Daily Mail: Kristi Noem's ICE hiring chaos laid bare as fat, illiterate and violent misfits 'not ready to tie their own laces' are recruited
An exhaustive Daily Mail investigation has exposed how Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lowered standards so dramatically that the new cohort now includes 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.
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.
In one shocking incident, they were left shaking their heads when one student asked to be excused from class so he could attend a court date on a gun charge.
Other recruits were even discovered to have tattoos associated with gangs and white supremacists when they stripped off their shirts during workouts.
'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.'
The academy recently eliminated the sit-up requirement because so many students couldn't handle them — and subbed in a sprint challenge, the Daily Mail has learned.
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.
ICE still appears on track to meet its target of 10,000 new hires, an outcome insiders attribute to the lowering of standards.
'They're just trying to process them in as quickly as possible to say that we have people operational. Anything that they think may have a pulse, they're moving through.'
A source said ICE deputy director Madison Sheehan, at a recent meeting, chewed out staff about the purportedly slow pace of hiring, allegedly threatening them saying: 'if you can't meet this number, send me an email now and I'll have you reassigned to FEMA.'
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.
In one shocking incident, they were left shaking their heads when one student asked to be excused from class so he could attend a court date on a gun charge.
Other recruits were even discovered to have tattoos associated with gangs and white supremacists when they stripped off their shirts during workouts.
'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.'
The academy recently eliminated the sit-up requirement because so many students couldn't handle them — and subbed in a sprint challenge, the Daily Mail has learned.
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.
ICE still appears on track to meet its target of 10,000 new hires, an outcome insiders attribute to the lowering of standards.
'They're just trying to process them in as quickly as possible to say that we have people operational. Anything that they think may have a pulse, they're moving through.'
A source said ICE deputy director Madison Sheehan, at a recent meeting, chewed out staff about the purportedly slow pace of hiring, allegedly threatening them saying: 'if you can't meet this number, send me an email now and I'll have you reassigned to FEMA.'