ICE — overwhelmed with applicants — leans on cyber talent program to speed tech hiring

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency spearheading the second Trump administration’s sweeping deportation programs, is tapping into a recruitment pipeline run by its parent agency, the Homeland Security Department, to swiftly boost the intake of cybersecurity and tech talent, a top agency official said Friday.

The agency’s tech shop intends to further “exploit” the Cyber Talent Management System, a special hiring program launched by DHS in 2021 to target skilled cyber professionals for hiring, Acting Chief Information Officer Dustin Goetz said at an ACT-IAC event in Virginia.

“[CTMS] brings in new talent, and that definitely pays them what they’re worth,” he said. The CTMS system is exempt from several competitive hiring and compensation regulations typically required in the federal government.

ICE received a historic cash infusion this year, as the White House seeks to ramp up immigration raids and speed deportations. Major border and immigration offices have been expanded and are deploying various surveillance technologies to monitor, identify and potentially detain people. Some states are apparently unaware of certain data they are providing to ICE, lawmakers said last week.

As of last year, CTMS led to 345 job offers and 189 employees ultimately working in the Office of the Chief Information Officer at DHS, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. 

“For those of you that have sat through the CTMS exam, you’re going to know that, by the time you make it on the back-end of that exam, you’re well qualified,” Goetz said. “So we’re starting there and making sure that we’re hiring some of the best and the brightest.”

The core of ICE’s cyber strategy in the next fiscal year includes modernizing its operations with automation and AI, as well as standardizing data management practices, the CIO said. Concurrently, the agency is focusing on upskilling its staff and collaborating further with industry to defend against a range of cyber threats, including AI-powered attacks via vulnerabilities in older systems and “shadow IT” — technologies used by employees that aren’t necessarily approved or overseen by the IT managers.

The controversial ICE buildout has made the agency and related offices a purported target of cyber threats. Over the summer, hackers stole sensitive employee data from FEMA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Nextgov/FCW first reported.

Goetz also appeared to acknowledge that ICE is running into obstacles as it seeks to meet sweeping deportation and detainment demands set by the White House. 

“For those of you that are tracking, we have also a large number of arrests and deportations that we have to meet — goals that are set up by the administration. Well, if you do the simple back-of-the-napkin math, it’s not going to be possible with the number of officers and agents that we have, even when we hire them,” he said.

ICE is trying to implement tech tools to assist officers in meeting those metrics, including the mobile apps that let officers do processing in the field, he added.

The CIO office has seen upwards of 60,000 applicants this year, he said, acknowledging that traditional human-based hiring methods “would take us years” to go through. ICE is using AI to speed up the evaluation process. 

“The result was we were able to go through a huge amount of resumes in a matter of probably three or four days,” which saved the agency at least two years of work, he said. “That’s monumental, especially with this administration, who wants to see as many boots on the ground as possible.”

Outside of tech jobs in the CIO shop, the agency would likely use Direct Hire-Authority measures to boost recruitment for other positions like law enforcement officers, he said. The hiring statute lets agencies quickly backfill their workforce if they can justify a severe shortage of relevant talent.

AI is also being used to screen Office of Professional Responsibility background checks. OPR’s site says the office maintains the agency’s professional standards and accountability through security, inspections and impartial investigations of employee and contractor misconduct.

ICE has taken the unusual step of admitting new recruits into its training program before they have fully completed the agency’s standard vetting process, NBC News reported last month, citing one current and two former DHS officials.

“Now, I’m not saying that AI solves everything. It’s not a silver bullet. We have human intervention at all checkpoints, and they are validating what AI is doing for us. So we’re not looking to automate everything” Goetz said.

Internally, employees across various units of DHS have been marked for reassignment to agencies focused on Trump-era border security and deportation work, including ICE, CBP and the Federal Protective Service. The shifts have drawn concerns from House Democrats, Nextgov/FCW first reported last month.