Many Have Left the Organization
As of March 1, 2025, ICE had lost over 30% of its Enforcement & Removal Operations (ERO) officers nationwide. That means nearly one-third of its deportation staff have either resigned or retired in just over a year.
The agency also saw similar losses among adjudicators in USCIS (~25%), impacting processing capacity.
This drop severely hampers ICE’s ability to carry out removals—it was already struggling to hit targets (37,660 deportations and 20,000 arrests between January 21 and February 21, 2025) and now has fewer personnel to do so.
A DHS Inspector General survey from 2023 revealed that 1 in 4 ICE respondents were considering leaving within a year, citing low morale and excessive admin/detail assignments, though that hadn’t yet translated into a spike in recorded departures.
Losing 30% of ERO (likely over 2,000 officers) has strained operations, with deportation goals slowing and the government considering emergency hiring and reassignment efforts.
By early 2025, ICE experienced a massive personnel loss—over 30% of deportation officers have gone missing from ERO rosters.
This has had a ripple effect: fewer deportations, backlogs mounting, and the agency scrambling to hire or reassign staff to fill critical roles.
Why Do Some Folks Compare ICE Agents to the Gestapo
The Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei) operated under Adolf Hitler’s regime in Nazi Germany.
Comparing ICE agents to the Gestapo (Nazi Germany’s secret police) is a very charged and controversial analogy. While some critics make that comparison for rhetorical or moral impact, it’s important to understand the historical, functional, and ethical differences to avoid oversimplifying or distorting either situation.
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