ICE agents are not quitting en masse. The widely shared January 2026 claim that 2,000 officers surrendered their firearms and walked off the job was fabricated, traced to an AI-generated YouTube video that reused unrelated protest footage, and the “union representatives” quoted in supporting posts could not have existed because the ICE employees’ union dissolved in 2022.1Snopes. Fact Check: ICE Officers Surrender Guns The opposite is closer to the truth: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has more than doubled its workforce to over 22,000 people since 2025. What is real, and what likely fed the rumor, is a workforce under heavy strain from arrest quotas, gutted training, leadership churn, and two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens.
The Hiring Surge That Fed the Rumor
Between summer 2025 and early 2026, ICE ran the fastest expansion in its history. Roughly $76.5 billion over five years from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” funded a recruitment push offering signing bonuses of up to $50,000, student loan forgiveness, and overtime pay.2Federal News Network. ICE Entices New Recruits With Patriotism Pitch and Promise of $50,000 Signing Bonuses The campaign drew more than 220,000 applications and produced roughly 12,000 new hires, taking the agency from about 10,000 personnel to over 22,000, much of that within four months.3Military.com. ICE Hiring Surge Triggers Oversight Concerns Over Training Standards
The speed showed. Recruits arrived at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia, before background checks were complete, some without submitting fingerprints. More than 200 were later dismissed during training for failed drug tests, disqualifying criminal histories, or failing physical and academic standards; nearly half of those dismissed failed the written exam.4NBC News. New ICE Recruits Showed Up to Training Without Full Vetting An Associated Press review found new hires with histories of financial trouble, job-hopping, or past misconduct, including one officer who paid $75,000 to settle a claim of falsifying a police report.5AP. ICE’s Breakneck Expansion Brings Hires With Histories of Job-Hopping, Financial Strains, Integrity Lapses
Where the Strain Is Real: Morale and Burnout
Even before the surge, ICE staff were stretched. A May 2023 DHS Inspector General survey of more than 9,300 CBP and ICE personnel found 61 percent of ICE respondents said their locations were understaffed for normal operations, 88 percent said staffing was insufficient during migrant surges, and nearly a quarter planned to leave within a year. The report called staffing management “unsustainable.”6DHS Office of Inspector General. Intensifying Conditions at the Southwest Border Are Negatively Impacting CBP and ICE Employees’ Health and Morale
Pressure has intensified since. A July 2025 report in The Atlantic described agents regularly working weekends and running predawn raids beginning at 4 a.m., with supervisors facing termination threats if their teams did not hit arrest quotas set by White House adviser Stephen Miller. One career official called the job “mission impossible” and the environment “miserable.” Agents reported feeling both publicly vilified and pushed by administration officials who called them “too passive,” and many started wearing masks and tactical gear to avoid being doxxed. The Atlantic noted the workforce was “on edge” and “morally conflicted” but had not produced mass resignations, in part because employees feared retaliation, including mandatory polygraph exams.7The Atlantic. Trump ICE Morale Immigration
Training Was Cut, Then Restored
To move recruits through faster, ICE shortened its academy from what had been a 72-day, 584-hour program down to as little as six weeks.8CBS News. ICE Training New Hires Backlash Five weeks of Spanish language instruction were eliminated, with agents told to rely on translation apps. The curriculum shifted from immigration law toward tactical drills. The minimum recruit age dropped from 21 to 18, and the 37-year-old hiring cap was waived. State and local officers being deputized to work alongside ICE saw their required training drop from a four-week in-person course to a 40-hour online module.9Brookings Institution. ICE Expansion Has Outpaced Accountability: What Are the Remedies
Former ICE instructor Ryan Schwank filed a whistleblower complaint in February 2026 and told Congress the accelerated training was “deficient, defective, and broken.” By May 2026, under bipartisan pressure, the administration ended the fast-track program. Core training is being extended back to roughly 71 days starting in July 2026, with added coursework in crowd control, high-risk vehicle stops, live-fire exercises, and medical training. Officers who went through the abbreviated pipeline are receiving an additional 30 days of instruction.10Politico. Trump Administration Axes Fast-Track Training for New ICE Recruits
Leadership Keeps Turning Over
ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed director since the Obama administration, and the current administration has cycled through acting leaders quickly. Caleb Vitello was reassigned after one month as acting director; the White House and border czar Tom Homan were publicly unsatisfied with arrest numbers.11Washington Post. ICE Director Removed Caleb Vitello Kenneth Genalo, who led Enforcement and Removal Operations, retired; Robert Hammer, who ran Homeland Security Investigations, was reassigned. Officials framed the shakeup as supporting a target of at least 3,000 arrests per day.12CBS News. Trump Administration Shakes Up ICE Leadership Over Deportation Levels
Todd Lyons then replaced Vitello, and in April 2026 announced his own resignation effective May 31, citing a private-sector opportunity. His tenure covered 570,000 deportations, the 12,000-person hiring surge, fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens, congressional hearings on officer misconduct, and a record-long funding lapse that left ICE attorneys, investigators, and administrative staff without regular pay. In congressional testimony, Lyons faced questions about 37 investigations into officer use of force but declined to say whether any officers had been fired.13NPR. ICE Acting Director Lyons Will Resign at End of May David Venturella, a former ICE official who spent over a decade at private prison company Geo Group, was named acting director effective June 2026, drawing conflict-of-interest concerns from House Democrats.14OPB. Former Private Prison Official to Serve as Acting ICE Chief In late June, President Trump nominated Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, for the permanent director role.15PBS NewsHour. ICE Acting Director Will Resign at the End of May
The Minneapolis Shootings
The most volatile chapter came during “Operation Metro Surge,” a 10-week enforcement push that deployed more than 3,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis area starting November 29, 2025. DHS reported over 4,000 arrests.16KSTP. Border Czar Homan Set to Talk Amid Growing Optimism That ICE Will Soon Leave Minnesota
On January 7, 2026, ICE agent Jonathan Ross, a 10-year veteran, shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on a residential Minneapolis street after Good and her partner stopped their SUV and honked in protest of ICE agents. Bystander video showed Ross standing out of the vehicle’s path when he fired. An independent pathologist determined Good was struck in the left side of the head. DHS called the incident “domestic terrorism” and said Good had “weaponized her vehicle,” but the Department of Justice declined to open a criminal civil rights investigation, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche saying there was “no basis” for one.17Just Security. Investigation: ICE Jonathan Ross Renee Good
On January 24, 2026, another federal agent shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a nurse and activist, during a Minneapolis operation. Bystander video showed Pretti holding a mobile phone when officers tackled him; he did not appear to reach for his legally permitted firearm. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem initially labeled Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and later conceded that may have been based on incorrect information. President Trump called Pretti an “Agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist” on Truth Social. The DOJ opened a federal civil rights investigation into Pretti’s death, led by the FBI.18The Guardian. Alex Pretti DOJ Civil Rights Investigation
On February 4, 2026, Homan announced the withdrawal of 700 agents, with a broader drawdown through mid-February. Even after that, the baseline ICE and Border Patrol presence in Minnesota stayed between 2,000 and 2,300 officers, up from roughly 150 before the surge. Noem ordered body cameras for federal immigration agents in the area, and Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino was removed following violent encounters with protesters.19NBC News. Trump Administration to Withdraw 700 Immigration Agents From Minnesota
The Real Departures Happened Elsewhere
If people are leaving jobs because of ICE, it’s other federal agencies, not ICE itself. Since January 2025, over 25,000 federal law enforcement personnel have been diverted to immigration enforcement, with some estimates reaching 33,000. Nearly a quarter of FBI agents nationwide, and up to 40 percent in the largest field offices, have been reassigned to ICE support; the bureau’s white-collar crime squad in Houston was described as “decimated.” IRS Criminal Investigation reassignments jumped from 250 in June to more than 1,700 by September 2025. An estimated 90 percent of Homeland Security Investigations personnel have been redirected to Enforcement and Removal Operations. The DOJ Public Integrity Section shrank from 36 career prosecutors to two. Investigations into fraud, public corruption, money laundering, and cybercrime have been delayed or shelved.20U.S. Senate (Warren). Letter to Inspectors General on Diversions of White-Collar Investigators to ICE
The Federal Bureau of Prisons was hit hard by voluntary departures. More than 1,400 corrections officers left for ICE, drawn by higher salaries and signing bonuses. Lawmakers described a “crisis point,” with nurses and teachers filling in as guards, a 43 percent increase in overtime hours over five years, frequent lockdowns, and limited medical care for inmates.21Federal News Network. House Democrats Pressure Bureau of Prisons Leadership on Staffing Crisis Hundreds of cybersecurity specialists from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were also reassigned through compulsory orders; employees who refused faced dismissal.22Bloomberg. Homeland Security Cyber Personnel Reassigned to Jobs in Trump’s Deportation Push
What’s Happening to Oversight
The mechanisms meant to hold agents accountable have thinned. In March 2025, DHS effectively eliminated its Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which had handled use-of-force investigations, and roughly 550 pending complaints were abandoned. Responsibility shifted to the Office of Professional Responsibility, which the American Immigration Council says has either been prohibited from or has failed to initiate sanctions for force incidents.23American Immigration Council. ICE CBP Legal Analysis The administration has advocated for “absolute immunity” for ICE officers, which would allow lawsuits to be dismissed before discovery even in cases involving alleged violations of probable cause or excessive force standards.9Brookings Institution. ICE Expansion Has Outpaced Accountability: What Are the Remedies In the Renee Good case, federal prosecutors were reportedly instructed by DOJ leadership not to investigate or charge the responsible agent.
Congressional Democrats have refused to fully fund ICE and Border Patrol without reforms, including mandatory body-worn cameras and a prohibition on agents masking during operations.8CBS News. ICE Training New Hires Backlash As of mid-2026, ICE remains a central flashpoint in budget talks, still operating on the remains of the prior summer’s $75 billion allocation and still without a Senate-confirmed director.14OPB. Former Private Prison Official to Serve as Acting ICE Chief