Some ICE Agents Could Make Six Figures if They Have More Experience

When Donald Trump signed his Big Beautiful Bill, he included in it $75 billion for ICE over the course of four years, per the Center for American Progress. Now, with ICE raids ramped up across the United States and protests in the name of pushing out ICE agents, people want to know just how much these agents make in their new profession.

For most agents, it is a new job. Others are former ICE agents who returned to the job with potentially higher salaries than they had when they were previously employed by the government. There is a pay scale that shows a difference in how much ICE agents make, depending on how much experience they have, though the training for everyone appears to be the same.

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE agents who are hired by the U.S. government can receive student loan forgiveness and a signing bonus of up to $50,000. When it comes to the actual salary, that can vary, but the job postings for deportation officers, which are ICE agents, offer some clarity on that.

One job posting for an ICE agent has a salary range from $49,739 to $89,528 per year. The posting says that if the applicant has training in specialized interviews and reports, they could be on the higher end as far as earning potential goes. Higher-paid ICE agents might have also had prior experience with the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and similar programs, according to the posting.

Another job posting for an ICE agent at an instructional level has a salary range of $109,383 to $142,199 per year. Some of the qualifications, including being able to lawfully carry a firearm, include "participating in the planning, analysis, and decision-making processes for the development and delivery of training courses, while coordinating more than one activity concurrently."

All ICE agent positions, at least as outlined in the official government job postings, require travel of some kind. They don't all require experience, however. And, as long as much of the criteria is met, applicants are encouraged to apply and then undergo the essential training for agents, according to the information in the postings.

One of the job postings for the ICE agent positions notes that individuals have to complete the ERO Basic Immigration Law Enforcement Training Program. It is 13 weeks long, with a five-week course in Spanish language lessons. The latter is essential in passing the training to become an ICE agent, according to the job posting.

According to Al Jazeera, Sen. Mark Warner told CNN that there are plans for "beefing up ICE." He shared that, in addition to adding thousands more agents, "The training for the ICE agents now is 47 days." He added that the reason for that specific number of days for training is that Trump is the 47th president.