U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday shut down an unauthorized bonus pilot proposal intended to reward officers for rapid deportations after internal confusion and a surge of media inquiries, and denied that any such program has ever been in effect.
The denials come after The New York Times reported on an internal memo sent to field offices that outlined a 30-day pilot program offering financial bonuses to ICE agents to accelerate the removal of arrested immigrants.
The memo said that agents could receive $200 for deportations carried out within seven days of arrest, or $100 if the removal occurred within two weeks, but within four hours, ICE canceled the proposal, reports The Times.
"PLEASE DISREGARD," wrote Liana J. Castano, a senior official in ICE’s field operations division, in a follow-up email sent nationwide.
After, Department of Homeland Security stated that the plan had not been authorized by senior leadership, with spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin stating that "no such policy is in effect or has ever been in effect."
While ICE emphasized that there is no official policy tying bonuses to deportation numbers, the agency said that all financial recruitment incentives remain in place, including student loan assistance, signing bonuses, and retention benefits, adding that they are using standard recruitment tools aimed at strengthening personnel numbers while not rewarding individual deportation counts.
"This proposal was not reviewed or approved by agency leadership, and it was immediately rescinded," according to a DHS official familiar with the matter.
This clarification comes amid heightened scrutiny of ICE's expanding enforcement role and growing workforce.
Under President Donald Trump's recently enacted domestic policy package, ICE's annual budget is increasing from $8 billion to $28 billion, positioning it as the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the federal government.
Meanwhile, some immigration policy experts criticized the proposed bonus program, saying that it could endanger due process rights.
Former DHS employee Scott Shuchart said the idea of offering bonuses for immigrants is "ungodly unethical" and asked if government officers should be incentivized to speed up legal proceedings.
Deportations have ramped up significantly under Trump. According to a New York Times analysis of ICE data, the share of detainees removed within 14 days of booking rose from 21% in January to 30% in May, and ICE averaged nearly 1,300 daily deportations in July.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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