Two fatal shootings involving officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — one in Texas and one in Maine — are prompting serious questions from law enforcement experts about how carefully the agency screens its new recruits.
The incidents are occurring against a backdrop of aggressive hiring by ICE, which has brought on a large number of new officers in a short period of time. Experts in law enforcement say that kind of rapid expansion can pressure agencies to skip or weaken the vetting steps that are typically used to evaluate job candidates.
Some policing professionals are now asking whether the speed of ICE’s hiring push may have compromised the thoroughness of its background and fitness checks for incoming officers.
