An ICE agent has recently taken to Reddit to provide insights into their work, inviting people to ask questions about their role amidst the department’s current criticism following recent raids across the United States.
The immigration raids in the US have sparked widespread disapproval, and the situation intensified after an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good on January 7. Good, a 37-year-old mother, was shot by Jonathan Ross as she attempted to flee from a group of agents conducting raids in her Minneapolis neighborhood.
Amidst the scrutiny the department is experiencing, an anonymous ICE officer decided to engage with the public by answering questions on Reddit.
“I’m a current ICE agent working inside Minnesota, been only working as an ICE agent for a year now and seen a lot of things and wanted to share my experience with people that are curious,” they wrote.
“As it goes please know I don’t represent the whole of ICE I just work there.”
In response to a question about how they approach assignments and their assumptions about those who might protest or attack them, the officer said:
“Personally I just approach it with a calm and sound mind that I’m just doing my job nothing more,” the ICE officer explained.
“It’s not a personal thing I’m there for my paycheque nothing more,” they emphasized. “If people do physically attack (hasn’t happened yet) and we work in groups, [then that] wouldn’t be a smart thing.”
With the Department of Homeland Security having hired an additional 12,000 officers in the past year, someone else inquired about how the officer manages with the influx of less-trained colleagues.
“Terrible,” the officer stated. “Should be better training in defusing situations and a lot more on-the-job training with better mentors.”
These comments come in the wake of a new report revealing an ICE error that resulted in some new officers entering the field without complete training.
The DHS reports that 220,000 ICE applications have been submitted over the course of 2025.
According to NBC News, the agency employs AI to identify potential applicants with law enforcement experience for the ‘LEO program’. Entry into this program requires four weeks of training, whereas those without such a background need eight weeks of training at ICE’s academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia.
However, due to an AI malfunction, ‘a bunch of people’ lacking law enforcement backgrounds were mistakenly assigned to the LEO program.
A DHS spokesperson told NBC that this was a ‘technological snag’ that was quickly resolved, affecting about 200 hires who then proceeded to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center for comprehensive training.
It was clarified that no candidate was assigned to enforcement duties without ‘appropriate training and credentials’.
ICE has been approached for comment.