Several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents revealed Monday that the Trump administration’s rush to add 10,000 new officers has produced a wave of undertrained and “sketchy” recruits, most of whom were “idiots,” a senior ICE agent told independent journalist Ken Klippenstein.
“The brand new agents are idiots,” the senior ICE agent said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
That sentiment was “echoed by virtually everyone” Klippenstein spoke to at ICE, some of whom recounted stunning anecdotes about the on-the-job behavior of some of the new recruits.
“A lot of the guys are honestly pretty sketchy,” said another ICE agent, who Klippenstein wrote was a “new recruit.” “I thought federal agents were supposed to be clean cut but some of them pass around a flask as we are watching a suspect.”
Since last January, ICE has bolstered its numbers by 120%, adding 12,000 new officers and agents in less than a year. The agency had also received more than 220,000 applications since President Donald Trump took office.
Scrutiny over ICE agents’ training, or lack of, has increased in the wake of the fatal Border Patrol shooting on Saturday of Minnesota resident Alex Pretti. On Pretti’s killing, Klippenstein wrote that several ICE agents laid blame for the incident on “some skittish young recruit who panicked” after hearing the word “gun.”
Other reports have revealed that a number of new ICE recruits “can barely read or write,” and that many were flunking out en masse after lying on applications and failing to meet basic physical requirements.
Pretti’s killing has become a flashpoint in the scrutiny around ICE and other federal immigration enforcement agencies, with Trump holding a “late-night crisis” meeting Monday with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino getting demoted that same day.