan said the influx of funding will allow ICE to dramatically scale up arrests, with new personnel and detention space aimed at targeting the most dangerous offenders.

“Now ICE finally is getting the resources they need. And it’s going to put more boots on the ground, which we need right now,” Homan told reporters during a July 7 White House briefing, noting that more than 600,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records remain in the country.

Meanwhile, Lyons said in late July that ICE is focusing on the detention and deportation of the “worst of the worst” illegal immigrants residing in the country.

“ICE is going to focus on the worst of the worst. And that’s what we do need to focus our limited resources on,” Lyons said in an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”

That focus was highlighted in an Aug. 4 enforcement update, in which ICE announced weekend arrests of multiple criminal illegal immigrants—including convicted pedophiles, sexual predators, and drug traffickers—in coordinated operations across several states.

“ICE law enforcement never stops—even on the weekends they are out on the streets removing the worst of the worst from our communities,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “From pedophiles to drug traffickers, ICE arrested these barbaric criminal illegal aliens this weekend. President Trump and Secretary Noem unleashed ICE to target the worst of the worst. If you come to our country and break our laws, you will face consequences.”