Inside an ICE forum where agents complain about their jobs

We have a forum With over 5,000 members claiming to be current and former Immigration and customs (ice) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and users are voicing their frustrations and concerns about the agency as it has become a center of public anger.

“I’m all for removing illegal immigrants, but kidnapping guys from lawn mowers in Cali and leaving the truck and equipment there? Sure doesn’t work any smarter,” one user wrote.

The forum contains posts dating back more than a decade and describes itself as “an informal forum for current deportation officers, potential applicants, and retired deportation officers to have a platform for discussion.” In posts seen by WIRED, users complain about long hours, limited overtime pay, incompetent leadership, and poorly trained new recruits.

Forum users do not need to show proof of employment to join, and the platform does not appear to be heavily moderated. WIRED has not confirmed the individual identities of these posters, although the forum is one of many related forums where people who work in different parts of DHS share experiences and discuss specific details of a deportation officer’s work that are likely only known to those who work the job, including discussions about the inner workings of the job, the hiring and training process, and the exchange of job positions. Some forum members are newcomers, others have been members for more than a decade.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE did not respond to requests for comment.

Public scrutiny and outrage also followed Violent immigration raids In Minneapolis for the Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Metro Surge, particularly in the wake of shootings and killings by federal agents. Rene is good and Alex Prettyusers on the forum were not shy about posting.

On January 19, five days before Preeti was killed, a user started a thread titled “Ready to quit, had enough stress.”

“I have 2.3 years left to fully retire from Special Category… but I don’t know if I’ll do it. I’m tired of this agency. Staff are being abused so badly. TDY is mandated with less than 24 hours notice,” reads the first post from a user who has been a member of the forum since September 2015. TDY is short for “temporary duty,” which involves pulling officers from across the country to cities like Minneapolis for large-scale operations.

“No more weekends, more work than ever in 18 years. No more unions. No more downtime,” the post continues. “This is not what any of us envisioned in the final years of our careers when we were in our 50s.” (In 2022, thousands of ICE employees Lost Union Representation that many other government employees have, including protections related to overtime pay. The president of the council that represents ICE officers within the American Federation of Government Employees claimed that the union had become “far-left.”

Other forum users joined in to echo the original poster’s complaints and express their concerns about the agency’s direction. Another user who joined the forum in October 2015 added: “Led by some of the worst leadership I have ever seen, from the local level all the way to the national stage, this agency has managed to turn a valid mission into a complete clown show.”

Many users also complained about the image issue Created for ICE CBP has taken on a greater role in enforcing immigration laws in American cities. “There was absolutely no forethought, and our management just let BP take over. Huge mistake, when nuance was needed in actual targeted execution,” added another user who has been a member of the forum since May 2017.