‘Definitely not working smarter’: Thousands of ICE agents join forum to complain about their jobs, report says

Thousands of federal immigration agents have been complaining about their jobs in an online forum, where they blasted “incompetent leadership,” according to a report.

Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agencies, part of the Department of Homeland Security, have taken to venting about their frustrations online as they have been placed at the center of the Trump administration’s crackdown.

There are over 5,000 users on the unnamed forum seen by WIRED claiming to be current and former federal immigration agents. There, they complained of the negative public perception of the agencies, long working hours and “incompetent” leadership, according to the outlet.

The outlet noted that users on the forum do not need to prove their employment to join and it had not confirmed the identities of the people posting.

Users were candid about the public perception of the agencies amid the Trump administration’s immigration surge in cities across the U.S.

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“I'm all for removing illegals, but snatching dudes off lawn mowers in Cali and leaving the truck and equipment just sitting there? Definitely not working smarter,” said one user in a post viewed by WIRED.

Posts in the forum reportedly amped up following public scrutiny and outrage of the agencies in Minnesota, where U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed at the hands of federal immigration agents in Minneapolis last month.

One user started a thread titled, “Ready to resign, had enough stress” five days before Pretti was killed. “I have 2.3 years left for full special category retirement … but don't know if I'll make it. Tired of this Agency. Employees being abused badly,” the user reportedly wrote.

The user also complained of agents being deployed for temporary duty at short notice in cities where the administration is carrying out large-scale immigration operations.

“No more weekends off, more work than ever before in 18 years. No more union. No more down time,” the post reportedly continued. “This is not what any of us envisioned for our last years of career when we are in our 50's.”

Other users lashed out at Homeland Security leadership.

“Led by some of the worst leadership I’ve ever witnessed, from the local level all the way up to the national stage, this agency has managed to turn a righteous mission into a complete clown show,” another user reportedly wrote.

“This is going to be a train wreck that we may not survive,” another reportedly said.

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The Independent had contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

Reports of “plummeting” morale among federal law enforcement officers tasked with carrying out the administration’s immigration operations have been widespread since the unrest in Minneapolis. In a report at the end of January, more than 20 current and former immigration officials told The New York Times of their discontent in the hours following the fatal shooting of Pretti.

Current and former ICE officials who spoke with the outlet anonymously said they were “unhappy with the sharp rhetoric” coming from top White House and Homeland Security officials, who were quick to blame Pretti.

One ICE agent told the Times that he had “always given the benefit of the doubt to the government in these situations,” but that he now no longer believed “any of the statements they put out anymore.”

“We lost all trust,” a current ICE official added. “I’m not sure I can see how we exist three years from now.”

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin also reported “extreme frustration” in the department over “some of the claims & narratives DHS pushed in the aftermath of the shooting.”

“These sources say this messaging from DHS officials has been catastrophic from a PR and morale perspective, as it is eroding trust and credibility,” Melugin reported Sunday.

In response, Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary, said ICE and border patrol agents “get up every morning to try and make our communities safer.”

“The men and women of ICE and Border Patrol are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters,” McLaughlin said in a previous statement to The Independent. “Like everyone else, our officers just want to go home to our families at night. The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop.”