It wasn’t long ago that ICE sign-on bonuses were announced with mixed reviews from Americans. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stated that there was a sign-on bonus of up to $50,000, as well as student loan repayment available. To many potential agents, this sounded like a fantastic deal. However, as one Florida woman recently discovered, these promises aren’t as stable as potential agents thought they would be. Now, many ICE agents are upset because of this news.
Kiara (@kiarajaxn) says that “ICE agents are complaining about not getting paid” and she says this isn’t shocking at all. She discovered multiple forum posts from real ICE agents saying that they aren’t being paid fairly or receiving benefits they previously expected. In some cases, the agents didn’t receive the full sign-on bonus as expected, or they are being cheated out of health insurance. She says that the sign-on bonus “is not what they thought it was.” The way that it’s distributed means that there are enormous taxes on it. Now, agents aren’t even getting to keep half of the bonus cash.
In other cases, Kiara said that agents shared they’ve been working for “over a month and have not received their first paycheck yet.” Any other job in America would be in lawsuit territory for pulling a move like that. Kiara said, “Imagine showing up to work, they’re basically in their own little government shutdown… And you haven’t even received a paycheck yet.” Now, the government is talking about hiring more ICE agents when they apparently can’t even afford the initial workers. How are they going to pay for this?
To make matters more confusing, Kiara says that the government “voted no” on giving more funding for ICE. If the budget isn’t there, how are agents going to be paid for their work? It’s very confusing. She suspects that it will result in mass layoffs. Agents will likely quit if they aren’t receiving their pay and don’t have health insurance.
One commenter quipped, “They just out here bothering people for free.” Another commenter explained, “That bonus is split 5 ways. $10K a year and it’s taxed. And if you quit or are fired you have to pay all of what the $50K you received before tax back. And you can’t file bankruptcy on it cuz it’s federal money.” Sounds like a stellar deal. It makes you wonder why anybody wants to be an agent in the first place!
