'What Could Possibly Go Wrong?'
Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams
That's how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told social media users that it is lifting age limits for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) applicants—evidence, critics said, of the Trump administration's desperation to fill the ranks of federal agencies tasked with carrying out its cruel and illegal anti-immigrant policies.
In a move reminiscent of how the U.S. military attempted to
stem flagging enlistment during the George W. Bush administration's so-called
War on Terror by lowering recruitment standards to welcome felons, gang
members, white supremacists, and high school dropouts, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi
Noem announced that "we are ENDING the age
cap for ICE law enforcement."
Approved applicants will be joining an agency rife with
human rights and legal abuses as it scrambles to satisfy alleged ICE arrest quotas and Donald Trump's
desire to carry out the biggest mass deportation campaign in the nation's
history—a campaign of kidnapping,
unlawful imprisonment and expulsion of innocent people, family separation, concentration camps, terrorization of American communities, alleged torture and sexual crimes, and many other outrages.
Noem told Fox & Friends Wednesday that in
addition to lifting the 40-year-old age cap, ICE applicants can now be as young
as 18.
"What could possibly go wrong?" independent journalist Tina Vasquez quipped on Bluesky.
Author Patrick S. Tomlinson wrote on
X that "ICE opening up recruiting to teenagers because they can't find
enough adults willing to be their racist storm troopers is some real dystopian
shit."
The announcement is the latest Trump administration
effort to lure 10,000 new recruits, including by offering $50,000 sign-up bonuses and student loan
repayment assistance—policies that can be paid for thanks to the One Big
Beautiful Bill Act's historic funding for ICE.
Some critics pointed to a similar move to increase
recruitment at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where lower hiring standards
resulted in increased reports of sexual misconduct and corruption among
Border Patrol recruits.
"If they start waiving requirements there like they did
for Border Patrol, you're going to have an exponential increase in officers
that are shown the door after three years because there's some issue,"
former senior ICE official Jason Houser told The Associated Press last week.
Sunrise
Movement, the youth-led climate campaign, offered
some friendly advice for those considering working for ICE:
"Instead of joining the Gestapo, perhaps find a unionized workplace that's
not involved in kidnapping instead."
