At least two dozen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees and contractors have been charged with crimes since 2020, according to an Associated Press review. The offences include physical and sexual abuse, corruption, and other misuses of authority.
Most cases occurred before Congress allocated $75 billion to ICE last year to expand hiring and detention. Experts warn that the rapid growth of the agency, which doubled to 22,000 employees in under a year, could lead to an increase in misconduct. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said wrongdoing was not widespread and that new hires are thoroughly vetted.
Among the cases, an assistant ICE field office supervisor in Cincinnati was jailed in December for violently assaulting his girlfriend. Two Minnesota ICE employees faced federal sexual misconduct charges involving underage girls, including an investigator who pleaded guilty to sending explicit images of himself with a 17-year-old. In Chicago, an ICE agent was charged with assaulting a protester, while another was cited for drunk driving with a government firearm.
Contractors also faced charges. A former top official at a Texas ICE facility received probation for grabbing a detainee by the neck and slamming him into a wall. In Louisiana, an ICE contractor pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a detainee over five months. A Houston deportation officer was indicted for accepting cash bribes from bail bondsmen to remove detainers.
Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said ICE agents are vulnerable to unnecessary force, especially as detention numbers rise to 70,000. He noted that a similar doubling of Border Patrol agents from 2004 to 2011 led to a wave of corruption and abuse.
