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With an influx of funding from President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is ramping up recruitment efforts to implement its plans to arrest, detain, and deport millions of people living in the United States.
ICE is trying to entice recruits with signing bonuses of up to $50,000 and student loan forgiveness of up to $60,000.
“America has been invaded by criminals and predators,” the ICE website reads. “We need YOU to get them out.”
Trump has weaponized student loan forgiveness to advance his agenda, suppress dissent, and undermine those who oppose his policies. As The Intercept reported, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) offer of student loan forgiveness for ICE officers comes as the administration has limited who is eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which allows government employees and people who work for nonprofits to have their loans forgiven after they’ve made payments for 10 years.
In March, Trump issued an executive order which falsely claimed that the program “has misdirected tax dollars into activist organizations that not only fail to serve the public interest, but actually harm our national security and American values, sometimes through criminal means.”
He instructed the Secretary of Education to revise the definition of “public service” to, essentially, mirror his administration’s anti-trans, anti-immigrant, and anti-diversity policies. He said the definition of public service should also exclude any organization that engages “in a pattern” of violating “laws against trespassing, disorderly conduct, public nuisance, vandalism, and obstruction of highways.”
Persis Yu, deputy executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, told The Intercept that the Trump administration is using student debt to “achieve their fascist objectives.”
Spearheaded by the Student Borrower Protection Center, more than 180 organizations signed on to a letter warning the Department of Education about the potentially dire consequences of Trump’s executive order.
“Efforts to limit access to or weaponize PSLF will threaten critical public service fields and harm our most vulnerable communities,” the groups wrote. “[We are] incredibly troubled to see President Trump’s Executive Order aimed at limiting access to PSLF for public service workers employed at organizations engaging in work that is not in line with President Trump’s agenda.”
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