Both protesters and job seekers alike came out in droves for a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hiring event in Arlington this week as the agency looks to fill thousands of open positions using new funding from the Trump administration.
Nearly 2,000 people preregistered for an ICE hiring event at Esports Stadium Arlington, part of a nationwide recruiting effort with big incentives, said Tyshawn Thomas, chief human capital officer for ICE, at a recorded news conference Tuesday.
President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending bill earmarked more than $75 billion in supplemental funding over four years for ICE to expand its already wide-reaching operations. The agency is now looking to hire 10,000 deportation officers, 1,000 criminal investigators and 1,800 attorneys, Thomas said.
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The hiring comes as ICE has been criticized by some for expanded operations that have left many immigrant communities fearful, including wearing masks and plainclothes, detaining people at immigration court and targeting people long allowed to stay in the country.
Others have applauded the effort, which is keeping in line with Trump’s campaign promise to secure the border and remove people in the country illegally — and in unprecedented numbers. The administration is targeting 1 million deportations a year and has taken steps to cancel the legal status of wide swaths of immigrants.
About 1,000 people were projected to be hired at the Arlington event, which began at 8 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday. At a similar event in June held at the Dulles Expo Center outside Washington, D.C., 500 were hired, Thomas said. He also said the jobs are not just in Dallas; job seekers were asked about their two preferred locations, with positions available all over the country.
People are checked in during an ICE hiring fair Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, in Arlington.
Julio Cortez / AP
“This is a highly desired career, especially amongst those that are already in law enforcement,” said Matt Elliston, assistant director of enforcement and removal operations, noting that over 100,000 people applied online for 10,000 ICE jobs.
Advertised benefits include a signing bonus up to $50,000, $60,000 student loan repayment and 25% overtime pay. A five-year service agreement is required to receive recruitment incentives, and certain incentives are only available to new employees of the federal government.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Aug. 6 that ICE would waive age limits for new applicants, “so even more patriots will qualify to join ICE in its mission to arrest murderers, pedophiles, gang members, rapists, and other criminal illegal aliens from America’s streets,” according to a release.
An age limit of 40 is still in place for deportation officers, which represent most open positions, leaving some attendees confused.
“They say they’re waiving the age requirement, but once I told them how old I was, they were like, ‘Uh, yeah, here go do this online,’” said a 57-year-old man named Jim, who gave only his first name because of safety reasons.
All of the attendees who spoke to The Dallas Morning News did so on the condition their full names not be used because of safety reasons, citing the protests outside the facility. ICE agents have faced threats and other forms of harassment, such as doxing.
People attend a career expo for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Esports Stadium, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Arlington.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
Jim said he is currently unemployed and was attracted to the event by the benefits offered, a common refrain.
“I just came here ’cause they were offering 50K,” said another attendee who currently works for the federal government. “I sat inside for a quick second, and that was about it. The wait was way too long.”
Attendees spanned all races, genders and ages. Some wore Trump merchandise, with one man waving a Trump-branded “Mass deportations now” flag outside the venue. Others wore professional attire and law enforcement merchandise.
They had a variety of reasons for coming. One already had “a really good job” and came because he was interested in what ICE agents are like and to learn their perspectives, because “you hear a lot about them.”
A young woman said, “The government is important to know about and learn about whether you’re on the liberal or conservative side.” She later joined the line to have her resume reviewed.
A Fort Worth insurance broker had self-proclaimed strong opinions about undocumented immigrants, saying they are “sneaking in, then, as soon as they arrive, they’re demanding benefits and having anchor babies.”
“Many of them are very hard workers, and they have great family values, and they’d make great citizens, if they just did it the right way,” he said. “When you come in a wave of millions and overwhelm our social services, it makes it very difficult on the rest of us.”
‘We want people protected’
As ICE efforts have ramped up under the second Trump administration, so have protests against the agency. Detractors cite family separations, violent arrests and, more recently, the deportation of foreign nationals to countries such as Uganda and El Salvador.
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In Arlington, dozens of protesters carried signs and chanted at attendees through megaphones. While some chants and signs were ICE-specific, many expressed general anti-Trump sentiment.
“We are here because we want people protected. Not taken off the streets, not kidnapped, not taken up without papers,” Teresa Dunham said. “And they look at us and think we’re the crazy ones.”
A 65-year-old longtime activist, Dunham said she has raised her kids to “do something” when they see injustice.
“This is the ‘do something.’ You show up, you yell, you talk, you make signs, but you do something. And the more of us that do something, hopefully it’ll turn the hearts of some people or make them stop and think.”
Antonio Rodriguez, a member of the pro-Chicano organization Brown Berets and an organizer of the protest, said one attendee changed his mind about joining ICE after talking to the protesters. He emphasized that they wanted to show the community, many of whom have been affected by ICE raids, that people were there for them.
Protesters hold signs in front of Esports Stadium where a career expo for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is held, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Arlington.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
“We wanted to show [ICE and the Trump Administration] that we’re going to be here every step of the way. They will have no rest here,” he said. “We understand finances are tough, but this is not just a regular job. You’re with the Nazis.”
“Anybody who wants to fight this fight at this time, they’re scary,” echoed Karla Grisham, who implored attendees to “educate yourselves, see what’s really going on.”
Grisham was born in D-FW and recently returned after living in Chicago for 20 years, where she says she saw “how this country should function.” She has been protesting the Trump administration since the November election.
“They think they believe in the American way and that they want to make America a better place,” she said. “We were doing just fine. We were on a better road. And they just blew up that road.”
What it’s like to apply to ICE
On Wednesday, security was not letting people in without a paper resume, and several job seekers were turned away empty-handed. Others were on their second attempt to get hired, having come Tuesday without the proper materials.
After arriving Wednesday at Esports Stadium, which is owned by the city of Arlington, media were barred from entering by city employees. They instructed media to go to a designated “free speech zone” until a compromise was reached to allow media to stand out of the way of attendees on a walkway by the building.
ICE eventually allowed The News to enter but not take photos after a lengthy sit-and-wait by security. A city spokesperson apologized for the miscommunication in an email.
Once inside, job seekers were funneled to a line where officials reviewed their resumes. If they met certain requirements, they were directed to tables where officials were processing applications and materials, including separate tables for individuals with law enforcement experience. They got an expedited process to become deportation officers.
Attendees line up to be checked into an ICE hiring fair Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, in Arlington.
Julio Cortez / AP
“ICE is one of the main tenets of the president’s agenda. So we want to make sure that we are executing, make sure we get the right individuals on board as quickly as possible,” Thomas said.
After processing, job seekers would wait for an email letting them know their application was in the system. Hundreds of people sat in chairs or stood waiting for their email, some who had been waiting for an hour or more. While they waited, a video about ICE played on repeat on a large screen, connecting the dots from the Federalist Papers, Ellis Island, 9/11 and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 to how ICE functions today.
A photograph of George Washington is displayed on the stage as people gather during an ICE hiring fair Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, in Arlington.
Julio Cortez / AP
There were also booths for information about urinalysis, which is mandatory for all deportation officers, and to speak with the Office of Professional Responsibility, which conducts background checks for ICE employees. Most prospective deportation officers, including those who attended the fair, require a medical clearance and physical fitness test, as well.
For those interested in other DHS careers, there were recruitment booths from branches such as the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor and Homeland Security Investigations.
In the news conference, Elliston assured that the speed of hiring applicants would not compromise quality and emphasized that ICE officers are held to high employment standards.
Another hiring event is planned for Provo, Utah, in September, and ICE is casting a wide net looking for people.
“Because ICE is such a dynamic, wide-ranging agency, we want those prior law enforcement officers to do our street-level work, but we also … need people who have sales backgrounds, management backgrounds, things like that. So it’s not just a one-stop shop of who we’re looking for.”