ICE whistleblower warned of 'unprecedented lowering of standards' during hiring spree

A supervisor overseeing background checks warned last year that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was hiring scores of new officers without basic vetting, violating federal rules and putting the agency at risk of misconduct

The official was a unit chief in ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, where background checks were backlogged as ICE added thousands of new officers to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

ICE’s human resources division was making final job offers before preliminary vetting steps had been completed, including fingerprints, identity verification and credit checks, the official's complaint warned.

“This unprecedented lowering of standards sacrifices proper risk mitigation for expediency, placing DHS at risk of infiltration and insider compromise,” the official wrote in a memo to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General dated August 2025.

The New York Times first reported on the whistleblower complaint Thursday. The Associated Press obtained the complaint and a related memo from the now-retired ICE official’s lawyer, Kevin Owen. The official's identity was redacted from the complaint. The Times said the official was a 17-year-agency employee and longtime Republican who had voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024.

ICE announced in January that it had hired 12,000 new officers in less than one year, a spree financed by a $75 billion infusion from Congress to increase the agency’s arrests and deportations.

The rapid pace of the hiring, fueled by a $50,000 signing bonus, raised concerns about the quality of the new employees. An investigation by The Associated Press found that some of the new hires had serious financial problems in their backgrounds, had been accused of misconduct in prior jobs, and had checkered employment histories.

In July, Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said ICE would investigate apparent shortcomings in the vetting of an officer who shot and killed a 25-year-old motorist in Maine.

The whistleblower complaint said that “systemic breakdowns in vetting” violated several federal rules and standards designed to ensure candidates are suitable for sensitive law enforcement and national security positions.

The complaint said the lack of vetting created “increased vulnerability to insider threats, infiltration and foreign influence,” undermined ICE’s law enforcement operations and eroded public confidence in the agency.

It asked the inspector general to investigate the personnel vetting failures and for the agency to immediately suspend the improper practices, hold accountable those responsible for the violations and to review all recent hires to identify potential “insider threats.”

The Office of Inspector General has previously announced that it is investigating ICE’s hiring and training process, as well as security clearances granted to contractors and political appointees.

In a statement, ICE said Thursday the whistleblower was no longer with the agency.

“The ICE Office of Professional Responsibility diligently applies the proper personnel vetting regulations, including guidelines for national security, and evaluates all available information for every applicant based on these factors,” the statement said.

As the AP previously reported, ICE acknowledged that some applicants received “tentative selection letters” after their initial applications and interviews. Some were allowed to begin training before their background investigations were completed.

The whistleblower is the second insider to call out ICE’s rush to put more officers on the streets as reckless.

A former agency lawyer and instructor at the ICE academy, Ryan Schwank, said the agency cut training on the use of force, firearms safety, and the rights of protesters last year. The Department of Homeland Security has since increased the amount of training for new officers.

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Kevin Owen, not Owens.

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