It turns out that hiring people in a hurry was a big, big mistake. They are losing ‘agents’ at a rapid rate. The numbers are stunning. There was such a big hoorah about hiring 10,000 new agents, and it has backfired. They’ve lost a lot. Serves them right. Their methods of grabbing immigrants and citizens here, there, and everywhere come from a lack of training or just being happy to be a bully. You know some of the field “agents” are in there because they hate foreigners. And others are in there to be aassholes and morons and mean boys. There’s always at least one, no matter where you are.
Background checks are the name of the game in this age. Again, it doesn’t matter where you are. They’re a good thing, actually. Get rid of the chaff so you have decent wheat. They were bringing people on so fast that they filled out the paperwork, then outfitted them and put them to work. But when they started making headway on the glut of people they brought in, they were sorry they hadn’t waited. It was all about the fails. People tried to slide in when they had warrants out for their arrest. They had to know it would show up on a background check, but, heh, they would have had a few days’ pay before they were kicked out.
Then there are the ones out on the street with almost no training. Think about Alex Pretti. It was a recruit with a twitchy finger. He shouldn’t have had his finger *on* the trigger, but again, no training. Whoever the hell armed these new guys is something else. There’s a whole lot to learn before they go out. And we lost Mr. Pretti because someone overreacted. The federal government turned over the evidence it had gathered for the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in July. Finally, a chance to hold people responsible. It’s only a chance, but it’s better than they had before, which was nothing.
How about some quotes from Raw Story since you folks know I appreciated them:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is losing employees faster than at any point in its history, with thousands of recent hires quitting or getting fired shortly after joining, according to federal workforce data. According to the Washington Examiner, roughly 2,900 officers walked out the door in the first six months of 2026 alone, a total that tops any entire year on record, going back to 2012 when the government started counting. Voluntary resignations and firings accounted for most of the exits rather than retirements. The churn follows an enormous and chaotic hiring push.
The link to the article I am using is above the quote. The “hiring push” link is also very interesting and worth a read, too. ICE is as big a mess as we thought it was. The insanity up in Chicago and Minneapolis was certainly due to poorly trained agents, and people who shouldn’t have been out there because they were too nervous, probably going back to the “no training” issue again.
We can’t say ICE would be any better if agents were properly trained. But people have *DIED* at the hands of ICE and *that* is unforgivable. All we’ve seen are pretty obviously poorly trained, and then there was Greg Bovino. That sadistic S.O.B. was forced to retire, and a good thing he was. We’ve seen a lot of the ungood about ICE after their “agents” made a righteous mess all over the country.
Can’t say that ICE would ever be good. It’s one thing to deport the ones with the violent pasts. It’s another to rip families apart. How many people have been deported to somewhere in Africa? Or have been sent to CECOT? Or deported to the same countries they fled in fear for their lives? And all just with the clothes they were wearing.
No, ICE isn’t going to be on my Christmas list this year, next year, or ever.
Friends, I know everybody begs you for money. I promise you that, of all the outlets bugging you for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest-working. We’re a bunch of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. But the rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the ability to continue our quest to tell the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
