ICE Expanded Workforce With 12,000 New Officers After Congress Funded Trump Deportation Campaign

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) expanded its workforce through what the Associated Press described as an unprecedented hiring spree that added “12,000 new officers and special agents to double its force” after Congress provided “a $75 billion windfall” to enact President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

“ICE went on a hiring spree”

Associated Press

The AP investigation found that “Sterling credentials were not required,” and that some newly hired ICE officers began working before completing background checks.

Associated Press

The AP reported that the agency’s rapid recruitment and hiring followed the president’s “premium on swift action,” which it said led to new employees with “questionable qualifications.”

ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons, told a congressional hearing in February that he was proud of the hiring campaign, which drew “more than 220,000 applications,” and said, “This expansion of a well-trained and well-vetted workforce will help further ICE’s ability to execute the president’s and secretary’s bold agenda.”

The AP also reported that ICE shields the identity of employees to protect them from harassment, and that this secrecy makes “a full accounting of the new hires impossible.”

In parallel, the KFGO version of the AP investigation said ICE announced earlier this year it had completed the hiring spree and that its mission was to help carry out Trump’s mass deportation campaign financed by “a $75 billion funding infusion from Congress for ICE.”

The AP investigation described how ICE’s hiring pace collided with its screening process, reporting that some candidates started working after receiving “tentative selection letters” and offers to begin working on a temporary status before they were subjected to full background checks.

The Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, acknowledged that “some applicants received ‘tentative selection letters’ and offers to begin working on a temporary status before they had been subjected to full background checks.”

KFGO

DHS said, “Vetting is an ongoing process, not a one-time occurrence,” and described a process that includes reviewing “criminal histories and credit scores” and conducting background investigations that include interviewing prior employers and other associates, which “can take weeks.”

The AP said ICE’s secrecy about employee identities—its claim that it shields identities to protect them from harassment—prevented a complete accounting of the new hires.

KFGO’s version of the investigation similarly said the deluge of hires strained the agency and that ICE advertised that “college degrees were not required.”

The AP also reported that the agency’s approach included rapid recruitment and hiring that it linked to “new employees with questionable qualifications.”

In the same reporting, the AP noted that the process included using public records to check backgrounds of “more than 40 officers” who posted their new jobs on LinkedIn pages.

The AP investigation reported that several newly hired ICE officers had histories that included unpaid debts, bankruptcies, and lawsuits alleging misconduct in prior law enforcement jobs.

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WJLA

It said the AP focused on “more than 40 officers” who made their new jobs public on LinkedIn pages and used public records to check their backgrounds, while noting that it was unclear how many should have been disqualified because it did not have access to full personnel files.

The AP found that “several had histories of unpaid debts that resulted in legal action,” “two had filed for bankruptcy,” and “three others had faced lawsuits that alleged misconduct in prior law enforcement jobs.”

KFGO’s account added a specific example: Carmine Gurliacci, 46, who resigned as a police officer in Richmond Hill, Georgia, to join ICE in Atlanta in December, and who filed for bankruptcy in 2022, according to a resignation letter obtained by AP through a public records request.

KFGO reported that Gurliacci said he had “no income” and had been unemployed for “two years” after moving from New York to Georgia, and that court filings showed he listed “tens of thousands of dollars” of unpaid loans, bills, child support and other debts.

KFGO also said Gurliacci had filed for bankruptcy in 2013 in New York when he listed “$95,000 in liabilities.”

Claire Trickler-McNulty, who served as an ICE official during the Obama, first Trump and Biden administrations, said financial problems are a “pretty big red flag” for candidates because they might make them susceptible to bribery and extortion attempts.

Beyond financial issues, the AP investigation described legal and employment problems in some new ICE hires’ histories, including allegations of misconduct and criminal charges.

The AP reported that prosecutors announced felony assault charges against ICE officer Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. for allegedly pointing a handgun at the occupants of a car after pulling alongside them on a Minneapolis-area highway in February, and it said court records show Morgan had a history of financial problems.

Associated Press

The AP also reported that the police department in Alexandria, Virginia, said he was an entry-level recruit for six weeks in 2022 but never completed its police academy, and it noted that it was unclear when he started at ICE because ICE did not return messages seeking comment.

The AP described another candidate, Andrew Penland, 29, who joined ICE after resigning in December as a sheriff’s deputy in Greenwood County, Kansas, according to KFGO.

KFGO reported that Penland left after facing a lawsuit alleging he arrested a woman on false allegations in 2022, and that the county’s insurer paid “$75,000” to settle the woman’s lawsuit, with the agreement showing.

KFGO quoted June Bench, who brought the lawsuit, saying, “That’s scary to me. He abuses his power,” and it reported that she said she was outraged to learn Penland had been hired by ICE.

KFGO also said Penland deactivated his LinkedIn account and alerted ICE to the inquiry but did not respond to AP.

While the AP investigation focused on vetting and backgrounds, the local WJLA page reproduced the same AP headline and included contextual images tied to the Trump administration’s broader enforcement posture, including a federal agent wearing an ICE badge in New York and Texas National Guard members arriving at an army reserve training facility in Elwood, Illinois.

WJLA’s gallery text referenced that the Trump administration had been threatening for more than a month to send the guard to Illinois to address Chicago’s crime problem and to support ICE and CBP during “Operation Midway Blitz,” and it quoted Illinois Governor JB Pritzker accusing the president of using the guardsmen as “political pawns.”

KFGO

The AP’s account centered on how the hiring spree followed the president’s “premium on swift action,” and it included a warning from Claire Trickler-McNulty that “If vetting is not done well and it’s done too quickly, you have higher risk of increased liability to the agency because of bad actions, abuse of power and the lack of ability to properly carry out the mission because people don’t know what they are doing.”

In contrast, ICE’s acting director Todd Lyons defended the expansion, saying, “This expansion of a well-trained and well-vetted workforce will help further ICE’s ability to execute the president’s and secretary’s bold agenda.”

The AP also reported that ICE said it shields identities to protect employees from harassment, while the investigation used LinkedIn pages and public records to check backgrounds.

KFGO’s version emphasized that the speed of hiring and the agency’s advertised approach—such as “college degrees were not required”—raised alarm inside and outside the agency.

Across the reporting, the DHS statement that “Vetting is an ongoing process, not a one-time occurrence” functioned as the official counterpoint to the AP’s depiction of rushed hiring and incomplete checks.