Many ICE New Hires Were Not Vetted And Are Unable To Complete The Shorter Training

This cartoon image is by Lalo Alcaraz at Pocho.com.

NBC News details some of the problems ICE is having in quickly enlarging their number of agents:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed new recruits into its training program before they have completed the agency’s vetting process. . . .

ICE officials only later discovered that some of the recruits failed drug testing, have disqualifying criminal backgrounds or don’t meet the physical or academic requirements to serve.

Staff members at ICE’s training academy in Brunswick, Georgia, recently discovered one recruit had previously been charged with strong-arm robbery and battery stemming from a domestic violence incident, the current DHS official said. They’ve also found as recently as this month that some recruits going through the six-week training course hadn’t submitted fingerprints for background checks, as ICE’s hiring process requires. . . .

Since the surge began, ICE has dismissed more than 200 new recruits while they were in training for falling short of its hiring requirements, according to recently collected internal ICE data reviewed by NBC News.

The majority of them failed to meet ICE’s physical or academic standards, according to the data. Just under 10 recruits were dismissed for criminal charges, failing to pass drug tests or safety concerns that should have been flagged in background checks before they arrived at training, the data indicated and the current and former DHS officials confirmed. . . .

ICE has been under pressure from the White House to increase hiring with the funding Congress designated in the sweeping tax and spending bill that Trump signed into law on July 4. It has frequently lagged behind the White House’s arrest goal of 3,000 per day, which it has attributed to a lack of staffing.

As part of the effort, ICE shortened the training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia from 13 weeks to eight. The training was later shortened to six weeks. . . .

Nearly half of new recruits who’ve arrived for training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center over the past three months were later sent home because they couldn’t pass the written exam, according to the data. The academic requirement includes an exam in which officers are allowed to consult their textbooks and notes at the end of a legal course on the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Fourth Amendment, which outlines when officers can and can’t conduct searches and seizures.

A slightly smaller group were dismissed because they failed the physical fitness test or had medical challenges; some of those sent home had made it clear on their applications that they couldn’t meet ICE’s physical requirements but were sent to training anyway.

Fewer than 10 of the new recruits were dismissed because ICE training leaders learned from them during the training program that they had pending criminal charges or failed their drug tests or were otherwise considered safety concerns.

The three sources said ICE’s human resources office is overwhelmed with more than 150,000 new applicants who have applied since ICE began offering $50,000 signing bonuses in August. The HR office is rushing to clear new recruits, which they believe is leading to mistakes.