ARLINGTON, Texas — They came from all across America to join President Trump’s deportation machine.
A Border Patrol agent, his firefighter wife and their 3-year-old daughter who drove nearly eight hours for jobs that could bring them closer to home. A man from Tennessee who wanted to apply because of “the way things have become with the illegal immigration and the strain it’s been on our economy.”
And a young Latino who was already catching flak for trying to work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A friend texted: “Oh hell no Ricardo I thought you was joking. I will not speak to you ever again if you become and ice agent … You have a dad who was deported dude.”
Ricardo Quiroz, 23, left, and his two friends, Ivan Gonzalez, 27, and Blake Holland, 24, at the ICE career expo.
(Brittny Mejia / Los Angeles Times)
They showed up Tuesday in Arlington, Texas, drawn by the Department of Homeland Security, which has mounted a campaign reminiscent of a wartime recruitment drive. Its images of Uncle Sam — wearing a baseball cap with the letters ICE or with an eagle behind him — tell people “AMERICA NEEDS YOU.”
“America has been invaded by criminals and predators,” the recruitment posts on social media read. “We need YOU to get them out.”
This week’s two-day career expo marked the first major hiring event staged by ICE since the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which earmarked about $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement, including tens of billions of dollars for hiring deportation agents and other personnel. ICE officials say it’s the first of several hiring events planned around the country.
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DHS officials say that in less than two weeks, the agency received more than 100,000 applications, although it’s unclear how many were viable candidates. The department has loosened age restrictions for potential recruits and is offering hiring incentives such as bonuses of up to $50,000 and student loan repayment benefits. ICE hopes to hire 10,000 deportation officers by the end of the year, although some worry that the expedited expansion could open the door to troubling hires.
Whether the agency will reach its goal remains to be seen, but a couple of days in Texas shows there’s no shortage of applicants eager to join an agency that has become essential in Trump’s push to drive out immigrants who are in the country illegally.
In all, 3,000 people attended the expo, and nearly 700 received tentative job offers, according to ICE.
“It’s not difficult to get people to come here … this is a highly desired career,” Matthew Elliston, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations assistant director, told reporters at the expo. “Especially amongst those who are currently in law enforcement. A lot of people want to do this job.”
The wide interest in ICE employment suggests that, while some apply for these federal jobs despite months of uproar over immigration raids, others are drawn to them because Trump’s deportation efforts have great appeal.
“As American citizens, I think we need to step up and try to help instead of depending on someone else to do it,” said one man, who drove 10 hours from Tennessee and declined to give his name. “I think decent people will do that.”
Another man, wearing a shirt with the American flag on it, said he was there because of “patriotism.”
And then there are those who view working as a deportation officer as a means to an end — whether that’s paying off a newly purchased home or gaining financial security.
“I’m looking for a career, not a job,” said 25-year-old T.J. Jordan, who wore a cross around his neck and miniature ones dangling from his ears. “Whether that be law enforcement, immigration enforcement.”
The expo was held inside the Esports Stadium in Arlington — branded the “American Dream City” — halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth.
Inside, screens featured rallying messages to join the team “AND UNLOCK YOUR POTENTIAL.” “With honor and integrity, we will safeguard the American people, our homeland and our values.” Outside, a group of protesters shouted at applicants: “You’re a Nazi now. You want to deport grandma.”
Even before the 8 a.m. start time on the expo’s first day, a line of about 100 people snaked around the building. ICE officials said about 1,800 applicants had registered to attend. They hoped to come away with 1,000 new hires.
Applicants wore suits, dresses, jeans, cowboy hats and boots, longhorn belt buckles. Some doused themselves in body spray in the parking lot before joining the line. They held binders and manila folders that contained resumes and diplomas.
There were men, women and toddlers whose parents had not been able to secure child care. Mixed in the crowd were young applicants with peach fuzz and older men and women, hair streaked with gray.
People wait for information at the ICE career expo.
(Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
Although Orlin Chotev is 61, he said he felt he had a chance after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that ICE would waive age limits for new applicants, allowing applicants as young as 18 and eliminating a maximum age.
Chotev, a Texas resident, immigrated from Bulgaria in 2010, drawn to America “because it’s a country of legal order.” He said he waited 15 years to get a green card and another five or so to become a U.S. citizen.
“I know when law is not enforced what chaos and corruption results,” said Chotev, as protesters shouted into megaphones nearby. “Now maybe it’s my call to help this country enforce its laws.”
Chotev, who worked as a systems engineer in IT for more than a decade, said ICE officials asked him whether he was a citizen and inquired about his skills. He was also asked his age, noting, “I’m sure it will affect my chances. It does in every job.”
Regardless, he said, his hope is “to get a good job where I can contribute.”
It is a dramatic time to join ICE, the agency that — despite the key role of Border Patrol agents — has become almost shorthand for the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign to remove undocumented immigrants from the country.
The administration has vowed to deport the “worst of the worst.” But in recent months, videos of immigration raids — especially in Los Angeles — have gone viral, capturing agents arresting tamale vendors, day laborers and car wash workers. Noem said this week that Border Patrol and ICE have made 5,000 arrests in the L.A. area since June.
But the statistics in California have not reflected arrests focused primarily on those with criminal records.
Protesters gather outside of an ICE hiring expo in Arlington, Texas.
(Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
From July 1 to July 29, ICE data show that officers arrested 2,782 people in California. About 67% of those had no criminal convictions and 54% had never been convicted or charged with a crime. Nationally, the data show 22,611 people were arrested in July. Of those, 65% had no criminal convictions and 37% had never been convicted or charged with a crime.
L.A. in particular has become a battleground against the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, with lawyers, unions and immigrant rights groups filing a federal lawsuit accusing immigration officials of racial profiling.
But that discontent has spread across the country — including in Texas.
Across the street from the expo, around 30 protesters stood behind metal barricades chanting “Shame” and “Go home Nazis” at applicants passing by. They held American flags and signs that read “The Constitution Matters” and “Defend Democracy.”
Teresa Dunham, a 65-year-old Arlington resident, turned out to protest the expo.
(Brittny Mejia / Los Angeles Times)
“Are you gonna put the mask on before you kiss your kids goodbye for school tomorrow?” shouted Teresa Dunham, a 65-year-old Arlington resident and the first protester to arrive at about 7:30 a.m.
Dunham said she wasn’t surprised at the large turnout of applicants.
“They’ve been waiting for this their whole life, this opportunity to just be a badass or whatever they think,” Dunham said. “They are putting in writing what they’re willing to do to other people to get a paycheck. And some of them, I’m sure, don’t even want a paycheck, they’ve been living for this day.”
The small crowd of protesters did not appear to deter applicants or slow the pace of processing inside the stadium.
As people lined up so officials could review their identification and resumes, current and former law enforcement personnel were routed into a separate line, with the goal of expediting their path. There was an officer who had flown in from Massachusetts. Others from Louisiana.
Inside ICE’s career expo on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.
(Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
The expedited hiring process has raised concerns, with some likening it to a Border Patrol hiring spree from 2006 to 2009, in which standards for hiring and training were lowered and about 8,000 agents were brought on. The Associated Press reported that the number of employees arrested for misconduct — such as civil rights violations or off-duty crimes including domestic violence — grew yearly between 2007 and 2012, reaching 336, or a 44% increase.
When asked about the Border Patrol hiring spree, Elliston stressed that ICE applicants will not get firm job offers until they’ve cleared a background check.
If something is flagged in an applicants background, he said, that person could be asked to take a polygraph exam “to make sure that we are hiring the right person so we don’t have the same problem that you’re speaking about with Border Patrol.”
Hundreds of people waited, sitting on black metal folding chairs or standing in groups, hoping for an email or phone call telling them they’d received a tentative offer. They listened to the same video playing on a loop, telling them that ICE works “to strengthen the integrity of our entire immigration system.”
Occasionally, a voice would boom out from the public address system, calling applicants by last name: Saldana. Sanchez. Rivera. Chavez.
Among the Latinos present that day was Angela Larrosa, a 45-year-old former flight attendant and Dallas resident. Her mother had immigrated from Mexico and her father from Uruguay in the 1960s.
“At first I didn’t know what to think, but then the more I started really looking into it, you know you have to really think about, are they really just taking anyone off of the streets and deporting them? No,” she said.
“They’re taking people that have criminal backgrounds, people that are a threat to the community, people that don’t really need to be here,” Larrosa said. “They’re taking the criminals out and I’m all for that.”
A badge worn by Matthew Elliston, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations assistant director.
(Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
Ricardo Quiroz, 23, and his two friends, Ivan Gonzalez, 27, and Blake Holland, 24, had also shown up looking to join. The Texas residents had been talking for weeks about the expo and their hopes of becoming deportation officers.
But Gonzalez said he told ICE hiring officials that he had a 10-year-old felony on his record for petty theft and he was told he wouldn’t qualify for the position. Holland said all he had on his resume were fast-food jobs; he was told he needed more work experience.
Quiroz said he hoped to add to his resume and get a job with the agency down the line.
“We just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity,” Quiroz said. His father had been deported to Mexico when Quiroz was a teenager.
Asked how his family reacted to his decision to apply to ICE, Quiroz said he doesn’t communicate much with them. But he said his girlfriend’s cousin had gotten upset when he texted her a picture from inside the expo and told her he was applying for a job. He explained he was trying to get a career.
“It’s just things can go a long way,” he texted her. “But I understand your point of view.”
“Well good for you and if that’s what you want so be it but I don’t condone for ice and will never agree with what ice does to little kids and adults,” she texted back.
As the day progressed, tentative job offers began to roll in.
T.J. Jordan got one. He’d already applied online but came in person in hopes of expediting the process. His grandfather — formerly in law enforcement — and other relatives encouraged him to apply.
Jordan held a red folder with his resume inside. He’s a contract worker in the San Antonio area in the solar energy industry. As such, he said, he has to pay for all his own benefits. For ICE employees, “they’re going to take care of the benefits for you,” he said.
Around four hours after he arrived, a tentative offer came through. The agency just needed to get his background check and drug test results back first, he said. If he ultimately gets the job and accepts, he will head out for training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers in Brunswick, Ga.
“The job security is something people are thinking about,” Jordan said. “People who want to start a family and grow up in a safe country — I think that’s why most people will do it.”
Times data reporter Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee contributed to this report.
