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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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Months after the Trump administration created the new Homeland Defender role at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, newly hired officers are beginning assignments at agency offices, with at least some recruits coming from outside USCIS in what one former official described as “off-the-street” hiring.
USCIS says Homeland Defenders will serve as Immigration Services officers responsible for interviewing applicants, reviewing immigration benefit requests, conducting security checks and identifying fraud, national security concerns and public safety threats.
Two former USCIS officials told Newsweek the new hires are entry-level officers expected to undergo abbreviated training, raising questions about preparation, oversight, authority and how the program could reshape an agency traditionally focused on processing immigration benefits and naturalization applications.
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Newsweek reached out to USCIS and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), for comment via email.
In a statement to Newsweek, USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said the Homeland Defender campaign has drawn "record interest" from Americans seeking to work in immigration services and national security roles. Kahler said more than 700 Homeland Defenders have already been onboarded and that recruits complete training in immigration law, national security, fraud detection and agency procedures before entering the workforce.
New Officers Begin USCIS Roles
Douglas S. Pierce, a former USCIS supervisor who retired in late 2025 after more than three decades with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and USCIS, told Newsweek he has been informed that eight Homeland Defenders are scheduled to begin work at the agency's Detroit Field Office in Troy, Michigan, on August 10.
Pierce said the employees have already been added to the office's organizational chart and assigned to a team.
"This round of officers were hired ‘off-the-street,’ meaning that they were not being hired from within USCIS," Pierce told Newsweek.
"Most of them will likely have had military experience or prior law enforcement experience. But they are unlikely to have had any experience within USCIS. There will likely be some former federal law enforcement officers and local law enforcement or security-trained officers amongst them."
USCIS is filling many Homeland Defender positions through Direct Hire Authority, an expedited federal hiring process used to address critical staffing needs.
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Training Raises Oversight Questions
Pierce said the new employees are expected to attend specialized training at the USCIS academy in South Carolina after reporting for duty. Based on information he has received from former colleagues, he said the program will include several weeks of national training followed by local instruction on agency policies, interviewing and procedures.
"These new Homeland Defenders are not law enforcement officers in the sense that they will be armed or have arrest authority," Pierce said. "It appears that this is just a name change from the old title of Immigration Services Officers."
He added that while he remains concerned about USCIS evolving into a more enforcement-focused agency, the available information suggests the incoming Homeland Defenders will continue performing duties similar to traditional Immigration Services Officers.
"The change in name from Immigration Services Officers to Homeland Defenders seems to mostly be a public relations move rather than a substantive move," Pierce said.
Pierce said he has not received information indicating that armed criminal investigators have yet been assigned to the Detroit office. He noted, however, that USCIS's Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) division could eventually receive criminal investigators, though he said he has no information that such personnel have already been deployed there.
Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former USCIS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official, said she has also heard that Homeland Defender personnel are beginning to report for duty but said many of the positions are expected to be remote rather than based in field offices.
"What I'm hearing is that yes, some are starting in the near term, but most of these assignments are actually remote rather than in field offices," Trickler-McNulty told Newsweek. "Career USCIS staff were subject to return-to-office mandates, while this new cohort is being brought on with remote work as a recruitment perk."
She also said people familiar with the hiring have told her that many recruits are coming from outside USCIS, including veterans, former law enforcement personnel and employees of private detention contractors such as CoreCivic and GEO Group.
Trickler-McNulty said she has questions about how quickly the program has been implemented, including the training curriculum, supervision and quality control for new adjudicators.
"Adjudicating immigration benefits is genuinely difficult work," she said. "That expertise takes years to build. Compressing training raises real questions about the quality and consistency of decisions."
USCIS pushed back on concerns about training and oversight. The agency said Homeland Defender candidates are required to complete the USCIS Immigration Services Officer Basic Training Program, which includes approximately five weeks of academic instruction covering immigration law, federal regulations and related subjects. It said candidates who fail to meet program requirements, including passing a final examination, can be removed from the position.
Recruitment Campaign Shifts Focus
USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in a November 2025 news release that the agency had already begun bringing applicants on board and was moving quickly to expand the Homeland Defender program.
The agency said in December it had received more than 50,000 applications for Homeland Defender positions. USCIS said the first Homeland Defenders began reporting for duty in early December 2025 as the agency moved forward with its effort to expand the program.
“The Homeland Defender Campaign has already been a tremendous success and has resonated with the American people. I’m pleased to announce that in addition to seeing a historic number of applications, we are starting to bring on applicants at a rapid pace,” Edlow said in the press release.
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USCIS told Newsweek that more than 700 Homeland Defender positions have now been filled through the hiring campaign, which launched in September 2025.
USCIS also said some positions could qualify for signing bonuses of up to $50,000, student loan repayment benefits, flexible duty locations and remote work options. Unlike many federal agencies that rely on annual congressional appropriations, USCIS is funded primarily through fees paid by individuals and employers who file immigration applications and petitions.
The Homeland Defender recruitment campaign has also featured messaging from DHS focusing on American First and national security themes. Posts from the department’s official X account described the role as a way to “protect America from criminal aliens,” “defend your country against acts of mass violence” and “decide who will enter our country.”
DHS promoted the Homeland Defender position at least 14 times on its official X account, according to a Newsweek review of the department's social media posts.
Adam Klein, a former senior DHS official, said immigration adjudications rely heavily on officer judgment and discretion, particularly in cases involving credibility determinations, waivers and humanitarian considerations. He noted that many experienced USCIS employees have left the agency in recent years, leaving newer officers responsible for an increasing share of those decisions.
“I think it’s important to distinguish between the positions themselves and the rhetoric surrounding them,” Klein told Newsweek. “USCIS will always need to recruit and train new officers. That, by itself, is neither unusual nor concerning.”
Klein also said the Homeland Defender recruitment campaign reflects a different emphasis than previous USCIS hiring efforts. "The current messaging places greater emphasis on enforcement, fraud detection, and national security than previous USCIS recruitment campaigns, even though the agency's core statutory mission remains administering the nation's legal immigration system," he said.
USCIS said Homeland Defenders are unarmed and do not have arrest authority, distinguishing the role from special agent positions that USCIS is also recruiting for. According to the agency, Homeland Defenders review immigration benefit applications, conduct interviews and help identify applicants who may be ineligible for benefits because of criminal, national security or other eligibility concerns.
"Ultimately, the long-term impact will depend less on the title 'Homeland Defender' than on how these officers are trained, supervised, and expected to exercise the discretion that Congress has long vested in USCIS adjudicators," Klein added.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Sam Stevenson and Sam Wilson.
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