Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using numerous incentives to try to draw in recruits with law enforcement experience but that could leave local police departments hurting for staff.
In order to execute his mass deportation agenda, President Donald Trump has directed ICE to grow its roster. The federal agency's ideal candidates are current law enforcement officers and it’s been pushing hard to convince them to cover their faces and carry out Trump's will.
ICE has gone so far as to buy airtime during NFL games to make its pitch to prospective recruits.
“In sanctuary cities, dangerous illegals walk free as police are forced to stand down,” an ad run in August claimed. “Join ICE and help us catch the worst of the worst.”
Selling an ostensibly noble cause isn't ICE's only tool to attract prospects. According to the Los Angeles Times, ICE has dropped its age requirements, eliminated its Spanish-language proficiency requirements, and has scaled back its training for new hires who already have law enforcement experience.
The jobs also come with cash incentives — a $50,000 signing bonus, student loan forgiveness, and six-figure salaries in some cases.
Its recruitment push leaves ICE in a perilous place when it comes to its relation with local law enforcement, which it relies on for its operations. On one hand, ICE needs their help; on the other, it's actively trying to steal their officers.
“We’re not trying to pillage a bunch of officers from other agencies,” Tim Oberle, an ICE spokesman, told the LA Times. “If you see opportunities to move up, make more money to take care of your family, of course you’re going to want it.”
In California, law enforcement agencies in major cities tend to pay very well. Entry level pay for an LAPD officer is more than $90,000 a year, and the base for the San Francisco Police Department is $120,000.
But even with those salaries, it's been tough for agencies to attract officers. According to the LA Times, the LAPD has only graduated, on average, 31 students in its past 10 academy classes. That's about half of what the city needs to keep pace with its plans to grow its force to 9,500 officers.
Now, local police departments are not just facing a lack of new recruits, but an active attempt by ICE to woo their staff into the federal government.
“Agencies are short-staffed,” David J Bier, an immigration expert at the Cato Institute, told the LA Times. “They are complaining constantly about recruitment and retention and looking every which way to maintain their workforce — and here comes along ICE — trying to pull those officers away.”
At least California cities tend to offer high salaries for officers. In towns and cities with more meager means, police officers and deputies may make salaries on par with chronically underpaid school teachers. For them, the allure of a high-paying federal job may be even more enticing.
In the meantime, when ICE needs bodies it can effectively force local law enforcement officers to work with them through a broad cooperation program enacted by the Department of Defense called 287g. As of September, 474 agencies in 32 states were participating in the cooperation program, with some states — such as Georgia and Florida — making cooperation mandatory.
In California, state law prohibits its agencies from participating, and LA has mandated its officers cannot participate in civil immigration policing.
Even with those prohibitions in place, police in LA have been swept up in ICE operations, as happened earlier this year when the federal agency conducted immigration raids in the city's neighborhoods, sparking a massive protest that saw Trump deploy the military against demonstrators.
“The vast majority of peace officers do not want to do immigration enforcement because that’s not the job they signed up for,” Brian Marvel, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, told the LA Times. “We want to protect the community.”
But the holdouts may soon be forced to cooperate, as the Trump administration has threatened to withhold millions of dollars of funding for initiatives including domestic violence shelters, rape crisis hotlines, and child abuse centers if agencies don't comply.
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