What would you do for $50,000?

Since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began offering a $50,000 signing bonus for new recruits, they’ve received more than 150,000 new applicants. This incentive is part of President Trump’s plan to hire 10,000 new ICE agents by the end of the year and ramp up deportations. 

Several news outlets report that while there is a huge increase in applications, there is at least as large of an increase in unqualified applicants. Despite the Department of Homeland Security’s claims that the vast majority of new recruits are former law enforcement officers, the surge in under-qualified applicants suggests the $50,000 signing bonus is attracting a wider swath of Americans. While Trump has made it far more socially and legally acceptable to violate the rights of immigrants, it’s important to appreciate the gravity of a $50,000 bonus in our current moment. It may be that this economic draw poses the more insidious challenge to immigrant rights.

The popularity of ICE among Americans has plummeted across party lines. Americans' collective views on ICE were neutral at the beginning of this year, when Donald Trump re-assumed the presidency. Now, they have dipped into the negative double-digits. 

This is likely because of the brutal and unconstitutional force they have exercised in the interceding months. Under the Trump Administration, ICE has been unleashed to terrorize, abduct, detain, and deport Americans as quickly as possible, with scant due process. ICE has jumped at this opportunity with malice and incompetence. In Chicago, ICE agents made a nighttime raid on an apartment building using Black Hawk helicopters, rounding up and zip-tying residents of all ages–including children who were not given the opportunity to dress. Days prior, videos show Chicago police officers recovering from tear gas after an interaction with ICE agents.

In light of the agency’s apparent disinterest in defending the safety or respecting the rights of many vulnerable Americans, the falling approval rating makes a lot of sense. The surge in applications, however, does not–unless we think about it in terms of economics. 

Our economy right now is, at best, uncertain. By all available data, the job market has screeched to a halt this year. More Americans than ever are reliant on social assistance programs to keep them and their families above the poverty line (see an earlier issue). Average household private debt is over $100,000, while median household income is about $83,000. Additionally, roughly 60% of Americans report living paycheck to paycheck. Following the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and further cuts to social programs, Americans are preparing for worse and worse, with fewer options for alleviation.

The OBBBA is set to eliminate housing, food, and healthcare assistance for millions of Americans over the coming months. Many state legislatures will likely follow suit. At the same time, the OBBBA allocated tens of billions of dollars to ICE, tripling its operating budget. In one fell swoop, Congress jeopardized the security of millions and offered one very narrow avenue for economic relief: joining ICE. 

While job postings for “detention officers” advertise salaries ranging from $50k-$90k, ICE’s recruitment website now boasts that new or returning recruits may qualify for (up to) a $50,000 signing bonus, as well as $60,000 in student loan repayment. The signing bonus alone could wipe out half of the average American household's private debt or provide a salary well above the official poverty measure for a family of four. 

In other words, an increasing number of Americans will face the choice between rounding up their neighbors and putting food on their table. The United States has offered different versions of this choice before. In moments of economic hardship or heightened military activity, the federal government incentivizes participation in state violence in exchange for economic stability. Many Americans accept this bargain for different reasons. The result of this is a kind of poverty draft that conscripts the poor to police one another.

Over the past several months, communities across the country have sprung into action to oppose ICE. From neighborhood alert networks to local de-arresting actions to national attention campaigns, Americans are showing up to curb the harm ICE is enacting on their communities. Part of that strategy, and the broader strategy against authoritarianism, relies on attracting defectors. This is why it’s important to understand the incentive structure ICE provides in the contemporary economic landscape. 

Choosing between becoming an ICE officer and putting food on the table is not just a question of morality, but economics. We don't highlight this distinction to excuse the hundreds of thousands applying to join ICE, but rather to underscore that any effective campaign against this expansion must disincentivize cooperation economically as well as morally.