Unlike many local law enforcement agencies, ICE shields the identity of its personnel, a policy the Associated Press said makes a full accounting of the new hires difficult, even as the agency has carried out a fast expansion of its workforce.
The Associated Press said its investigation found that some officers started working before they finished background checks, and that some had financial, legal and employment problems that appear in public records. The AP reported that it focused on more than 40 officers who publicly announced their new jobs as ICE officers on LinkedIn, then used publicly available records to look for details in their histories.
ICE announced earlier in the year that it had completed an “unprecedented hiring spree,” adding 12,000 new officers and special agents and doubling the size of its force, according to the AP. The AP said the push is tied to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, which it said is financed by a $75 billion funding infusion from Congress for ICE.
Among the examples the AP highlighted, it reported on Carmine Gurliacci, 46, who it said resigned as a police officer in Richmond Hill, Georgia, to join ICE in Atlanta in December, citing a resignation letter obtained through a public records request. The AP said court filings show Gurliacci filed for bankruptcy in 2022, describing having no income and being unemployed for two years after moving from New York to Georgia, and listing tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid loans, bills, child support and other debts.
The AP also reported that Gurliacci had filed for bankruptcy in 2013 in New York, listing $95,000 in liabilities, and said he worked for six Georgia law enforcement agencies in three years. The AP said Gurliacci declined comment.
The AP reported that it also found other new ICE hires with recent bankruptcies and that several other new hires had previously been sued over unpaid debts. The AP quoted Claire Trickler-McNulty, who served as an ICE official during the Obama, first Trump and Biden administrations, saying financial problems are a “pretty big red flag” because they might make candidates susceptible to bribery and extortion attempts. The AP also said it makes sense, in its reporting, that ICE could attract some cash-strapped candidates after advertising signing bonuses of up to $50,000.
The AP said it also identified Andrew Penland, 29, as another new hire whose prior record included litigation. The AP reported that Penland joined ICE after resigning in December as a sheriff’s deputy in Greenwood County, Kansas, and that a lawsuit alleged he arrested a woman on false allegations in 2022. The AP reported that the county’s insurer paid $75,000 to settle the woman’s lawsuit.
The AP quoted June Bench, the woman who brought the lawsuit, as saying she was “outraged” to learn Penland had been hired by ICE and that she had unsuccessfully pushed Kansas authorities to review his arrests and take disciplinary action. The AP also reported that Bench said of Penland’s work for ICE, “That’s scary to me. He abuses his power.”
The AP reported that Penland deactivated his LinkedIn account after being reached for comment, and that he alerted ICE to the inquiry but did not respond to the AP.
The AP further reported that it found two other new ICE employees who had been sued for allegedly improperly using force in prior law enforcement jobs, but that those cases were dismissed. The AP said the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, did not answer questions about specific hiring decisions.
In response to the AP’s reporting, the Department of Homeland Security 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. DHS told the AP: “ICE is committed to ensuring its law enforcement personnel are held to the highest standards and rigorously vets them throughout the hiring process,” adding, “Vetting is an ongoing process, not a one-time occurrence.”
The AP reported that DHS described a vetting process that includes reviewing criminal histories and credit scores and conducting background investigations that can take weeks, including interviewing prior employers and other associates. The AP said the hiring pace and the agency’s advertising that college degrees were not required have strained ICE’s ability to complete vetting for all applicants before they begin work.
The AP also reported on an internal memo first reported by Reuters in February that told ICE supervisors to refer “derogatory information about a newly hired employee’s conduct” to an internal affairs unit for investigation. The memo described such information as including termination or forced resignations. The AP said ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons, told a congressional hearing in February that he was proud of the hiring campaign and cited that it drew more than 220,000 applications, adding that the hiring expansion of what he described as a “well-trained and well-vetted workforce” would help ICE carry out the president’s agenda.
This story is part of a continuing AP investigation that also includes other reporting on ICE agents’ backgrounds; MSI previously reported on the AP investigation’s broader findings in that related article.