--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Tuesday, September 2nd.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: [unidentified host] Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knutson. It's Tuesday, September 2nd.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: We're talking about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and its efforts to triple its ranks of deportation officers. Michelle Hackman, a colleague of mine, recently visited an ICE training center in Georgia and has some insight into what's going on.
--:-- Michelle Hackman: Thanks for having me on the show, Jessica.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So, Michelle, tell us about your visit to the ICE training center. What did you see?
--:-- Michelle Hackman: We're in Brunswick, Georgia, which is sort of the southeast corner of Georgia, at the federal law enforcement training center where all the ICE officers get trained. A couple of weeks ago, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, invited a handful of reporters to one of its training academies.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: [unidentified host] That's right. And Michelle, you were one of the reporters who got to go on this tour. What was it like?
--:-- Michelle Hackman: It was a six-hour tour where they showed us like all sorts of different bells and whistles of all the types of classes and training that these deportation officers go through. And was there sort of a demonstration or a session that stuck with you?
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: There was one in particular that really stuck with me. It was sort of the elite ICE deportation officer unit that carries out some of the most high-profile and dangerous raids.
--:-- Michelle Hackman: And what they did was they brought us on a little bus to this mock neighborhood. They told us it was a whole 30-acre pretend neighborhood with houses and fake shops and all that stuff. Like a set. Like a movie set, exactly.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: [unidentified host] That sounds like a pretty intense simulation. What happened next?
--:-- Michelle Hackman: And we parked in front of this house in a cul-de-sac. And they were like, okay, stand back. And this armored vehicle pulls up in front of the house. And 12 guys loaded out, they ran at the house, they like pounded on the door really loud and shouted, "Police, open up, open up." And a few seconds later they set off a flash bang and then they sort of broke down the door, ran in and like scattered.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: This kind of work is meant to appeal to new recruits. ICE is in the middle of a major hiring spree with the goal of enlisting 10,000 new deportation officers by the end of the year. It's an unprecedented hiring push, one that ICE says is key to pulling off President Trump's mass deportation agenda.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: [unidentified host] That's right. And Michelle, you mentioned that the administration is offering a lot of incentives for people to come. Can you tell us more about that?
--:-- Michelle Hackman: Well, the administration is offering a lot of incentives for people to come. The most notable one is that they're offering people a $50,000 signing bonus. That's so much more money than you can make in local law enforcement or even in other federal law enforcement jobs.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And what about the training program? How is that changing?
--:-- Michelle Hackman: So, the in-person training required to join ICE has been slashed in half. Standard deportation officer training was about 16 weeks. Now it's about eight on campus.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: [unidentified host] That's a pretty significant cut. What about the Spanish training program? I've heard that's been eliminated.
--:-- Michelle Hackman: That's right. They've gotten rid of the Spanish training program. Before, in order to become a deportation officer, you had to take a five-week full-time Spanish proficiency course. And they've decided that's not necessary anymore.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And what about the concerns that this shortened training program could lead to underqualified and undertrained agents?
--:-- Michelle Hackman: Yeah, many people have raised concerns about this. Former ICE officials and immigration experts have pointed to another time when the government tried this kind of massive recruitment push. That was after 9-11, when Border Patrol hired thousands of new agents. To increase recruitment numbers Border Patrol lowered its standards around who qualified for the job.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: [unidentified host] And what happened as a result of that?
--:-- Michelle Hackman: Well, studies have shown that those agents who were hired were much likelier themselves to either get arrested or have civil rights violations filed against them.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And what about the elite agents, the special response teams? How are they being trained?
--:-- Michelle Hackman: They're trained a little bit more like FBI agents to do sort of high-risk, high-profile type raids. They have extra training. You know, they know how to do the thing where they break down a door and set off a flashbang.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: [unidentified host] And is there a sense that we're going to see more of that?
--:-- Michelle Hackman: I definitely think so. I mean, there is a reason they showed it to us and they refused to give us numbers. But I think there's definitely a sense that they want to increase the numbers of people on that team.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And finally, Michelle, what's your takeaway from seeing all the changes that ICE is making?
--:-- Michelle Hackman: I guess my big takeaway is that they are doing literally everything in their power, like so much more creativity than I could have even imagined to try to make this promise of a mass deportation possible. And it makes me think that maybe really eventually they will actually do something resembling a mass deportation.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: [unidentified host] That's all for today, Tuesday, September 2nd. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.
