Planet Money - The ICE hiring boom

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Live event info and tickets hereICE is scaling up, with rapid new hiring. So we ask, has training new officers changed? At what cost? Also, the Trump administration has plans to pour billions of dollars into warehouses for mass immigrant detention centers, which can totally change the economy of some areas. We hear from a rural town in Georgia that wants an ICE facility in its own backyard. These episodes were originally published on Planet Money’s sister daily podcast The Indicator.Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. /  Subscribe to Planet Money+Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.Listen to the Indicator from Planet MoneyFacebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.The episodes of The Indicator were produced by Julia Ritchey, with engineering by Jimmy Keeley. They were fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Concannon is our show's editor.This episode of Planet Money was produced by Luis Gallo, with help from James Sneed. It was edited by Planet Money’s Executive Producer, Alex Goldmark.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is Planet Money from NPR. In the last year, the Department of Homeland Security says 12,000 new agents and officers have joined U.S. immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE. This was an unprecedented hiring boom that more than doubled ICE's ranks. The agency was aggressive in its recruitment efforts. It waived age requirements and offered signing bonuses of up to $50,000. The Department of Homeland Security says it's deploying agents to remove the, quote, worst of the worst from the U.S. This large ramp up has turned ice into arguably one of the fastest-growing and most scrutinized

workplaces in the country right now. That's because its performance is highly visible and at times questionable. The majority of immigrants caught up in this crackdown have no criminal convictions, many have legal status, and even U.S. citizens have been taken into custody. Recent surveys show an increasing number of Americans saying that immigration crackdown has gone too far. Some politicians and community leaders are even calling for ice to be dismantled. Others say they need better training or a culture shift or both.

Are those changes needed and would they even make a difference? Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong, normally a co-host of Planet Money's daily podcast, The Indicator. And I'm Darian Woods. Today on the show, the ICE hiring boom is having domino effects. How has training new officers changed and at what cost? Also, the Trump administration has plans to pour billions of dollars into warehouses for mass immigrant detention centers, which can totally change the economy of some areas. We hear from a rural town in Georgia that wants an ICE facility in its own backyard.

The Trump administration's massive tax and spending law gave $750 million to something called the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. These are the facilities that train recruits for ICE. U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Mark Brown taught at the main campus near Brunswick, Georgia for five years. I enjoy training. I like when the light bulb goes off, so to speak. The Georgia facility is so big that it has its own zip code. There are dorms, classrooms, and shooting ranges. There's even a mini replica of a city spread out over more than 35 acres.

It has storefronts, shops, federal buildings, and then you have like neighborhoods behind it where you have houses, you have duplexes, trailers, apartment-style buildings. Because when we would teach crowd control, we would go over there. We would use that city to show them, okay, this is how you're going to line up on the street.

So Mark, look at the trainees lined up on the street of this fake city. And he would tell them, this is what you do if you're trying to arrest someone and a crowd starts to form. Or maybe there are protesters. If they're protesting on the sidewalk, they have the right to protest your presence. So that's not something for you to engage in.

And then as soon as your person is handcuffed, let's get them up and get them out of there. Like, we don't need to stick around. We don't talk to the crowd. We're not actively going back and forth. We're not here to debate their points. They're allowed to protest our presence. That's fine.

Our biggest thing is keeping everybody safe. Mark says he's not seeing those protocols in some of the videos of federal agents that are circulating. And that makes them wonder about the training that the newly recruited ICE or CBP agents are getting or not getting. So how much instruction do new ICE recruits get? Well, there's been a lot of contradictory information on this, including from the government. Different officials within the DHS have said that the training for immigration agents has been shortened. At the same time, the agency

says media outlets are spreading lies about ICE training. We reached out to DHS for clarification. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told us that officers are getting the same number of training hours. Here's what we were able to figure out, based on the numbers we got from DHS. New ICE recruits get 14 weeks of training. This is fewer weeks than what ICE agents were previously getting. It's also shorter than the national average for state and local law enforcement officers. Matthew Ross is an economist at Northeastern University who studies police training. He says he's concerned that the program for ICE officers has changed significantly in a short amount of time.

I think there's a lot of reasons to be quite worried about what the long-term implications that are going to look like. And even what we're sort of seeing in places like Minneapolis, it might be a direct result of that. One major change in the ICE training has to do with learning Spanish. Previously, new ICE agents got five weeks of Spanish instruction. DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, told us that the agency replaced those classes with translation services covering multiple languages. It is not clear what those services are. Matthew says he's also concerned that ICE recruits aren't getting enough high-quality, field training. That's when new officers are paired with more experienced ones to learn on the job.

Matthew and some other researchers studied field training using data from the Dallas Police Department. They found that if a recruit was assigned to a more aggressive field training officer, that recruit was significantly more likely to use force. The furthest we could look out just based on the data we had was three years. And as far as we can tell, if you happen to get paired up with a field training officer that used force frequently, you were just more likely to use force for the entirety of that three-year period. And in fact, it could be true that you just use force more for the rest of your career. In other words, new law enforcement officers model their behavior after more experienced ones.

And direction from senior officers, whether explicit or implicit, could be a bigger influence on new recruits than their formal training. That's according to Steph Stoughton. He's a law professor at the University of South Carolina and a policing expert. He's also a former police officer himself. I would be shocked if some of what we see that's problematic in the way that ICE agents and CBP agents are handling these various tasks, I would be shocked if it's actually a training failure at this point because some of the agents that have been publicly identified are

longstanding veterans. Case in points in Minneapolis, U.S. citizen Alex Pruddy appears. appeared to be recording agents on his cell phone as an observer. The two agents who shot and killed him have been employed since 2014 and 2018, according to ProPublica. It doesn't matter how you're trained if your supervisor says you run up to those cars, and if they don't get out immediately, you break the windows. Even if you are trained to not do that, even if you were trained about why that's a really bad

tactic, about why that's likely to provoke resistance, about how that's the likely to contribute to an otherwise avoidable use of force if that's what you're told to do by your supervisor. And if that's what you think the peers around you expect you to do, that's what you're going to do. But Seth and economist Matthew Ross say they expect the administration to face multiple lawsuits over how ICE and other federal agencies are conducting their immigration crackdown. Seth doesn't believe that the possibility of costly future legal settlements will motivate the to change its current tactics. One of the things that we've seen from ICE, at least, and from CBP, is an approach to accountability

that I think communicates to agents that it's just performative. That really removes one of the legs from the stool that we use to get officers and agents to perform as professionals. The financial incentives alone probably aren't going to do anything, especially not with an agency that just views that as the cost of doing business. For her part, DHS spokesperson, Tristan McLaughlin told us that ICE recruits get the same training they always have. By the way, DHS confirmed to NPR last week that McLaughlin will be leaving the agency. She's been the administration's public face in defending the mass deportation policy over the last year. Earlier this week, a former ICE lawyer spoke at a forum held by Congressional Democrats.

He said the agency's training program was, quote, deficient, defective, and broken. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal's office also released documents it said came from ice whistleblowers. The documents have here to show that new ice recruits are getting 250 fewer hours of training than previous cohorts. In a statement this week, DHS said again that ICE officers are getting the same amount of training as before. After the break, we look at how ICE is planning to spend over $38 billion. million dollars on detention centers. One rural town in Georgia is trying to balance the economic benefits with detention associated with an ice facility in its own backyard. There are about 71,000 people in detention right now, which is a record high. So at this point, you might be asking

yourself, where are these increasing numbers of people being held? To help me explain all of this, I'm joined by NPR Sergio Martinez-Beltran. He covers immigration. Welcome to the indicator, Sergio. Hey, Waylon. Thanks so much for the invite. And you know, the short answer to that question you post is that the administration is building and expanding huge detention centers across the country, many in small, economically depressed towns. The Trump administration has dramatically changed how we as a country approach immigration enforcement. Remember, there were millions of removals under President Obama, but the majority of those removals were at the border. The Trump administration is going hard on enforcement in the interior, picking people up in cities like Minneapolis and Chicago.

And we know Trump is ambitious. His administration has said it even wants to be able to carry out even more detentions. The goal, Wayland, is to be able to detain about 93,000 immigrants all at the same time. And DHS has a lot of money right now to follow through on these big ambitions. Despite the shutdown over the agency's funding, it got a big chunk of change from the so-called big, beautiful bill. The administration plans to spend more than $38 billion of those funds to build and expand its new detention facilities. They'll be located in big cities, but also in small towns. And you reported on one of them in Georgia. Can you tell us about what you found? Yes. So I want to take you to Folkestone, Georgia. It's a rural community of close to 5,000 people, mostly black,

with about one third of the population living under the poverty line. It's also home to one of the largest ICE detention facilities in the U.S. Glenn Hall was the administrator of Charlton County where Folkestone is, and he is very blunt about what he thinks having this center could mean for his county. I won't put it in the words of quid pro quo, but we are supporting a major federal policy with this administration. And we need a hospital. We need emergency medical care.

We need dollars. He told me that as a county administrator, one of his jobs was to focus on jobs, you know, and creating them. And this is an opportunity for that. What's now the ICE facility used to be a state prison, but it closed. And in 2017, the GEO group started running an immigration detention center out of it. That's the private prison corporation also in charge of the expansion of the facility that's happening now with the new dollars.

Now, this sounds like a story we've heard before. A small town that has no industries gets a lifeline in the form of a prison or an immigration detention center. Right. And now you drive by the ICE detention center in Folkestone, and it's at least three city blocks, shiny barbed wire surrounds the whole area, and the parking lot is full of employee cars. Obviously, you can see the economic development that it has here, the impact that it has on our community with all those jobs and potentially more. Up until last year, the facility used to have 1,100 beds, but it's been expanded to hold up to 3,000 people so far. This has brought about 200 new jobs with an hourly rate ranging from around $18 to about $50,

with higher rates for physicians and dentists. The expansion of the facility is also giving the local county and the city of Folkestone about a million dollars. This doesn't sound like a lot of money, especially after you compare it to the $96 million contract the GEO Group has with the feds. But for this area, that's a lifeline. I hate to say it, but if it's not here, it's somewhere else. and, you know, so you take advantage of the stuff that you have on your table. And, you know, I hate to simplify that because these are people's lives and families. And but that's the reality of it.

When I visited Folkston late last year, Glenn actually drove me and a producer around the ICE facility. And as we were down a side road by eight, a group of detainees were outside in a recreational area. and they got close to the fence and started shouting at us. Help. One of the men yelled, help. They ain't treating us good out here. I asked Glenn what he thought about hearing the men shouting this at us. If I was detained behind barbed wire like that,

I would be yelling help too to somebody coming down a dirt road. No doubt. I mean, that's the humanity side of this, right? He's clearly conflicted, and many residents in the community, are conflicted too. Right. And it's interesting, Wayland, because for many residents, the detention center has been a place that could help them earn some money. That's what folks the native Savannah followed me. I know for several of us, we just see it as just like a place that you could always get a job.

And that's really what it has been treated as. It's a kind of, you know, if you didn't pursue college and if you didn't go into a trade area or you're waiting or whatever, you know, the prison was always an option at that time. Of course, my person, she's talking about the detention center, and she says there's one big thing that attracts people to apply to work there. It offers benefits. You know, sometimes benefits are better than making money. Sometimes, you know, knowing that you have insurance and knowing that your kids have insurance in your house. And that's one of the things that the GEO group offered to people here was this promise of good benefits and of a decent wage.

which a lot of people thought was a really good thing. And it gave them a leverage, you know, at least that they didn't want to stay out there for long. They got them enough in their pocket to go somewhere else. Still, Savannah is very much against this detention center. In fact, she's been advocating for it to shut down. Morally, I don't think we should ever be tied to a system that hurts black and brown bodies. And not just that. A system that puts on a fake fade of criminality.

These individuals haven't committed. a crime. Savannah is studying medicine at Mercer University, about two hours north of Fulxton, but all her family still lives in Fulxton. She says sometimes she feels like she's in the minority here, because she says having the time to think about the morality of it all is a luxury. When you're in a poverty level, we're just thinking about how can I get money in my pocket. And that's where they bring up this, you know, we just don't have jobs conversation, but I say that this is just something you don't want to build your future upon, something that changes every four years.

She's talking about how immigration policy changes with each new president. So the center might shut down with the new administration. And that's something local leaders like Glenn Hall understand. Glenn no longer works for Charlton County. But when I spoke to him late last year, he agreed that the county should not rely on the detention center in the long term. I'm hopeful that the prison will work itself out of a job. If this is the truth, that we close our borders.

and deport all the illegal immigrants. But that would be less jobs for the county. Absolutely would be. As of now, the Trump administration needs Folkestone, as well as the other communities, saying yes to having an ICE facility in their backyard. Up to 24 new facilities are being planned. Sergio, thank you so much for bringing us the story today.

You're welcome. Thanks for inviting me. If you learn something from this episode, please send it to a friend who would get something out of it too. Word of mouth is how we grow. So spreading the word is supporting our journalism. Or you can come see us live in person on our book tour in April. Check the link in the show notes to find out about tickets and dates. If you're in Chicago, I will see you there.

Meanwhile, Kenny and Sarah and Nick are on the West Coast. Each stop has storytelling, special guests, and best of all, a chance to meet you. Click the link in the show notes or go to Planet Moneybook.com. The episodes of The Indicator were produced by Julia. Richie with engineering by Jimmy Keeley. They're fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kiki Cannon is our show's editor. This episode of Planet Money was produced by Luis Gaya

with help from James Sneed. It was edited by Planet Money's executive producer, Alex Goldmark. I'm Waylon Wong. This is NPR. Thanks for listening.