It seems that becoming a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer is a bit trickier than a very funny viral recruitment sign leads one to believe.
President Donald Trump’s plan to double the size of ICE by hiring and deploying 10,000 new agents by January has lost a bit of steam because so many of the new recruits showing up at ICE’s training academy in Georgia can’t seem to pass its fitness test, The Atlantic reports.
The test requires recruits to do 15 push-ups, 32 sit-ups, and run 1.5 miles in 14 minutes or less — but over one-third of them have failed, officials said.
“It’s pathetic,” one career ICE official told The Atlantic, noting that the academy’s standards have already been watered down to boost recruitment.
The Atlantic also reported that earlier this month, ICE headquarters sent an email to top officials complaining about “a considerable amount of athletically allergic candidates” who had “misrepresented” their physical condition on application forms.
The recruits who are failing the fitness test aren’t getting booted off the court like a kid who just got pummeled with dodge balls, either. Instead, those who don’t qualify for other jobs are being assigned administrative tasks while they wait for ICE’s human resources to whip up their pink slips — and it seems to be causing quite the kerfuffle in field offices.
A top official told The Atlantic that because the recruits aren’t fully trained, they’re not that helpful in administrative roles. Plus, there aren’t enough parking spaces, cubicles or bathroom facilities to accommodate the influx of, essentially, glorified interns.
“It’s a disaster,” one senior ICE official told the outlet.
A representative for the Department of Homeland Security told The Atlantic that the physically unfit recruits are only “a subset of candidates in initial basic academy classes,” and that DHS still expects to fill 85% of its quota from elsewhere.
Essentially, DHS plans to supplement the ranks of ICE by hiring current law enforcement officers and recently retired ICE officials — the latter of whom can continue to collect their pensions in addition to a salary. These hires get to bypass the fitness test, but will “remain subject to medical, fitness, and background requirements,” the DHS rep said.
And although many Americans disagree with the Trump administration’s use of ICE, it’s easy to understand why so many people would apply for positions. After all, the agency is offering hiring bonuses of $50,000 and student loan forgiveness. And considering the sad state of the current jobs report, that is a pretty tempting offer.