The Department of Homeland Security’s claim that it did not give a job with ICE to a reporter without proper vetting was contradicted by the agency’s own portal.
Afghan veteran-turned-reporter Laura Jedeed detailed in Slate this week how she tested Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s mass hiring campaign by submitting an application—and getting quickly pushed through the hiring process.
Immediately after the story was published, DHS rebuked Jedeed’s claim, arguing that she was “NEVER” offered a job with the agency. But screenshots and videos shared by Jedeed from the agency’s job portal contradict the agency’s claims and bolster other reports that ICE’s hiring methods lack oversight.
The agency’s recruitment and training processes garnered widespread criticism after the killing of unarmed mom Renee Nicole Good, 37, by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, 43, in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
Jedeed’s plan in applying to become a deportation officer, as she wrote in the article which was published on Tuesday, was to see how far she could get before any basic vetting revealed that she is an outspoken anti-ICE, anti-Trump journalist
The former paratrooper, 38, describes traveling last year to an ICE career expo at a cavernous esports arena in Texas that could hold 2,500 people but was, she says, sparsely attended. After a brief wait, she was called to a table, where a recruiter asked a handful of questions.
They included her name, date of birth, age, military experience, and preferred posting, in an interview lasting about six minutes, but not, Jedeed says, any questions about her online presence, political activity, or years of stories attacking ICE.
Weeks later, an email arrived, headed “tentative offer,” telling Jedeed she had 48 hours to complete an online declaration for federal employment and to send forms including driver’s license details, a domestic-violence attestation, and consent for a background check. It stressed she should not resign from her current job.
Jedeed ignored it—but her journey did not end there.
Despite the radio silence, Jedeed was emailed to thank her for confirming her desire to continue in the process, and ordered to take a pre-employment drug test—despite her never confirming anything.
Living in New York, where cannabis is legal, she had smoked weed six days earlier but decided to go anyway. She wrote that her reasoning was that a failed test would at least waste a little of ICE’s budget.
But upon checking her application portal days later, Jedeed was stunned to see ICE had already sent—and she had supposedly accepted—a “final offer” for a deportation officer job in New York City.
Her status was listed as “Entered on Duty,” with a pop-up message reading: “Your EOD has occurred. Welcome to ICE!”
The system also marked her medical exam and background check as “completed,” even though she had never submitted the background-check paperwork or fingerprints.
Worried about walking into a federal facility as a high-profile critic whose name appears on far-right watch lists, she hit “Decline” and went public in Tuesday’s explosive article.
On Wednesday, DHS fired back on its official X account. “This is such a lazy lie,” it wrote. “This individual was NEVER offered a job at ICE. Applicants may receive a Tentative Selection Letter following their initial application and interview that is not a job offer. It just means they are invited to submit information for review, similar to any other applicant.”
Jedeed replied: “You sure about that?” and posted a recording of her ICE Recruitment & Hiring Portal, which appears to show a tentative offer, a separate “Final Offer” column marked as sent, and an onboarding section stating that her “EOD has occurred.”
She added, “Sure looks like a final offer to me.”
When approached for comment, a DHS spokesperson told the Daily Beast: “Applicants may receive a Tentative Selection Letter following their initial application and interview that is not a job offer. This individual was NEVER offered a job at ICE.”
A spokesperson for Slate defended Jedeed’s reporting in a statement to the Daily Beast, writing, “We stand by our reporting, which reveals minimal vetting in ICE’s hiring process. Evidence, including video documentation, shows the journalist who reported this story advanced through multiple hiring stages beyond the ‘tentative selection letter,’ including receiving a final offer letter and being given a start date.”
Jedeed argued in Slate that ICE’s hiring is now so chaotic that the Trump administration “has no idea who’s joining the agency’s ranks.” Her account follows other reports of a wider pattern inside ICE’s recruitment machine under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
In November, DHS insiders revealed to the Daily Beast that Noem’s hiring process was “a s--tshow.”
“It has just been going so fast that the process is messed up,” one DHS veteran told the Beast. “It has been chaotic to handle.”
An August report from The Atlantic revealed that the typical training for incoming ICE agents was slashed from nearly five months to 47 or 48 days.
And in October, it was reported DHS had allowed poorly vetted recruits into its training academy in Brunswick, Georgia, only discovering after they arrived that some had failed drug tests, had disqualifying criminal records, or did not meet fitness or academic standards.
Noem also signed off on a $100 million “wartime recruitment” blitz that aims targeted ads and influencer deals at Fox News viewers, UFC fans, and gun-rights enthusiasts to rapidly swell ICE’s ranks as Donald Trump pushes mass deportations.
