ICE Is Hiring Literally Anybody, and It’s Terrifying

“Nothing but the best people” finally has stopped being funny. From NBC News:

ICE officials only later discovered that some of the recruits failed drug testing, have disqualifying criminal backgrounds, or don’t meet the physical or academic requirements to serve, the sources said. ... Staff members at ICE’s training academy in Brunswick, Georgia, recently discovered one recruit had previously been charged with strong-arm robbery and battery stemming from a domestic violence incident, the current DHS official said. They’ve also found as recently as this month that some recruits going through the six-week training course hadn’t submitted fingerprints for background checks, as ICE’s hiring process requires, the current and former DHS officials said.

“There is absolutely concern that some people are slipping through the cracks,” the current DHS official said. The official said many of the issues that have been flagged during training surface only because the recruits admitted they didn’t submit to fingerprinting or drug testing before they arrived. “What about the ones who don’t admit it?” the official said.

Geez, I dunno. Sub-Cabinet posts?

Nearly half of new recruits who’ve arrived for training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center over the past three months were later sent home because they couldn’t pass the written exam, according to the data. The academic requirement includes an exam in which officers are allowed to consult their textbooks and notes at the end of a legal course on the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Fourth Amendment, which outlines when officers can and can’t conduct searches and seizures.

So they’re accepting people who flunk an open-book take-home exam on the Fourth Amendment? Lovely.

The three sources said ICE’s human resources office is overwhelmed with more than 150,000 new applicants who have applied since ICE began offering $50,000 signing bonuses in August. The HR office is rushing to clear new recruits, which they believe is leading to mistakes.

“They are trying to push everyone through, and the vetting process is not what it should be,” said one of the former DHS officials with knowledge of the agency’s hiring. The current DHS official likened the pressure on ICE’s human resources employees to clear recruits to “asking them to pull a rabbit out of a hat.”

It’s easier to pull toddlers and abuelas out of bed in the middle of the night, I guess.