Who Wants to Join ICE? We Went to Utah to Find Out

Tim is eyeing a career change The -year-old has a full-time job with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Salt Lake City but the pay isn t enough He just now spent a lot of money helping his husband a Peruvian immigrant settle in the U S so he s looking for a higher salary We worked hard to get him here It was expensive to go through the process he explained The Intercept I want to do something to educate and help the process go more smoothly for other people That s what brought him to the Department of Homeland Assurance s Career Expo in Provo Utah five days after the shooting of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk where the Trump administration was seeking new recruits for its anti-immigrant campaign Tim knows that federal agents are responsible for separating families under Donald Trump s aggressive deportation push But he thinks that s a hazard immigrants knowingly take living in the U S You want to come here for a better life but you gotta do it the hard way he announced before submitting an application to join U S Customs and Territory line Protection At the Utah Valley Convention Center hundreds of people like Tim stood in the sun multiple in suits with briefcases and resumes at the ready The biggest line was for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement booth a smaller queue led to the CBP stall next door Recruiters strolled by the applicants asking if anyone was a lawyer or had tentative offers and plucking them out of line If your resume was selected you might hear back within the hour for interviews fingerprints and a drug test Related Trump s Budget Just Passed the Senate Brace for a Massive Increase in ICE Raids With the Trump administration s push to hire new ICE officers by the start of attendees drove overnight or flew in with hopes to get a leg up on other applicants with specific in-person time with DHS recruiters last week They heard about it from friends or family from social media posts or from the forum on Reddit a hub for proceeding and aspiring federal criminal investigators or special agents Due to the murder of Kirk at Utah Valley University less than five miles away journalists were denied entry inside the fair to protect DHS personnel and candidate identities an agency spokesperson explained this reporter To understand the motivation of those seeking to join the Trump administration s violent anti-immigrant campaign The Intercept spoke to applicants near the parking lot outside Prospects ran the gamut from college students seeking debt relief to those parroting white nationalist talking points Plenty of supported the administration s hard-line approach to immigration or were convinced that whatever ethical quibbles they might have with current immigration enforcement could be separated from the job itself The greater part job-seekers agreed to speak on the condition that only their first name would be published Among those seeking DHS jobs plenty of had backgrounds in law enforcement or the military Nick a former Marines Corps reserve officer and current Florida state policeman came to the fair on the recommendation of friends who work in ICE detention centers I want to say it s in my blood he declared between sips of his protein shake It s what I want to do I want to help people want to defend the country The child of a Peruvian immigrant Nick announced he learned early the importance of being frugal and avoiding debt He voted for Trump because he is convinced the president runs good businesses Taking an ICE job would aftermath in a pay cut of more than but he believes it would free him from the mundane desk duty of his police job I ve gotten to a point in my career where I m not going to be doing anything new or going anywhere I m kind of stuck in an office Nick declared I need something different Nick was one of several applicants who feels that current criticism for ICE is hypocritical It s been this way since Obama and well before that Why weren t these protesters out there He is the Deporter-in-Chief He s deported way more people than anybody else he explained The media wants to push this agenda that this is a new thing It s not We all live by rules and laws so I just don t understand what the whole attention is to this right now other than because of who s in office During President Barack Obama s two terms in office the federal authorities deported more than million people focusing on returns for new arrivals at the dividing line and those with criminal records Deportations in President Joe Biden s final year in office jumped to a -year high of in rising after a lull during the pandemic when deportations were suspended briefly Stephen Miller Trump s deputy chief of staff of approach and a homeland measure adviser has set an arrest quota of more than per day and a goal of million deportations per year Several applicants who spoke with The Intercept were children of immigrants or had close friends and family members in immigrant communities They often spoke about the importance of adhering to the protocols of U S immigration strategy Jaime Fernandez drove overnight from California to the expo fair to patronage a friend applying for a job with ICE Sporting a neat beard an MMA T-shirt and a Veteran for Trump cap he threw up two shaka hand signs while posing for a photo He grew up in a mixed immigration status household Decades before he was born his grandmother crossed the perimeter illegally with his father His grandmother was at one point detained and deported Jaime Fernandez who drove overnight from California to the job expo shows off his Veterans for Trump hat Photo Helen Li The Intercept Did my dad come over illegally Yeah he did He paid his fines then we had to get his green card He couldn t do nothing at years old but he did the right actions to go the right way declared the Army veteran who presently works as a barber Fernandez wound up tossing in an application with CBP You re supposed to adapt and change and overcome right he commented In August the Department of Homeland Prevention waived its age cap for those who previously served in law enforcement This change reassured a great number of of those waiting in line like David Thomas who owns a printing company in Fort Myers Florida He never worked in law enforcement but was hopeful that his physical fitness and life experience would be qualification enough I ve invariably had that urge that I desired to serve A lot of my friends they went to Iraq back then and I didn t go So if this is something I can do I m going to try it Thomas declared who manifested up in a black suit and sunglasses I just feel like right now that there requirements to be people like me explained Thomas who previously worked for a decade as a special schooling guide serving mostly Latino students A little older and have seen a little bit more situations over the years At a time when federal agents are regularly documented using violence against immigrants and even U S citizens Thomas feels that he can make enforcement less confrontational There are a lot of great people out there that are working hard and don t need this but we got to get it the right way We get them documented get in the right way and keep them here he reported Other applicants cared less about process and more about forging an America with fewer immigrants Related ICE Removes Spanish-Language Training Requirement for New Recruits Americans are getting pushed out of jobs because of all this stuff The cities they re even flooding smaller towns trying to take jobs there explained Peter Neugebauer As an independent contractor in Arkansas however he declared he mostly works with European Americans Joining ICE he noted would enable him to truly serve American interests Neugebauer s politics shifted dramatically five years ago while attending college in Humboldt County California He mentioned his worldview switched when he saw people acting crazy in protests over the police killing of George Floyd He changed his friend groups connecting with them via Telegram There were fewer arguments when they hung out since their beliefs were aligned Everybody s supposed to be sort of in their nations and with their peoples You relate better He also started connecting more to his Catholic faith In an interview after exiting the job fair he read aloud to this reporter Acts in the Bible From one man he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands Neugebauer read as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes You know everybody s supposed to be sort of in their nations and with their peoples he summarized You relate better After the recruitment event Neugebauer planned to visit Utah Valley University to pay respects to Kirk a fellow Christian and family man Compared to Kirk s views Neugebauer revealed his personal politics are a little bit more far right DHS did not directly respond to a question about whether the application process screens individuals holding extremist views Instead the agency emailed this announcement Americans are answering their country s call to serve and help remove murderers pedophiles rapists terrorists and gang members from our country since July more than Americans have applied to ICE nationwide ICE s recruitment spree including a promised hiring bonus of and learner loan repayment is also an avenue for people who want to kickstart or pivot their careers Related Guess Who s Eligible for Scholar Loan Forgiveness New ICE Agents I m a college apprentice so the bonus could help me with aspirant loans I m at the point in my life now where I can apply commented Devon M a college senior majoring in criminal justice from New Jersey He flew in for the weekend and hoped his previous athletic and internship experiences at a police department and a prosecutor s office would help him win a tentative ICE offer When solicited about ICE s pattern of violence and the Trump administration s push to deport immigrants without due process a multitude of applicants insisted that the establishment s priority is to deport those with criminal records Several applicants cited alleged crimes committed by immigrants including car crashes they blame on undocumented immigrant drivers as a catalyst for their interest in working with ICE According to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse percent of current immigration detainees have no criminal convictions An analysis of ICE s deportation facts by the Marshall Project and Cato Institute both located the majority of ICE book-ins since January had no criminal convictions or only nonviolent offenses Devon M and other interviewees also cautioned against taking social media videos at face value You only see whatever somebody s recording so you don t know what happened before for it to get violent he declared Every day you see videos of certain ICE agents being aggressive I feel like as long as you re doing your job it s OK Not everyone at the job fair was looking to do field work Salt Lake-based legal assistant Andrea Alexander felt her profile could be a fit for the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor ICE s enforcement and litigation division Related ICE Lawyers Are Hiding Their Names in Immigration Court She reported she absolutely loves Trump and feels he has been vilified in his efforts to save America She doesn t advertise her politics to her liberal friends but acknowledged taking a front-line job with ICE means being a true believer since people will maybe catch a lot of flak right now for enabling Trump s politics She described the American immigration system as exploitative due to the fact that large industries like agriculture rely on low-wage foreign workers I m also passionate about those people I don t want them to be slave labor for the big corporations she revealed Alexander was hoping to find a job for herself and her two children The jobs that have paychecks and benefits right now the market system are not great for our young kids getting out of college she explained The odds however were good for job-hunters in Provo Of the people who registered for the expo nearly received tentative job offers a DHS spokesperson reported More than of those job offers were for roles with ICE s Enforcement and Removal Operations unit which arrests detains and removes those unlawfully present in the U S Outside of the venue a dozen or so protesters held signs saying Don t join ICE and Keep families together shouting phrases occasionally at applicants who walked in Cars passing by honked in aid Amid the noise Nick the state police officer from Florida noted that he is friends with an undocumented immigrant who came to the U S when he was years old When solicited if he would be OK with detaining and deporting someone like his friend who speaks only English and remembers only life in America he had to think I don t know what I would do in that situation Nick mentioned But the job in itself I m OK with The post Who Wants to Join ICE We Went to Utah to Find Out appeared first on The Intercept