An Associated Press investigation has found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hired thousands of new officers and special agents with questionable qualifications during an unprecedented hiring spree to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. The agency, which received a $75 billion congressional windfall, prioritized rapid recruitment over verification, resulting in the hiring of applicants with histories of financial distress, failed police academies, and prior misconduct allegations.

The rapid vetting process has raised concerns about liability and capacity for abuse within the agency, which has faced multiple allegations of excessive force since the hiring campaign began.

Rapid expansion prioritized speed over vetting standards

ICE hired 12,000 new officers and special agents to double its force during an unprecedented hiring spree aimed at carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. The agency received a $75 billion congressional windfall to execute the expansion, and the urgency of rapid hiring led to the adoption of accelerated vetting processes.

An Associated Press investigation found evidence that applicants with questionable histories were either not fully vetted before being hired or were admitted despite documented problems.

Cases and investigative findings

Prosecutors announced felony assault charges against ICE officer Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. for allegedly pointing a handgun at occupants of a car after pulling alongside them on a Minneapolis-area highway in February. Court records show Morgan had a history of financial problems. The police department in Alexandria, Virginia, said he was an entry-level recruit for six weeks in 2022 but never completed its police academy. It is unclear when he started at ICE.

“If vetting is not done well and it’s done too quickly, you have higher risk of increased liability to the agency because of bad actions, abuse of power and the lack of ability to properly carry out the mission because people don’t know what they are doing,” said Claire Trickler-McNulty, who served as an ICE official during the Obama, first Trump and Biden administrations.

The Associated Press examined more than 40 officers who recently publicized their new ICE jobs on LinkedIn, using public records to check their backgrounds. All but one were male. While most had conventional qualifications as former correctional officers, security guards, military veterans and police officers, several had histories of unpaid debts that resulted in legal action. Two had filed for bankruptcy and three others had faced lawsuits alleging misconduct in prior law enforcement jobs.

Carmine Gurliacci, 46, resigned as a police officer in Richmond Hill, Georgia, to join ICE in Atlanta in December. He filed for bankruptcy in 2022, saying he had no income and had been unemployed for two years after moving from New York to Georgia, according to court filings. He listed tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid loans, bills, child support and other debts. Court records show he had previously filed for bankruptcy in 2013 in New York, when he listed $95,000 in liabilities.

After his 2022 bankruptcy petition was approved, Gurliacci rejoined the work force, hopping to six Georgia law enforcement agencies within three years, each time resigning before moving to the next.

Andrew Penland, 29, joined ICE in December after resigning as a sheriff’s deputy in Greenwood County, Kansas. Penland had spent most of his career as a deputy in Bourbon County, Kansas, but left after facing a lawsuit alleging he arrested a woman on false allegations in 2022. The county’s insurer paid $75,000 to settle the case.

The woman, June Bench, recounted what happened. One of her neighbors, a county official, claimed Bench had purposely made a wide turn and nearly hit him with her car. Penland responded to the property. Body camera video shows he urged the neighbor to press charges and told the man Bench would go to jail but he would not have to testify in court because it would get resolved through a plea.

Penland wrote in a report that he watched surveillance video showing the neighbor jumping out of the way of Bench’s speeding car. When Bench obtained the video Penland cited as proof, it showed her car appearing to make a routine turn and no near-collision with the neighbor.

Bench was arrested on a felony assault charge, jailed for a week, and more than a year later the charge was dismissed for lack of evidence. “That’s scary to me. He abuses his power,” Bench said after learning Penland had been hired by ICE.

Antonio Barrett initially failed to graduate from a Colorado law enforcement academy in 2020, receiving an incomplete grade. He finished the program after a community college arranged a special one-day training and test for him, and landed a job at the police department in La Junta, Colorado, in July 2020. But he only worked three weeks before resigning and never worked in local policing again.

Agency response and vetting practices

The Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, did not answer questions about specific hiring decisions. But it acknowledged that some applicants received tentative selection letters and offers to begin working on a temporary status before they had been subjected to full background checks.

“ICE is committed to ensuring its law enforcement personnel are held to the highest standards and rigorously vets them throughout the hiring process,” the department said. “Vetting is an ongoing process, not a one-time occurrence.”

The process includes reviewing criminal histories and credit scores and conducting background investigations that include interviewing prior employers and other associates, which can take weeks. But the deluge of hires has strained the agency, which promised signing bonuses of up to $50,000 and advertised that college degrees were not required.

Claire Trickler-McNulty, who served as an ICE official during the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, highlighted a particular concern about the accelerated approach. “Serious financial problems are a pretty big red flag,” she said, “because they might make employees susceptible to bribes or extortion.”

Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, said during a congressional hearing in February that he was proud of the hiring campaign, which drew more than 220,000 applications. “This expansion of a well-trained and well-vetted workforce will help further ICE’s ability to execute the president’s and secretary’s bold agenda,” he said.

Training cuts and qualification concerns

Former ICE academy instructor Ryan Schwank testified in February that agency leaders cut training on the use of force, firearms safety and the rights of protesters. He said the new recruits include some as young as 18 who lack college degrees and whose primary language is not English.

“We’re not giving them the training to know when they’re being asked to do something that they’re not supposed to do, something illegal or wrong,” Schwank said.

Marshall Jones, an expert on police recruiting at Florida Institute of Technology, said it is hard to get a full picture of ICE’s new employee pool without more data. But he said ICE has likely hired some “less than ideal candidates” who meet minimum requirements but would be passed over in a normal hiring cycle.

“If you’re hiring hundreds or thousands of people, even with the best of background processes, there are going to be outliers,” Jones said. “The question is, are these normal outliers from human beings doing things, or is there a systemic challenge in properly vetting folks if there are issues?”

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