Kristi Noem cuts age cap for ICE agents to supercharge Trump deportation agenda

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced in a Fox & Friends interview on Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is ending its age cap for officer applications.

Noem encouraged her viewers to apply for positions with ICE. The department is set to expand its force by 10,000, after the passage of President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful” bill in July. (RELATED: ICE Office Set Ablaze In Sanctuary State As Attacks Against Agency Rack Up)

“We’ve removed any of the age barriers, we no longer have a cap on how old you can be,” Noem said. “Our recruitment efforts to hire 10,000 new ICE officers has been extremely successful.”

Noem says that the agency already has “over 80,000 applicants for those 10,000 positions,” and that the amount of “people and patriots across this country that say ‘we want to join, we want to help and be a part of this effort’” is “overwhelming.”

DHS referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to a Wednesday press release that says this decision allows “even more patriots will qualify to join ICE in its mission to arrest murderers, pedophiles, gang members, rapists, and other criminal illegal aliens from America’s streets.”

“In the wake of Biden’s open borders disaster, our country needs dedicated Americans to join ICE to remove the worst of the worst out of our country,” the statement continued.

The 10,000 agent recruitment effort by ICE includes requests for deportation officers, criminal investigators, and general attorneys.

Several additional incentives were also announced alongside the end of the age cap, including a maximum $50,000 signing bonus, student loan forgiveness options and retirement benefits.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on X that this decision signals DHS “heard the American people loud and clear.” ICE shared the sentiment with the comment “you spoke, we listened and we took action,” adding “we must Defend the Homeland.”

The announcement came after Border Czar Tom Homan told Fox News on Tuesday that ICE deported over 300,000 illegals in 2025. The move also follows a massive crackdown on illegal immigration by agents in 2025, with riots against ICE agents breaking out in major cities across the country in response.

Democratic politicians have protested the ICE agents by calling for them to remove face masks during raids, even as ICE agents have faced doxxing and an 830% increase in assaults compared with 2024.

Despite pushback, ICE has made massive strides in exposing and stopping undocumented criminals who slipped under the radar during President Joe Biden’s term.

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