ICE will be looking to hire officers and general attorneys at the two-day event, which will be held Aug. 26 and 27 at the Arlington Esports stadium on Ballpark Way. In a statement, acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons said the agency is looking to hire “thousands of patriotic Americans” to help facilitate President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, “and we know Arlington is a great place to start.”
A protest for the event is planned on Tuesday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. at 1200 Ballpark Way. The event has been organized by the DFW chapter of the Brown Berets, a Chicano civil rights group that has been active at a significant number of anti-ICE, pro-immigrant rallies across the region this year.
“We do not condone the hiring of ICE agents that will later terrorize our communities, and we will not stand idly by to witness the kidnapping of our family members,” a flyer for the event reads.
Protest organizers encourage interested participants to bring lawn chairs, umbrellas for shade, flags, posters and water. Temperatures are expected to reach the low 90s on Tuesday and Wednesday, although a late-summer cold front may help keep things from reaching scorching levels.
Save the date - ICE hiring event - August 26-27 at the Arlington Expo Center
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) August 19, 2025
ICE Hiring Blitz
The federal immigration agency is ramping up recruiting efforts nationwide, and the Arlington event is the first since the department has revamped its hiring benefits.Earlier this month, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the agency would waive longstanding age requirements for hiring to allow more individuals to join the force. Previously, the department did not hire anyone younger than 21. Now, recruits will be allowed to sign up at 18.
According to CBS News, the agency hopes to hire 10,000 additional agents by 2026 despite the fact that the number of illegal border crossings has plummeted over the last year.
Other incentives being offered by the agency include student loan forgiveness (which, until now, we thought Republicans hated) and signing bonuses up to $50,000. Congress recently passed a bill that will triple the agency’s budget, and millions of dollars are being set aside for signing bonuses while programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are being gutted.
Some experts are skeptical that the planned ICE overload is an appropriate or efficient way to carry out Trump’s mass deportation plan. NBC News reports that it generally takes between 12 and 18 months to get an agent vetted and properly trained, but the department may rely on shortcuts to fulfill federal mandates.
“If you actually wanted the immigration system to work, you would be hiring thousands of immigration judges, you would be funding prosecutors, you would be funding defense lawyers,” Scott Shuchart, an ICE official in the Biden administration, told NBC News. “If what we wanted was a fair and fast system, it would be the complete opposite of this.”
