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By Billal Rahman and Shane Croucher
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The recruitment drive for new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers is putting strain on the vetting process, Reuters reported, citing an internal email from the agency that was sent on Monday.
ICE leaders have now put in place a process to handle allegations of historic misconduct against new recruits, the report said.
The Trump administration has sought to rapidly hire thousands of new ICE officers to see through its aggressive deportation targets. Mass deportations under a crackdown on illegal immigration are a flagship policy of President Donald Trump.
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The email was sent to supervisors with ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division, Reuters reported. It cited the “high volume of new hires” and the pressure on background checks, which could make the recruitment process difficult for field offices. Supervisors were reportedly told to refer allegations involving recruits to the internal Integrity Investigations Unit (IIU).
"If a Field Office receives derogatory information about a newly hired employee’s conduct prior to ERO employment (e.g., termination or resignation in lieu of termination from another law enforcement agency for misconduct), please refer the matter to IIU," the email said, per Reuters.
“As our brave law enforcement arrests and removes dangerous criminal illegal aliens from our communities, America can be proud of the professionalism our officers bring the job day-in and day-out.”
ICE has undergone a quick expansion, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcing in January that the agency had hired more than 12,000 new agents.
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The agency was supercharged with billions in funding after the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July.
However, federal workforce data cited by Reuters showed fewer hires recorded in official databases, amounting to a net increase of roughly 6,200 employees after accounting for departures. DHS previously attributed the discrepancy to reporting lags in federal systems.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told Newsweek, “The premise of your story is false. This was not highlighting any vetting problems, but rather a reminder of the services and resources ICE provides supervisors. All new hires go through extensive background checks and continuous vetting when they are hired including criminal and financial checks.
“After receiving more than 220,000 applications to join ICE from patriotic Americans, ICE blew past its original hiring target of 10,000 new officers and agents within a year. In fact, we have more than doubled our officers and agents from 10,000 to 22,000—a 120% increase in your story. With these new patriots on the team, we will be able to arrest and remove more murderers, pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, and gang members."
DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis denied that ICE was struggling to complete background checks and said the internal email was intended to remind supervisors of available resources. “All new hires go through extensive background checks and continuous vetting when they are hired including criminal and financial checks,” she said.
It comes after a former attorney who oversaw training for new ICE officers said Monday that the agency’s training program for recruits is “deficient, defective and broken,” prompting a response from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security defending its standards.
Ryan Schwank, who resigned from ICE on February 13, made the remarks during a hearing hosted by Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, and Representative Robert Garcia, a California Democrat. According to Blumenthal’s office, Schwank had overseen aspects of training for new deportation officers before leaving the agency.
Schwank alleged that DHS had dismantled parts of the training program for new officers and misrepresented the changes. He did not provide specific documentation during the hearing detailing the alleged deficiencies.
Update 2/26/26, 10:13 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from the Department of Homeland Security and additional information.
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