WASHINGTON--Under President Donald Trump, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has become the driving force of his sweeping crackdown on migrants, bolstered by record funding and new latitude to conduct raids, but staff are contending with long hours and growing public outrage over the arrests.
Those internal pressures are taking a toll. Two current and nine former ICE officials told Reuters the agency is grappling with burnout and frustration among personnel as agents struggle to keep pace with the administration’s aggressive enforcement agenda.The agency has launched a recruitment drive to relieve the stress by hiring thousands of new officers as quickly as possible, but that process will likely take months or years to play out.
All of those interviewed by Reuters backed immigration enforcement in principle. But they criticized the Trump administration's push for high daily arrest quotas that have led to the detention of thousands of individuals with no criminal record, as well as long-term green card holders, others with legal visas, and even some U.S. citizens.
Most of the current and former ICE officials requested anonymity due to concerns about retaliation against themselves or former colleagues.
Americans have been inundated with images on social media of often masked agents in tactical gear handcuffing people on neighbourhood streets, at worksites, outside schools, churches, and courthouses, and in their driveways. Videos of some arrests have gone viral, fueling public anger over the tactics.
Under Trump, average daily arrests by the 21,000-strong agency have soared, up over 250% in June compared to a year earlier, although daily arrest rates dropped in July. Trump has said he wants to deport "the worst of the worst," but ICE figures show a rise in non-criminals being picked up.
ICE arrests of people with no other charges or convictions beyond immigration violations during Trump's first six months in office rose to 221 people per day, from 80 people per day during the same period under former President Joe Biden last year, according to agency data obtained by the Deportation Data Project at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.Some 69% of immigration arrests under Trump were of people with a criminal conviction or pending charge, the figures show.
Some ICE investigators are frustrated that hundreds of specialized ICE investigative agents, who normally focus on serious crimes such as human trafficking and transnational gangs, have been reassigned to routine immigration enforcement, two current and two former officials said.
In an interview with Reuters, Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, acknowledged that the long hours and reassignment of specialist agents had frustrated some ICE personnel but said Trump's January 20 declaration of a national emergency around illegal immigration warranted it."There's some staff that would rather be doing other types of investigations, I get that, but the president declared a national emergency," Homan said.
Homan, who spent three decades in immigration enforcement and joined ICE at its inception in 2003, said the long hours should lessen as hiring of new ICE staff speeds up."I think morale is good. I think morale will get even better as we bring more resources on," he said.
Another stress factor for more senior officials is the perpetual threat of being removed for failure to produce arrests, underscored by multiple changes of leadership at ICE since Trump took office in January, five of the ICE officials said.
In response to a request for comment, a senior official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE's parent agency, downplayed concerns about morale, saying officers were most bothered by being targeted in assaults, as well as criticism from Democrats.The senior official said ICE personnel "are excited to be able to do their jobs again" after being subjected to limits under Biden.
