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 Wednesday 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 President 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.”
Wednesday’s 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.”
