Flush with cash from President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is reportedly offering $50,000 signing bonuses and six-figure salaries to attract top recruits for the administration's enforcement operations.
According to the New York Post, retired agents returning to work are receiving the most generous compensation packages.
"They're begging to come back because they believe in securing America, protecting kids, and supporting an undermanned force stretched thin by the prior administration's border chaos," Scott Mechkowski, the former assistant ICE chief for New York told the outlet.
Meanwhile, the base salary for new recruits can reportedly range from $50,000 to $90,000 per year.
Armed with $75 billion in extra funding, ICE is looking to add 10,000 new agents to its ranks as it continues to carry out the president's mass deportation mandate.
One retired agent, who was granted anonymity by the Post due to his pending application status, said he knows "about four or five" other former agents "that put in" to return to ICE and make salaries of more than $100,000 per year.
During the Biden administration, Department of Homeland Security agents, particularly Customs and Border Patrol agents, quit in droves because they were frustrated by policies that allowed scores of illegal immigrants to enter the United States. With Trump back in the White House, many are applying to come back to work.
"It's a great opportunity to get back into the mix and because a lot of us ended our career and we still felt like we had a lot more left," the former agent said.
The Post reported that ICE is offering a $10,000 signing bonus for those who apply by Aug. 1; another $10,000 upon returning to service; and annual bonuses for up to three years of $10,000 for those who take part in the Operation Return to Service initiative.
For those former agents who come out of retirement, ICE will offer dual compensation waivers, which will allow them to keep their benefits and pension payments.
The hiring surge is intended to help the agency fulfill the Trump administration's 3,000-per-day quota for arrests of those in the country illegally.
"If you hire enough people to get back, then you can have people to do the investigations," the retired agent told the Post. "Because right now you're robbing Peter to pay Paul by taking everybody off their own investigations."
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