Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing for another hiring surge to support President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign, with a goal of bringing on 5,000 new employees by the end of the year, according to four people familiar with the plans.

The hiring would expand the agency’s workforce by around 17% and draw on substantial new funding provided by Congress. The agency had already staffed up drastically since Trump took office, growing by about 8,000, to reach 29,000 employees as of July, according to federal data.

Most of the recruits are expected to be deportation officers, who participate in a variety of enforcement activities, from arresting targets to case management.

ICE has sharply ramped up its enforcement in the past few months with an aggressive arrest campaign bolstered by an infusion of more than $100 billion from Congress. Amid the campaign, agents have been under pressure to work seven days a week, and ICE offices have assigned more agents to immigration enforcement.

Last year’s hiring effort drew criticism for its size and speed, as officers were let into the agency with limited or no initial vetting. By the spring, hundreds of those new hires had been removed.

This time, the agency plans to employ stricter standards for checking out new hires, one person familiar with the procedures said. But it is unclear if ICE can adequately vet and hire an onslaught of new applicants or will run into some of the same concerns.

“Adequately vetting people takes time,” said Deborah Fleischaker, a former acting chief of staff at ICE under the Biden administration. “It’s more important to get it right than do it fast.”

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said the newest hiring efforts were an outgrowth of the new funding allocated to DHS and unrelated to attrition from the previous surge in hires. The agency said it planned to maintain rigorous standards.

The agency is still digging itself out of a vast backlog in vetting the backgrounds of officers and others who were brought on last year. Nearly 7,500 people are still waiting for the extensive background checks required for their positions, with an ability to work on a limited basis in the meantime, according to two people familiar with the process who were granted anonymity.

The number of hires still needing to be checked is far more than is typical, the people said.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Alexandra Berzon and Hamed Aleaziz/Todd Heisler
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