- ICE lost more than 2,900 employees in the first half of 2026, while hiring nearly 12,000 since January 2025.
- New hires who quit stayed a median of six months; those fired typically served less than four months.
- ICE had about 29,000 employees in July 2026 and plans 5,000 more hires by year’s end.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lost more than 2,900 employees in the first half of 2026, even as it expanded its workforce for President Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive. The turnover came as the agency hired nearly 12,000 full-time workers between January 2025 and June 2026.
Resignations and firings accounted for most departures, rather than retirements. The pattern points to rapid churn inside an agency trying to scale up enforcement.
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People who quit had a median tenure of six months. Employees who were terminated had typically stayed less than four months.
The first-half tally exceeded departures in any full calendar year since 2012, according to an analysis of agency workforce data. It also topped the total for any full year before 2026.
| India | China | ROW | |
|---|---|---|---|
| EB-1 | Feb 01, 2023 ▲109d | Jul 01, 2023 | Current |
| EB-2 | Nov 01, 2013 | Oct 01, 2021 ▲30d | Jan 01, 2025 |
| EB-3 | Jan 01, 2014 | Jan 08, 2022 ▲7d | May 15, 2024 ▼109d |
| F-1 | Jan 22, 2020 | Jan 22, 2020 | Jan 22, 2020 |
| F-2A | Sep 22, 2026 ▲31d | Sep 22, 2026 ▲31d | Sep 22, 2026 ▲31d |
Recruitment incentives helped drive a hiring surge
The agency’s recruitment push drew a reported 220,000 applications after it offered help paying college loans and sign-on bonuses of $50,000. Many of the new positions included deportation officers.
Congress provided $75 billion in July 2025, funding the expansion. The nearly 12,000 full-time hires made from January 2025 through June 2026 exceeded the agency’s hiring over the previous decade combined.
That scale of recruitment brought a sharp rise in staffing, but did not prevent employees from leaving soon after joining. The short median tenures among people who quit or were dismissed show how quickly some new staff departed.
The agency has also quietly dismissed some recent hires after background reviews or performance concerns. The departures and firings have accompanied a recruitment drive, not followed a pause in hiring.
Hiring and staffing targets keep climbing
The workforce stood at about 29,000 in July 2026. The agency is preparing to bring in another 5,000 employees by the end of the year, a planned increase of about 17 percent.
The expansion has also been described as a move from a force of roughly 10,000 officers toward a target of about 22,000. Those officer figures describe a narrower workforce category than the reported total of about 29,000 employees.
DHS has said the new recruitment target is backed by congressional funding. The department also says the goal is separate from replacing people who leave, rather than a calculation that simply offsets attrition.
Short onboarding and vetting concerns preceded firings
A supervisor in the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility warned in an August 2025 memo to the DHS Office of Inspector General that human resources staff were making final offers before preliminary checks were complete. The supervisor described the approach as an “unprecedented lowering of standards.”
The warning focused on the timing of checks during fast recruitment. Reports also described some recruits starting before fingerprint, identity or credit checks had been completed.
The agency says some hires begin training temporarily while background checks continue. It has defended the dismissals as part of its normal employment process.
ICE said firings were “nothing new” and described its recruits as “the best of the best.” The department, meanwhile, said it intends to maintain “rigorous hiring standards.”
More than 10,000 officers are getting additional training
More than 10,000 officers who received expedited training are now being sent for further instruction. That effort comes amid concerns about readiness following the hiring surge.
Rapid onboarding, ongoing background reviews and later dismissals have placed vetting and training systems under pressure, according to accounts of the expansion. The training effort adds another layer to a staffing drive in which the agency is simultaneously recruiting, reviewing and preparing a much larger workforce.
The workforce churn could affect operational continuity and field-level enforcement capacity as experienced staff leave and new recruits move through training. Those are potential consequences of the pace and scale of the changes, not a separate change to immigration law.
A former director linked enforcement changes to morale
John Sandweg, who served as acting director from August 2013 to February 2014, said arrest quotas and new enforcement strategies have lowered morale among agents. Other experts connected the departures to low morale, weaker vetting and a shift in the agency’s work.
That shift has moved emphasis from traditional detention processing toward more aggressive enforcement and public-facing arrests. The departure figures capture workforce exits; they do not, by themselves, measure how those changes have affected individual operations.
The issue is primarily one of federal staffing and agency management, rather than a court ruling or a new published immigration policy from EOIR or USCIS. The agency’s hiring and retention pressures are unfolding as its enforcement mission expands.
DHS says it will pursue the additional recruitment goal while maintaining “rigorous hiring standards.” The planned 5,000 hires by the end of 2026 are separate from replacements for employees lost through attrition.
