The last time the US dramatically expanded its force of immigration officers, major problems arose. Some border agentsrecruited in the 2000sturned out to becartel members. Onekidnappedand raped three women in his custody. Two others were convicted ofoff-duty murders. Now, asDonald Trumpvowsto build "the largest deportation operation" in history and kicks off a massive recruitment spree, human rights advocates and former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials are warning that misconduct and violence by officers could increase as a result. Bolstered by anunprecedented $170bn in fundingfor Immigration and Border Enforcement, the DHS is seeking tohire10,000 new Iceofficersand 3,000 Customs and Border Protection (CBP)agentsby theend of the year. In its desperate race to staff up and meet Trump deputy Stephen Miller's aggressive goal of3,000 immigration-related arrestsa day, the DHS is now advertising substantial incentives for Ice recruits. That includes asigning bonusof up to $50,000 and as much as $60,000 in student loan repayment. Related:Mother of boy, 15, held at gunpoint by US immigration agents files $1m claim It has expanded the officer recruitmentage, which was generally 21-40, to all people 18 and over, and hasshortenedtraining periods to get agents in the fieldfaster. It has launched a prolific social media campaign, featuring memes and imagery that critics say echo white supremacist ideologies. In the past, US officials have repeatedly dismissed misconduct, or even crimes, by immigration officers as anomalies. Watchdogs, however, arguecorruptionandabusewithin Ice and CBP is rampant – and that the White House's hiring tactics threaten to supercharge problems. "Abusive practices, misconduct and a sense of impunity have long existed within these agencies," said Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee's US/Mexico border program, whichtracksofficer misconduct. "There are systemic problems with accountability … and a culture of violence." When border patrol nearly doubled its workforce between 2005 and 2011, expanding from 11,300 to 21,400 agents, hiring guidelineswere changedand training requirements were loosened, according to the Associated Press. Agentswere rushedthrough the academy before background checks were done. Ralph Basham, George W Bush's CBP commissioner,told Politico Magazine in 2014: "We made some mistakes. We found out later that we did, in fact, hire cartel members." Reports of misconduct by immigration officers increased.Nearly one CBP officerwas arrested for misconduct every day from 2005 to 2012, Politico found. CBP shootings and use-of-force complaintssurged from 2007 to 2012. In 2018, a border patrol agent wasarrestedforkilling four women, the same year another agent was arrested forkilling his girlfriend and their babyand three other CBP officers wereaccusedof sexually assaulting a colleague on office furniture they deemed the "rape table". In 2019, dozens of border patrol agents werecaughtin a racist Facebook group. In recent years, former agents were convicted ofkidnapping, sexual assaultandaccepting cartel bribes, and there were continuedreportsofsexual assaultbehind bars. "The problems of overreach, abuse and weak accountability at DHS stretch across presidential administrations," said Spencer Reynolds, senior counsel for the liberty and national security program at the Brennan Center, a non-profit. "These issues are baked into a department that has very broad mandates and operates with significant discretion." The hiring spree could exacerbate those problems. In addition to expanding the age eligibility, the DHS was speeding up onboarding for new hires by condensing training from 13 weeks to eight, officials recentlytoldNBC News, and reducing Spanish classes, firearms courses and classroom instruction. The existing training, advocates say, was already failing to prevent misconduct. Michelle Brané, the former immigration detention ombudsman under Joe Biden, said that she was concerned that it appears that some Ice and CBP officers have "a very poor understanding of the law – when you're allowed to arrest somebody, when you need a warrant, what is a valid warrant, or even basics about how people are supposed to enter the country" – and that was before training periods were shortened. Some agents wrongly believed people could apply for asylum from Mexico or cross the border at ports of entry that CBP had, in fact, blocked off – ignorance that could fuel agents' anger at immigrants, she said: "It creates resentment among staff, and that's when people start to get dehumanized and you get really horrific treatment." The DHS's hiring incentives and expanding eligibility suggest it could be struggling to meet the White House's recruitment goals, though Ice said last month it hadreceivedmore than 100,000 applications in two weeks. Lilian Serrano, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, an advocacy group, said the DHS has long recruited in low-income communities where there are minimal prospects for good jobs: "Some see border patrol as a way of getting a well-paid job that will lift them and their families out of poverty, even though that job means targeting their own communities." Serrano was particularly concerned that Trump's recruitment was targeting youth, with events atschoolsin border communities. Serrano's coalition has tracked border patrol misconduct and killings for years – and has seen agents' behavior worsen this year, she said: "The shift has been immediate, with agents being more emboldened to openly violate their own policies even when they know they're being recorded." Rapid recruitment will worsen those problems, she said. Scott Shuchart, a former senior Ice official under Biden, said he was concerned about white supremacists and violent extremists getting hired as the DHS lowers its standards and speeds up enrollment: "The scary ones are the people who want to be Trump's private army, the insurrectionists, the Proud Boys, the Klansmen and others who might be coming out of the woodwork." Historically, efforts to prevent the hiring of officers prone to crimes were more focused on cartel ties, though the January 6 insurrection, which sawoff-duty officersfrom across the country joining rioters, made officials more aware of the threats of far-right infiltration in recruitment, Shuchart said. While background checks might still block the hiring of white supremacists with criminal records, he said he doubted there were any efforts targeted at weeding out these ideologies in recruitment. Those fears have been exacerbated by the message in the DHS's online recruitment efforts, and as the DHS has celebrated its harsh treatment of immigrants, whether with the department's secretary, Kristi Noem,filming herselfat an El Salvador prison with men jam-packed into a cell, or the DHS posting amemeof alligators as Ice agents in Florida. Recent DHS recruitmentadvertisementshave usedlanguagelike "Defend your culture!", "Secure the Golden Age" and "Want todeport illegalswith your absolute boys?" One X.com recruitmentpostfeatured an Uncle Sam image and said, "Which way, American man?", which observers quickly pointed out was similar to the title of a 1978 white nationalistbookthat defended Hitler. The DHSsaidit was conveying that Uncle Sam was "at a crossroads, pondering which way America should go". "The message is: 'We are intentionally causing harm in order to encourage people to leave voluntarily,'" said Brané. "Cruelty is the point, and they seem proud of it. I worry you now have [recruits] coming in with the idea that they are there to harm immigrations and be as cruel as possible … It is clearly going to lead to more violations of human rights. There will be more abuse and mistreatment, whether physical or verbal, and less concern for people's wellbeing and due process." Spokespeople for the DHS, Ice and CBP did not respond to interview requests and detailed inquiries about its recruitment strategies and officer misconduct. Experts see the developments as reflective of larger systemic shifts. "Cutting back on training goes along with the complete collapse of the rule of law in this country," Shuchart said, noting that Trump's immigration crackdown has relied onunconstitutionalpractices andillegal actions, including racial profiling in Los Angeles andunlawful deportations. "You don't have to spend weeks teaching someone immigration law if you've decided the law just means the president gets to deport anyone he wants. Direct monarchical rule without law doesn't require a lot of training by the king's foot soldiers." That lack of accountability is exacerbated by the erosion of oversight. Noem hasshut down DHS oversight officesmeant to uncover and prevent misconduct, efforts that advocates said were already inadequate. Related:'I'm not coming home': Trump policy holds people in Ice custody without bail "They are rushing the hiring of these sensitive positions while gutting the institutions responsible for ensuring oversight and spewing incredibly dehumanizing rhetoric about the people who are subject to these policies," said Noah Schramm, policy strategist for the ACLU of Arizona. "It's a recipe for disaster." Advocates are particularly worried about reductions in accountability as Trumpdeploys border patrol agents to cities,including Los AngelesandWashington DC. "Border patrol is not trained in crowd control. And some agents see themselves as a military force," said Reynolds. In LA, border patrol agents werecaught making false statementsabout protesters they arrested in June. A judge earlier this year also criticized the border patrol for conducting warrantless immigration stops,saying: "You just can't walk up to people with brown skin and say, 'Give me your papers.'" Reports ofracial profilingby CBP and Ice in California havecontinued. "There will be an increased level of civil rights violations, and the public has no recourse to address them," Rios said. Stacy Suh, program director at Detention Watch Network, an immigrants' rights coalition, said the vast expansion of Ice and CBP will have far-reaching consequences. "No amount of training or slowing down hiring will address Ice's culture of secrecy and impunity," Suh said. "What we're really concerned about is how difficult it is to shrink the system once it is expanded. This hiring spree will have a devastating impact on our communities for years to come. It means more people will be targeted and detained, more people will be coerced in detention to accept deportation, and violence inside prisons will get worse."
