New ICE officers leading the Trump charge to deport a record number of migrants are to get cut-back training in a not-so-subtle suck up to President Trump.
Training at Immigration and Customs Enforcement is cutting corners in the most MAGA way possible, and turning deportation training into a presidential tribute.
According to officials who spoke with The Atlantic, the ICE academy, where future guards learn their skills, has been gutted from five months to just 47 days, because Donald Trump is the 47th president.
The Department of Homeland Security, led by ICE Barbie Kristi Noem, is being watched closely by fervent supporters of the anti-immigrant drive.
Spanish-language instruction has reportedly been eliminated in an effort to reach the new streamlined program length. According to the Department of Homeland Security, training will run six days a week for eight weeks, so potentially 48 days if all days are used.
The move is part of a recruitment drive to staff up for Trump’s planned mass deportations, with a focus on major U.S. cities that have “sanctuary” policies, including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Despite Trump’s repeated pushes, ICE does not yet have the manpower to launch the citywide operations envisioned by longtime adviser Stephen Miller. He has demanded 3,000 arrests a day, a target which the task force has repeatedly fallen short of.
Last month, Trump signed what he called his “Big Beautiful Bill,” giving ICE an unprecedented $75 billion in new funding to be spent over several years. The agency’s annual budget currently stands at about $8 billion.
DHS officials say the hiring push has already drawn more than 115,000 applications for about 11,000 open positions. ICE currently has about 5,700 deportation officers, and the administration wants to add 8,000 more by year’s end. To achieve this, the agency is relying on a shortened training pipeline, signing bonuses of up to $50,000, the removal of age limits, and a lowered minimum age requirement of 18.
“We’re taking father/son bonding to a whole new level,” DHS declared on social media earlier this month, posting an image of two generations in tactical gear, in a bid to plug its new push.
ICE is also attempting to lure at least 300 retirees back into service. They would be allowed to keep their retirement benefits while earning additional pay, The Atlantic reported.
Pressure from the White House has been constant. Officials told The Atlantic that Miller participates in daily conference calls with ICE leadership as the agency races to expand. ICE’s goal is to more than double the number of deportation officers in the field by the end of 2025.
So far, arrests under Trump have surged. ICE detentions in U.S. communities have quadrupled, and the agency is on pace to complete roughly 300,000 deportations in fiscal year 2025—the highest total in at least a decade.
Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, told The Atlantic that trainees “still learn the same elements and meet the same high standards ICE has always required.”
But one veteran official warned, “They’re opening it up to everyone who wants to get a badge and a gun. You’re gonna get a lot of people who are just power hungry and want authority.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
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