On Tuesday morning, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced in an internal email that it would offer cash bonuses to agents for deporting people quickly, an incentive meant to motivate the staff to speed up President Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
Less than four hours later, the agency abruptly canceled what was supposed to be a 30-day pilot program.
“PLEASE DISREGARD,” Liana J. Castano, an official in ICE’s field operations division, said in a follow-up email to agency offices around the country.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said the program had not been enacted, adding that “no such policy is in effect or has ever been in effect.” The email canceling the program was sent shortly after The New York Times inquired about its existence.
But the short-lived effort underscored the mounting pressure on ICE to meet Mr. Trump’s aggressive deportation targets. The agency has offered signing bonuses of up to $50,000, promised to hire as many as 10,000 agents and initiated a vigorous recruiting push on social media.
The Trump administration is seeking to transform ICE, infusing it with an enthusiasm for the president’s project of carrying out deportations on an unprecedented scale. Under Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, which he signed into law early last month, ICE’s annual budget will grow from about $8 billion to roughly $28 billion, making it the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the federal government.
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The post ICE Offers, Then Quickly Withdraws, Cash Bonuses for Swiftly Deporting Immigrants appeared first on New York Times.
