Immigration and Customs Enforcement has hired 7,114 employees since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to workforce data the federal government published Thursday.
That hiring surge is well above the norm — but also thousands lower than what the Trump administration has championed this week.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Monday that the influx of funds from the tax cut and spending package Trump signed on July 4 increased ICE’s workforce by 120%.
“12,000 newly hired ICE officers are deploying to communities across our nation,” Noem wrote on X.
ICE also celebrated that figure on social media and in a Jan. 3 press release, which said the agency had received 220,000 applications and increased its total personnel from 10,000 to 22,000.
Sign Up for NOTUS’ Free Daily Newsletter
A new federal workforce database from the Office of Personnel Management shows that 1,746 people have stopped working for ICE since Jan. 20, placing the net growth of employees at 5,368.
ICE did not respond to NOTUS’ questions about the discrepancy between the 12,000 new hires it’s claimed publicly and the numbers in this version of the OPM federal workforce database.
Congress allocated $30 billion in the Republican spending package for the hiring of new ICE agents, with the goal of hiring 10,000 new ones.
The speedy workforce expansion has prompted backlash from Democrats over the agency’s hiring standards and training. Those criticisms grew this week after an ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday. The Trump administration has said the shooting was in self-defense, but eyewitnesses and experts have disputed the claim that Good was attempting to hit the agent.
In response, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said Democrats shouldn’t support the coming Department of Homeland Security budget, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, also of Connecticut, sent Noem a letter Friday demanding information about Ross’ training and any disciplinary actions against him. Ross has been an officer with Border Patrol and then ICE since 2007, The Associated Press reported.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, on Thursday called for an objective investigation of the incident and for policy changes.
“We need to ensure ICE officers have the necessary training and resources to safely — and with empathy and respect for human life — carry out these activities,” Murkowski said in a statement on X.
The hiring of thousands of agents reverses a trend in recent years. From 2021 and 2023, ICE lost hundreds of employees each year, according to the database.
ICE’s hiring spree could speed up this year under a multimillion-dollar spending campaign. The agency plans to spend $100 million over a year in a “wartime recruitment” strategy targeted at people interested in guns, UFC fights and patriotic podcasts, The Washington Post reported. Internal documents reviewed by the Post show that the campaign would send ads to people around military bases, NASCAR races, college campuses or gun and trade shows.
Don’t miss the stories shaping Washington.
Sign in
Log into your free account with your email. Don’t have one?
Check your email for a one-time code.
We sent a 4-digit code to . Enter the pin to confirm your account.
New code will be available in 1:00
Let’s try this again.
We encountered an error with the passcode sent to . Please reenter your email.