Cities across the country have seen an increased presence in Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.  That’s happening as the Trump Administration has ramped up its efforts to recruit more people to the role and the Department of Homeland Security notes that it exceeded its hiring goal t his year.  More than 12,000 new ICE agents and officers have joined the agency since last year, according to DHS. It has more than doubled in size in that time. The agency says tens of thousands of people have applied to the law enforcement group.  In an effort to recruit more people, there’s no longer an age limit to join ICE. It used to be 40. While the department’s website says the minimum age to join is still 21, Secretary Kristi Noem said in the past that applicants can be as young as 18. The agency is also offering $50,000 signing bonuses and expanding student loan repayments. Philadelphia 11 hours ago Philadelphia region joins protests after Minneapolis woman killed by ICE agent Minnesota 4 hours ago What to know about the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE officer in Minneapolis Immigration Dec 12, 2025 ‘I will continue to fight': Kilmar Abrego Garcia walks free from ICE after judge's order Immigration Dec 7, 2025 ICE has arrested nearly 75,000 people with no criminal records, data shows “These recruitment bonuses are an order of magnitude other than what you’d see at another agency,” said David Bier, the director of immigration studies with the CATO Institute, a nonpartisan policy group. “It appears to be working and, of course, they’re advertising it very aggressively to get people to join the agency.” He says it’s unclear how many of the new recruits have been deployed as they might still be in training.  There’s no exam requirement and applicants don’t need an undergraduate degree to join ICE, according to the agency’s recruitment page. But applicants must meet some physical requirements such as doing 22 push-ups in one minute or less and completing a 1.5 mile run under 14 minutes and 25 seconds.  If selected, recruits have to attend a basic training program. It is supposed to be focused on U.S. immigration law. Bier says they also spend a week learning Spanish in addition to doing physical conditioning and practical skills training such as working with firearms. “There’s no question that the aggressive hiring that they’ve done over the last year means that they’re gonna bring on a lot of people who need a significant amount of training,” said Bier. “They may never have been in law enforcement in the past and they’re being exposed to situations that immigration officers typically would never have be exposed to before.”  The officers have been taking on a different role as of late, according to Bier.  “Almost all of immigration enforcement took place within prisons and jails and other facilities like that,” Bier said. “It was very rare that you had officers out on the streets engaging with the public, dealing with crowd control, dealing with motor vehicle stops.”  He says it’s unclear what type of training they’re doing now to prepare them for this change.  DHS has said that the agents have been following their training when they are in communities across the country. ICE has been appropriated an additional $2 billion for Immigration and Law Enforcement Training under the One Big Beautiful Bill.  ICE has not responded to NBC10’s request to discuss the training and recruitment efforts. ...read more read less