As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents continue to be under fire for their aggressive actions, Laura Jedeed, a journalist, poured salt in an open wound by exposing the agency for hiring her without a proper background check.
Jedeed tested the ICE recruitment process by submitting a fake application, only to be hired, much to her surprise.
The process started when she visited an ICE Career Expo event at the ESports Stadium Arlington in Texas in August 2025. The agency was offering deportation officer candidates positions on the spot.
Despite being anti-ICE and a President Donald Trump critic, she applied to test the expanding theory that many agents are not only properly trained but also improperly hired.
Jedeed claimed she received a Sept. 3 email with a “tentative offer” of employment, but she never accepted it. So she was surprised to get a follow-up with a request for a drug test—and consent for a background check to take place.
Her curiosity piqued, she took the drug test but admitted to engaging in legal cannabis a few days earlier, thinking she would fail, but that wasn’t the case.
“I was curious, ‘had they processed the drug test yet?’ So I logged into the ICE hiring portal, and what I found was that not only did the drug test seem to be relevant, I was listed as having joined ICE three days earlier,” she revealed.
“By all appearances, I was a deportation officer,” Jadeed wrote in her Slate piece, “You’ve Heard About Who ICEIs Recruiting. The Truth Is Far Worse. I’m the Proof.”
“Without a single signature on agency paperwork, ICE had officially hired me.”
According to the ICE website, those who want to help the country that “has been invaded by criminals and predators” don’t need an undergraduate degree. The agency is also “looking for individuals with integrity and courage” and “law enforcement personnel who aspire to the highest standards of performance, professionalism and leadership.”
With those requirements, it may not come as a surprise that Jadeed made the cut. The 38-year-old joined the Army after high school and served two tours in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division.
But as the story began to go viral, a DHS spokesperson claimed it was false.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson at Slate said that the editors are standing behind Jedeed’s reporting, a refreshing act as journalism and free speech havesbeen under attack.
“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,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
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