ICE Removes Spanish-Language Training Requirement for New Recruits

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently removed a long-standing five-week Spanish-language training program requirement for new recruits.

The removal of the requirement, which was confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security, reflects both collapsing non-English government services and the softening of qualifications to become an immigration agent.

“This is consistent with DHS under this administration,” said Scott Shuchart, a former ICE assistant director under the Biden administration, “lowering hiring standards to prioritize getting warm bodies behind masks and guns, rather than getting qualified and vetted people into a job that can be dangerous and demands real training and skill.”

Though ICE doesn’t release information on languages spoken by detainees, available statistics show that the vast majority of arrestees hail from primarily Spanish-speaking countries.

On Reddit threads, people claiming to be potential ICE recruits met rumors of the change in requirement with a mix of support and disdain.

ICE is on a hiring spree following a boost of $175 million to immigration enforcement in President Donald Trump’s budget. ICE’s budget for officers is now higher than the FBI’s.

In recent months, after Trump’s executive order designating English as the official language of the U.S., government agencies have cut back on services for other languages.

Though Trump’s diktat says that nothing in the order “requires or directs any change in the services provided by any agency,” several agencies have nonetheless reduced non-English-language support. The Department of Homeland Security, for instance, will no longer provide translation services for those calling in with questions about their employment status or benefits.

In an email to The Intercept, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed the five-week Spanish-language training was no longer required.

“ICE simply replaced the 5-week in-person Spanish course with a more robust translation service for all officers regardless of when they entered on duty,” she said. “We are using technology not only to save U.S. taxpayer dollars but to also broaden our ability to communicate with illegal aliens we regularly encounter from countries across the globe.”

McLaughlin did not respond to a follow-up on what the technology in question would be, but regular law enforcement suppliers have been rolling out translation tools in recent years.

Axon, for instance, the company made famous for making the Taser stun gun, has a $5.1 million contract to provide Homeland Security with body-worn cameras. The firm advertises that its latest body camera has real-time “push-to-talk voice translation” in over 50 languages.

The decision to replace language skills with technology could create problems, said Shuchart, who is currently a lawyer in private practice.

“It bespeaks a real disrespect for ICE officers and agents, and noncitizens,” he said, “to think that their life-and-death encounters can just be mediated by commercial AI tools that have never been tested in a law enforcement environment.”

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“Misunderstandings on Both Sides”

The history of ICE’s Spanish-language training requirement crisscrosses with the agency’s winding history.

The Office of Detention and Removal Operations, the main deportation division of what was then called the Immigration and Naturalization Service, had the requirement in place until March 2003, when the agency was subsumed by ICE under the aegis of the newly created Department of Homeland Security. ICE went on to reinstate the requirements in 2007. In 2010, Detention and Removal Operations was renamed to Enforcement and Removal Operations, or ERO, the name the office bears today.

That same year, in 2010, Congress’s official research agency, the Government Accountability Office, produced a report on the dangers of Homeland Security’s failures to assess its language needs.

“According to DHS officials, foreign language skills are an integral part of the department’s operations,” the report said. “These officials told us that while Spanish language proficiency may be identified as an existing capability, it may not always be available and generally the levels of proficiencies vary.”

In a 2007 memo, ICE described its Spanish Language Training Program as a five-week course designed to reinforce four skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing Spanish.

“Emphasis is placed on speaking and listening; the two skills most needed by DRO Law Enforcement Officers,” the ICE memo said.

By 2016, the document had been revised to remove reading from the core skills list. The two most-needed skills were also changed from speaking and listening to “grammar concepts and the ability to perform an arrest of an alien and complete the requisite corresponding documentation, which are the two skills most needed by ERO Law Enforcement Officers.”

An ICE press release from 2018, which mentioned the Spanish-language program, touted ICE officers as being “among the most highly trained federal law enforcement officers in the United States.” (A disclaimer at the top of the press release points out that the 2018 release is now outdated and is “not reflective of current practice.”)

Amid a huge increase in its budget, ICE is on making a recruitment push to add 10,000 new agents.

In August, DHS announced that ICE is removing age restrictions for new applicants so that “even more patriots will qualify to join ICE.” The starting age for ICE agents is being lowered from 21 to 18, and the age cap, previously ranging from 37 to 40, is being removed entirely.

“If ICE agents lack the basic language skills, they put at risk both themselves, citizens, and lawful immigrants as well.”

The DHS announcement also unveiled several incentives to join ICE, including a signing bonus of up to $50,000 and student loan repayment for ICE officers.

The announcement didn’t mention that the Spanish Language Training Program requirement had also been removed for new officers.

Fielding immigration enforcement agents without direct Spanish-language skills could create dangers to all involved, said Richard Seifman, a former World Bank adviser and Foreign Service officer who has written on the degradation of foreign language capabilities in government.

“If not clearly stated and papers shown to a person who is strictly a Spanish speaker or with limited language skill in English, the situation can be fraught with misunderstandings on both sides,” he said. “If ICE agents lack the basic language skills, they put at risk both themselves, citizens, and lawful immigrants as well.”

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