has lowered standards so dramatically that the new cohort now included recent high school graduates and applicants who can 'barely read or write' as well as those who lack basic physical fitness and even have pending criminal charges.
January 9, 2026

Stephen Miller's Big Plan to hire 10,000 new deportation officers by year's end has become a national embarrassment - with not much vetting and incompetents lured by signing bonuses of up to $50,000. Via The Daily Mail:

An exhaustive Daily Mail investigation last month exposed how Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lowered standards so dramatically that the new cohort now included recent high school graduates and applicants who can 'barely read or write' as well as those who lack basic physical fitness and even have pending criminal charges.

Most of the new hires in the $30 billion initiative are retired law enforcement who are receiving virtual training and being repurposed for desk duty.

Meanwhile, total novices are being fast-tracked into the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, where instructors have been left astounded at the levels of incompetence.

'We have people failing open-book tests and we have folks that can barely read or write English,' one Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told the Daily Mail.

'We even had a 469-lb man sent to the academy whose own doctor certified him not at all fit for any physical activity.'

Insiders say the vetting process has been so rushed that officials didn't even wait for drug test results to come back before hiring recruits and flying them off to Georgia, only to discover afterward that tests came back positive.

A department spokesman said the hiring surge is advancing 'while maintaining its high fitness and training standards'.

Read on.

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