CNN reporter Priscilla Alvarez said the Department of Homeland Security is looking to build a legion of new migrant detention centers very quickly, and they’ve got $45 billion to play with.
A recent windfall from Congress is allowing the department to build space for courtrooms, ICE staff, emergency services, transportation and other amenities, and they are leaning on Department of Defense contractors to make it happen.
The speed of recruitment to fill that space, however, is not going so smoothly, said Alvarez.
“As you have seen on the airwaves, on social media, the Department of Homeland Security is actively and aggressively pushing to bring on as many people as possible to become deportation officers. What that means on the back end, though, according to the sources I've talked to, is that the agency is just ill-prepared for this volume of applications,” Alvarez announced over a CNN chyron quoting a Trump administration official describing ICE’s messy effort to hire 10,000 more deportation officers a “s—— show.”
“That means cutting out interviews or minimal background checks, as well as getting some people who are physically not able to do the job, and not realizing that until they get to the academy,” Alvarez said. “In fact, more than 200 people have been dismissed from the academy for not meeting academic or physical standards.”
Due to its physical requirements, Homeland Security is deliberately focusing its headhunting efforts on currently-employed members of law enforcement, leaving depleted departments unable to compete with ICE’s generous $50k signing bonuses.
“This is the thanks we get for helping them do their job?” said Polk County, Florida, Sheriff Grady Judd said in a recent interview.
Despite actively cannibalizing the ranks of police and sheriff’s deputies, Alvarez said recruitment is spotty.
“But all the same, what I've heard from my sources is that it's incredibly challenging behind the scenes to bring people on board. And in the meantime, the administration is saying that they want to hit more than 10,000 officers or 10,000 officers by January," sh said.