ICE’s $50K bonus, recruiting met with mixed sheriff’s response

A recruiting email sent this week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement‘s (ICE) deputy director is part of a federal hiring blitz of officers, but the promise of a $50,000 signing bonus directed at local sheriff’s deputies isn’t sitting well with some officials, who feel their departments are being poached.

More than $46 billion of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” has been allocated to hiring an additional 10,000 ICE officers and employees. But to add manpower, ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan is actively targeting local departments with existing 287 (g) contracts with the federal government that allow local officers to cooperate with immigration enforcement efforts.