ICE holds a job fair in Arlington as it boosts recruiting, sparking protests

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement held a two-day hiring event in Arlington this week, drawing potential recruits as well as groups of protesters who held signs and chanted slogans in the parking lot.

The recruitment event, held at Esports Stadium, came at a time when ICE is ramping up deportations across the country, with agents detaining immigrants in courtrooms, at work and during traffic stops.

ICE said its Arlington event focused on mission-driven careers in law enforcement and legal services, as the agency looks to hire 1,000 people.

Over the last few months, protests have been occurring in multiple cities, with Washington, D.C. being the latest, following President Donald Trump's launch of a crime crackdown. This effort has involved deploying the National Guard, the FBI and the DEA, as well as federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department and attempting to place DEA administrator Terrance Cole as emergency police commissioner.

In July, the Department for Homeland Security launched an ICE recruitment drive with funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill that Congress passed on July 4, giving ICE $75 billion over four years.

“Your country is calling you to serve at ICE,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release July 29. “In the wake of the Biden administration’s failed immigration policies, your country needs dedicated men and women of ICE to get the worst of the worst criminals out of our country.”

The hiring event was geared towards criminal investigator and general attorney positions.

An ICE spokesperson said in a statement that the agency is seeking professionals and highly motivated individuals interested in giving back to their country and community. The statement also said that qualified applicants may receive job offers on the spot.

Those selected and who sign on for a five-year agreement may receive up to $50,000 in recruitment incentives, $60,000 for student loan repayment for federal loans, 25% overtime for deportation officers and special retirement benefits.

Buddy Luce, a North Texas activist, attended Tuesday’s protest and said people were chanting “Don’t do it, Don’t do it, you’ll never be the same.”

“The people that were there are people that really believe that ICE is a private army for Trump and Stephen Miller, and that’s dangerous as it can get,” Luce said.

Luce said the protest was organized by groups called La Rabia, Brown Berets of DFW, Indivisible TX-24, Indivisible TX-12 and Fort Worth Area Indivisible.

He said ICE is engaging in lawless actions with agents doing things that police are not allowed to do. He rejects the agency’s claim that the enforcement actions are about security.

“I think a vast majority of Texans and Americans and people in Tarrant County didn’t buy into that, and they’re not for that,” Luce said.

Luce, who was 13 when the Civil Rights Act was passed, said he remembers seeing John Lewis getting beaten up on Bloody Sunday, and police and firemen using fire hoses on people.

“There isn’t two sides to authoritarianism or fascism or Nazism, there’s not good sides of those,” Luce said. “There’s only one side, and it’s democracy in America.”

On Wednesday, about 30 protestors stood behind police barriers in a “free speech zone” with drums and megaphones, telling attendees of the recruitment event to rethink their decision.

Eddie Delgado, an Indivisible Fort Worth organizer, said he was assaulted by an unidentified driver in the parking lot after approaching a parked Tesla.

Delgado said the man exited his vehicle, and they started to have a verbal exchange.

“He said, ‘You picked the right one today,’” Delgado later recounted. “And he got out of his vehicle, came around the vehicle, started shouting at me. I hit the siren on my bullhorn to get everybody’s attention. I started to pull out my phone to record, and he hit me and knocked the phone out of my hand.”

Delgado said the phone fell under the man’s car, and as he reached down to get it, an Arlington police officer started to approach them. The man got in his car and drove off.

“I don’t understand how thousands of people are coming out, looking for this job, selling their soul for $50,000 a pop, just to oppress minorities, and that’s why we’re here,” Delgado said. “We’re standing up against that.”

He said more people need to start attending these events.

“People are being attacked. People are being hurt, and not just by other civilians,” Delgado said. “They’re being hurt by government officials, and that is not OK.”

Another protestor, Jade Calvert, said she came out because of what she believes is a dangerous move towards extremism happening, especially when people in this country who came here legally are still being targeted by ICE.

“It never stays where you think it will,” Calvert said. “It will come and get them, and they don’t know that.”

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram attempted to speak with attendees of the recruitment event, but news media were confined to the free speech area away from the venue’s entrance.