PROVO, Utah — On a sunny Monday morning, dozens of people trickled into the Utah Valley Convention Center in this town enveloped by mountains south of Salt Lake City. Some wore suits, others high heels, and nearly all carried small binders with resumes, certificates and diplomas.
They were veterans, current law enforcement officials, college graduates and fired federal workers.
They came from California, Texas, Georgia, Arkansas and Utah.
And they want to be deportation officers, or work for other parts of the Department of Homeland Security, the agency leading President Trump's mass deportation policy.
The Trump administration wants to recruit 10,000 people for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a branch of DHS, using congressional funds approved earlier this summer. The administration's goal is to deport one million people a year. But that target is unlikely to be easy to hit: The lack of personnel to conduct arrests, investigate and litigate cases has been among the biggest challenges to increasing the pace of arrests, detentions and deportations.
NPR spoke with more than 30 people at the DHS career expo held in Provo last week. This was the first agency-wide career fair after Congress approved funds to recruit candidates for positions beyond immigration enforcement, including for the Secret Service, Federal Protective Police and the Transportation Security Administration, which like ICE are all part of DHS. Interviews conducted by NPR suggest many of the people who had traveled across state lines to Utah wanted to work in immigration enforcement.
More than 1,500 people registered for the event, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told NPR in a statement. DHS extended 500 tentative job offers, with 370 for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations.
"Many of the candidates who attended the expo had started the application process before attending and were completing things on their to-do list, such as drug tests, finger printing, and more," McLaughlin said. "Attending the in-person career expo helped candidates expedite their hiring process with a one-stop shop to complete their applications."
ICE had about 20,000 people at the start of the year, 6,000 of them in roles directly conducting deportations. Last week ICE boasted receiving more than 150,000 applications nationwide and extending 18,000 tentative job offers — though it is unclear how many will ultimately see a first day on the job.
DHS officials have raised concerns over what they said is a 1,000% increase in threats to their officers. Officials reiterated that statistic after a fatal shooting at the Dallas ICE field office this week killed one person and injured two others — all immigrants detained there — and bullets were found with the words "ANTI-ICE."
Acting Director Todd Lyons told CNN after the shooting that the threats have not negatively affected recruitment efforts.
"There's really excitement for people that want to serve, not just necessarily ICE but want to serve in a federal law enforcement capacity, especially at a time when assaults and attacks on law enforcement are increasing," Lyons said. "We are seeing a great uptick in our recruitment, so people definitely want to do the job."
The recruits
As part of its recruitment campaign, DHS offered signing bonuses, lifted age restrictions and roped in celebrities like actor Dean Cain, who played Clark Kent/Superman in Lois and Clark, to encourage more people to apply.
Ana Maria Vargas, 52, a correctional officer in Arizona, applied to be a deportation officer.
"I saw … the guy that played Superman on the TV series so many years ago," Vargas said. "A lot of us still have the desire and want to serve our country, yet we don't know how to get into it because of the age restrictions."
Vargas said she wants to "take out the bad guys," though she acknowledged "there are a lot of good people that are here. However, they are here illegally."
Andrea Alexander, an attorney living in Utah, came to apply for the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, the branch of ICE that argues immigration cases in immigration court. She learned of ICE's recruitment efforts from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller's social media.
"I love Trump. I love his administration. I think he's going to save our country," Alexander said, adding that those applying to be deportation officers should likely believe in the mission as well. "They probably have to be true believers for the front line because they have to be ready to catch a lot of flak right now."
Still, Alexander said she wanted to see efforts to increase legal migration and visa reform.
"We've made it almost impossible for people to immigrate legally. It's very difficult and they should be able to come over," she added.
Another applicant, Peter, who did not want to disclose his last name since he is applying to be a deportation officer, flew to Utah from Arkansas.
He said he was on the right of the political spectrum and that the hiring bonuses and increased media attention on the agency drew his attention.
"I think there's way too many illegal immigrants here," he said, noting that if he gets the job, he hopes he gets to deport people.
Former federal employees seek a second chance
Sherrell Pyatt was one of several DHS employees laid off as part of a broader effort to reduce the size of the federal government. NPR reported her story in April. But months later, she flew from Georgia to Utah with the hopes of being rehired at the agency that let her go.
"I want to be judged on my qualifications, my credentials, and I don't feel like I've been given that opportunity," Pyatt said, noting that her severance had ended in August.
She wanted to apply for a role with the fraud investigations unit of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. After working in the federal government for 10 years, Pyatt said that she wants to continue her service and believes she should have priority to be rehired since she was a part of a reduction in force, but is competing with external candidates.
"If there is an opportunity where I could plug into something that would work for me and my skill set, I would, of course, apply," she said.
Other laid-off federal workers, including from other agencies, as well as contractors, came to the expo to look for opportunities.
Eddie — who did not provide a last name since he is applying for a role with Homeland Security Investigations, which is a part of ICE, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services — previously worked as a federal contractor to vet the sponsors of unaccompanied migrant children.
"My dad's been with law enforcement at Homeland Security now for 17 years and he does pretty well. So I firsthand see the benefits of it," he said.
Concerns over DHS's widespread recruitment comes from all sides
The numbers at the recruitment events notwithstanding, ICE's recruitment strategies have not all been well received.
Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith, who has an agreement to assist ICE in the Provo area, called an initial call to recruit local law enforcement "unprofessional" in an interview with NPR. The recruitment fair in Provo, as well as an ICE-specific fair in Texas, were met with scattered protests.
RJ Hauman, a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said he supports the administration's immigration enforcement goals, but said he is skeptical about the recruitment campaign.
"When you're recruiting large numbers of qualified candidates, you got to consider how you get them to the finish line," Hauman said. "Rather than doing ads that ICE is hiring, all these onsite job fairs, let's start hammering out more facilities to train these potential agents and streamline the vetting, the background check, make sure you get the right people and you don't make a mistake."
Critics say the modification of requirements, including a reduced training period, could result in hiring candidates with less experience. The agency insists standards aren't being lowered: ICE law enforcement recruits will still be required to go through medical screening, drug screening and a physical fitness test.
Just another job
ICE's enforcement efforts have made the agency the focus of negative attention, protests and lawsuits. But like for many who work in the federal government, the politics of the moments are irrelevant.
John Heubert, who expects to retire from the Army next summer, came from Georgia to apply to be a deportation officer.
"I feel like I could do good in that realm. I've been military for 23 years. I've worked in detainee operations for a long time," Heubert said. "So I feel like leveraging my skills, and deployments, and everything would help kind of transition me easier into the civilian life, doing kind of the same thing I've been doing."
He said everything has been politicized, so the controversy surrounding the agency did not deter him.
"I'm the guy that just executes at this point. So whatever they want, they tell me to do it, I go do," Heubert said.
Alan Richardson, who came to the expo from Utah, is another veteran. He learned of the expo from a friend's post on LinkedIn.
"I want to go back into federal service … and retire earlier than have to start a whole another career with a state or county agency," he said, noting he is interested in border patrol, Secret Service and ICE.
"As a law enforcement officer, you don't get to pick and choose which laws to enforce. You enforce them as they are on the books," Heubert said. "There is no politics behind it. If you want to change laws, you have to go to Congress. That's simply all it is."
Richardson said that he supports the effort to arrest and deport criminals.
"If your employer says you have to do something, you've got to go do it. That's any business in the country. Everyone can have an opinion," Richardson said. "But I think going after the criminals is the goal here. There's no way you're going to deport how many millions of people that are here illegally."
Eric Garibay, an immigration detention officer, said he drove over 12 hours from El Paso, Texas, to attend the fair. Speaking to NPR in Spanish, he said it has always been his goal to be a border patrol agent.
"It's a job and a career that I chose, so you have to move forward," he said.
As for the people he'd be detaining, he said: "It hurts to see. They're human, but a job is a job."
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