Unvetted, Unfit, and Unchecked: Congress Must Rein In Trump’s ICE Surge

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has admitted hundreds of unvetted recruits into training — including some with criminal records, failed drug tests, and no completed background checks. NBC News reports that ICE’s human resources office, swamped by 150,000 applicants and pressured to meet Trump’s quota of 10,000 deportation officers, pushed recruits into training before vetting was complete. Some arrived without fingerprints or drug screens, in violation of agency policy. Internal data confirm that more than 200 recruits have already been dismissed — not for ideology, but because they failed the simplest physical, academic, or ethical standards. According to The Atlantic, one-third of recruits at ICE’s Georgia training academy cannot pass a minimal fitness test requiring just 15 push-ups, 32 sit-ups, and a 1.5-mile run in under 14 minutes. “It’s pathetic,” said one career ICE official, describing what happens when standards are erased to meet a political goal. The “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” the July budget law that tripled ICE’s funding to $170 billion, created this dangerous mess. As Heather Cox Richardson and the Brennan Center note, that figure exceeds the combined annual spending of every police department in America. And while ICE’s standards plummet, Trump has fired 17 inspectors general and dismantled internal oversight, leaving no mechanism to stop abuses. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s new Accountability Commission shows what real leadership looks like — documenting every instance of federal harassment, brutality, and illegal detention. Congress must do the same. We demand immediate hearings to investigate ICE’s hiring practices, restore full vetting and training standards, and re-establish independent oversight across DHS. An armed force of underqualified, unvetted, politically loyal agents is not border security. It’s a threat to every American’s liberty.