Morale is plummeting among ICE agents over long hours, quotas and public hatred: reports [View all]
Source: The Independent
Monday 26 January 2026 10:33 EST
Morale is “plummeting” among federal law enforcement officers tasked with carrying out the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigration operation, as they complained that long hours, ambitious arrest quotas and hatred from the public, according to reports.
While officers at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol, overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, said they supported the administration’s goal of deporting undocumented migrants, many of them have grown “disillusioned” with the tactics being implemented by leadership.
More than 20 current and former immigration officials told The New York Times of their discontent in the hours following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti by a federal agent in Minneapolis. It was the second deadly shooting of a U.S. citizen carried out by a federal agent in weeks, as officers clashed with protesters following intense public anger over the violence in Minneapolis.
“You’re not addressing the problem by throwing a 500-pound gorilla into these inner cities,” Oscar Hagelsieb, a former immigration officer and special agent, told the Times. “They’re causing chaos, and unfortunately it’s costing lives.”
Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/ice-agents-morale-reports-minneapolis-shooting-b2907742.html
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