U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better know as ICE, operates as its own sector of the Department of Homeland security. They are viewed as heroes by some, but are even more largely feared and criticized for extreme brutality and using excessive force. With the current administration only serving to further the existing tension. This growing reputation has led to a lack of interest for employment and has forced ICE into a difficult situation.

Some feel ICE is grasping at straws as they desperately attempt to hire 10,000 new agents even going as far as to bump the minimum age requirement from 21 to 18. To entice new recruits the training course has also been condensed down to 8 weeks, and was achieved by cutting corners on things like Spanish fluency. Still this has done little to help ICE reach its goal and experts predict it will take upward of three years to reach that point.

This massive desperation is exactly what has led to ICE consistently failing to run background checks and complete other vetting procedures. They have had to let go of hundreds of new hires just in the past few months for a variety of reasons including unfit physical shape, poor communication, and low morale. This explains the recent surge of recruitment aids online, many of which are taken down just as soon as they are posted.

ICE has been called out for chronically stealing music for their ads such as the Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love” as well as Jay-Z’s “Public Service Announcement”. Both the artists hit the agency with a DMCA takedown respectively and were succesful. This kind of occurrence is proving to be a recurring issue in the broader context of the Department of Homeland Security who have also been called out by the Pokemon Company who have voiced their displeasure after DHS used clips, music, imagery and language taken from their properties and from one of their social media posts. There have also been numerous influencers who have had similar experiences and have come forward with their stories of having clips being cut taken and used without their consent.