Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, told Newsmax on Monday that the Trump administration is "turbocharging" recruitment for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Trump administration secured about $165 billion in additional funding for the DHS in the wide-ranging tax and spending bill passed last month, and the agency recently released a new recruitment push aimed at hiring as many as 10,000 new ICE officers by offering various benefits and pay packages.
McLaughlin said on "National Report" that the response to the hiring push "has really been overwhelming."
She added, "So far we have 1,000 final offers out, but we're going to really be turbocharging those numbers and getting those 10,000 officers" that the Trump administration aims to hire.
McLaughlin said, "There's really strength in numbers and our ICE officers have a tall task ahead of them," which is why the administration is "offering great incentives," including a "$50,000 signing bonus" and "up to $60,000 in student loan forgiveness" on top of a six-figure salary for some officers.
"And we are so proud of our men and women of ICE," McLaughlin continued. "And we're going to bring even more talented, brave men and women on board."
She later said, "We're adding more than 10,000" ICE officers, "That's almost 50% addition to the workforce. But we make sure that our men and women and ICE are taken care of, that they are safe."
McLaughlin also criticized a recent opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal that described the Trump administration's immigration policy as "a case study in unimaginable cruelty that makes no distinction between legal immigrants and the undocumented, that targets undocumented people who have been here for decades, and that uses brute force police tactics to intimidate communities."
McLaughlin defended ICE, saying that the agency mostly arrests illegal immigrants who have been previously convicted of crimes or have charges pending against them.
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.