ICE Recruiting Tactics Are Pissing Off Local Sheriffs Nationwide
As Immigration and Customs Enforcement looks to bolster its ranks by 10,000—courtesy of the slush fund it is provided under Trump’s budget—it’s resorted to poaching local law enforcement officers who participated in ICE’s 287(g) program, which allows local law enforcement to partner with the agency.
In recent days, ICE’s deputy director has reportedly sent out emails urging 287(g) participants to join the agency. “As someone who is currently supporting ICE through the 287(g) program, you understand the unique responsibility we carry in protecting our communities and upholding federal law,” the email says, per NBC News. The offer also carries potential incentives, including a $50,000 signing bonus and up to $60,000 in student loan repayment.
Jonathan Thompson, executive director and CEO of the National Sheriffs’ Association, told NBC the move was “inappropriate behavior of a partner organization,” adding, “We’re all on the same boat. And you just don’t treat friends or partners like this.”
Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida, told MSNBC, “We’re a force multiplier to help ICE, and we’ve been spending a lot of time and effort. And the next thing we know, the people who we have submitted to ICE, who have been ICE-trained—on our dime, by the way—received a direct email from the administration.”
Judd reached for an idiom to convey the betrayal: “I mean, that’s biting the hand that’s feeding you.” Other Florida sheriffs also got figurative: “Quite frankly, it’s like letting the fox in the henhouse,” Brevard County’s sheriff told WFTV Channel 9. “We don’t want to burn bridges, but somebody lit the fire on the other end,” observed the sheriff of Bradford County.
A number of sheriffs are now demanding mea culpas from ICE. (Judd, for instance, told NBC that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should “get on her big girl pants and do what’s right. She needs to make sure that there’s an apology.”) Some are apparently receiving them: The sheriff’s office in Forsyth County, Georgia, reportedly received an apology from ICE’s Atlanta Field Office.