A Department of Homeland Security unit embedded with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 4, 2025 (Image: Shutterstock)
The Trump administration, with the help of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is targeting a long list of federal government agencies for mass layoffs — from the Social Security Administration (SSA) to the National Weather Service (NWS) to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA). And Trump has contemplated eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) altogether — an idea that drew scathing criticism when areas of Central Texas were rocked by deadly floods over the 4th of July Weekend.
But one agency that clearly isn't being defunded is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). President Donald Trump's so-called "big, beautiful bill" contains $75 billion set aside for ICE during a four-year period.
While other agencies are being aggressively downsized, ICE is hiring. But according to an article from The Independent published on August 26, ICE is an incredibly stressful work environment during Trump's second presidency — and agents are "grappling with widespread burnout and frustration."
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"Bolstered by record funding and new latitude for raids," Independent reporters Ted Hesson, Tim Reid and Nicole Jeanine Johnson explain, "staff are contending with long hours and growing public outrage over arrests. Two current and nine former ICE officials have said agents are struggling to keep pace with the (Trump) administration's aggressive enforcement agenda. While all interviewed officials backed immigration enforcement in principle, they criticized the Trump Administration's push for high daily arrest quotas."
The reporters add, "These have led to the detention of thousands with no criminal record, long-term green card holders, legal visa holders, and even some U.S. citizens. Most current and former ICE officials requested anonymity, fearing retaliation."
The quotas are reportedly being demanded by White House senior adviser Stephen Miller.
"Americans have been inundated with images on social media of often-masked agents in tactical gear handcuffing people on neighborhood streets, at worksites, outside schools, churches, and courthouses, and in their driveways," Hesson, Reid and Johnson report. "Videos of some arrests have gone viral, fueling public anger over the tactics. Under Trump, average daily arrests by the 21,000-strong agency have soared, up over 250 per cent in June compared to a year earlier, although daily arrest rates dropped in July…. Another stress factor for more senior officials is the perpetual threat of being removed for failure to produce arrests, underscored by multiple changes of leadership at ICE since Trump took office in January, five of the ICE officials said…. At the center of the complaints, the current and former ICE officials said, was the demand by the White House for ICE to sharply increase immigration arrest numbers to about 3000 a day — 10 times the daily arrest rate last year under Trump's Democratic predecessor, former President Joe Biden."
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An ICE agent, quoted anonymously, told The Independent, "The demands they placed on us were unrealistic. It was not done in a safe manner or the manner to make us most successful."
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Read The Independent's full article at this link.