Feds from IRS agents to refugee officers are deploying to assist ICE conduct raids

Updated June 13 at 9:19 p.m.

As the Trump administration ramps up its efforts to detain and deport undocumented immigrants across the country, it is increasingly relying on federal employees to take on new roles to supplement those enforcement efforts. 

Those efforts are spearheaded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the Homeland Security Department, but agencies within and outside DHS are soliciting employees to help ramp up the renewed crackdown. The initiative has led to raids at worksites, farms, nightclubs,  residential areas and federal buildings where immigrants report for court hearings or check-ins. The efforts have led to widespread protests and, according to administration officials, increased violence against federal officers and agents. 

Within DHS, many components are providing support to ICE in different roles. In a new partnership, the Transportation Security Administration is offering 100 Federal Air Marshals to the agency. The vast majority of those employees volunteered for the assignment. On flights organized by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, the marshals will conduct in-flight security functions using ICE’s authorities and protocols. That will include taking detainees to the flight line or airport terminal, escorting the detainees onto the aircraft, providing armed and unarmed in-flight security, escorting detainees when they deplane and transferring custody upon arrival.  

The TSA agents will serve on 60-day assignments for their initial details. 

“TSA’s Federal Air Marshals are proud to support our ICE colleagues by providing in-flight security functions for select ERO flights,” an agency spokesperson said. “This new initiative is part of the interagency effort to support the President’s declared national emergency at the southern border.” 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees have also received a push to sign up for ICE deployments, as it did in 2019. DHS commonly asks employees at components like USCIS to deploy to assist in disaster response or at times to provide assistance at the border. ICE details are rarer, but did occur in Trump’s first term in 2019. USCIS has in recent weeks sent hundreds of its employees to support immigration enforcement. 

A USCIS employee working on refugee operations in the Refugee, Asylum and International Operations Directorate said management there encouraged staff to sign up for the details to demonstrate their "adaptability" and to “justify our continued employment.” Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office freezing refugee resettlement, which is currently tied up in legal battles. 

Fifty employees from the refugee office alone have signed up for the assignments, meaning nearly one-in-four employees there are currently working for ICE. Detailees have been working largely on administrative matters, such as verifying an immigrant’s status or correcting information for ICE, the employee said. While many refugee officers personally object to the assignment, they added, they recognize the benefits of the opportunity. 

"USCIS is proud to support ICE with hundreds of volunteers with extensive expertise to help enforce our immigration laws and confront national security threats,” said Matthew J. Tragesser, a USCIS spokesperson. “Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Noem, our agency remains committed in helping make America safe again.”

Customs and Border Protection is also sending its personnel in aid of ICE, currently on targeted operations in the Los Angeles area.

“Enforcing immigration law is not optional—it’s essential to protecting America’s national security, public safety, and economic strength,” a CBP spokesperson said, adding agency staff would be assisting ICE indefinitely. “Every removal of an illegal alien helps restore order and reinforce the rule of law.”

While some of DHS’ details to ICE are new or unusual, the agency is also tapping into other governmental entities for the first time. 

Around 250 Internal Revenue Service agents are currently detailed to DHS under an agreement between Kristi Noem, the department's secretary, and Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent, to provide added immigration enforcement manpower. The agents have been authorized under Title 8 of the U.S. Code to make arrests for civil violations of immigration law, according to a government official familiar with the agreement. The memorandum of understanding was reported by The New York Times in February, but new details have since emerged. 

IRS-Criminal Investigation's expertise is in financial and tax investigations, but the detailed agents are currently also assisting with immigration enforcement operations. They have primarily helped establish a perimeter during raids and other operations, according to the official, who did not know of any precedent for the type of work IRS is now conducting. 

The employees are serving for six months to start and the administration will then evaluate whether to move forward. The work is supporting normal IRS-CI operations as well, according to the official, as the agency is typically involved in cases that involve drug or human trafficking and frequently works with DHS partners in those efforts. 

DHS has significantly ramped up its arrests of undocumented immigrants without prior criminal convictions, however. 

Those IRS employees are operating separately from the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, to which an additional 100 IRS Criminal Investigations employees are currently assigned. 

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is also providing resources to ICE, including by providing access to its data and with boots on the ground. 

USPIS’ involvement with ICE was first reported by The Washington Post. A spokesperson for the agency said no USPIS staff are detailed to ICE and if any personnel are present at an ICE enforcement operation it is because it involves postal matters.

President Trump has, with some controversy, sent active duty troops to quell protests in Los Angeles. Defense Department civilians are also gearing up for new assignments after Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this month signed a memo authorizing their deployments for both border security and interior enforcement operations.

A now-retired, long-time ICE employee with 35 years of federal experience said his former colleagues are pleased the Trump administration has lifted restrictions on detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants, particularly those with criminal records, but said the pressures are also taking a toll. 

“They are overwhelmed with the requirements and are looking forward to any relief that might be provided,” he said, noting congressional Republicans’ tax and spending cut package—dubbed the Big Beautiful Bill—would provide ICE with significant new resources including 10,000 new hires.

This story has been updated with additional detail.