The Pentagon is encouraging its civilian employees to join a "volunteer force" assisting the Department of Homeland Security's immigration efforts, Fox News has learned.
The Defense Department notified its roughly 950,000 civilian employees in a Wednesday email, saying they can apply to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on a temporary basis.
"DHS and the DOD officially signed a [memorandum of agreement] that allows DOD civilians to participate in the detail," a U.S. defense official told Fox News. "DOD civilian employees are now able to apply for these details via USAJOBS. The Department pushed out an email to civilian employees encouraging them to apply yesterday."
The USAJOBS posting says "extensive overtime" may be required and conditions at some locations could be "austere." It adds that ICE and CPB may pay for all base pay, overtime, premium pay and travel expenses.
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The listing adds that deployment locations include facilities along the U.S. border, or ICE and CBP facilities throughout the interior of the United States.
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The Pentagon's move comes as the Department of Homeland Security is already working to hire 10,000 additional full-time ICE officers. Last week, the DHS touted some 100,000 applications it had received for the posts.
"Your country is calling on you to serve at ICE and defend the Homeland," acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement earlier this month. "In the wake of the Biden administration's open border policies, the dedicated men and women of ICE now face unprecedented challenges in removing millions of criminal illegal aliens from our country."
"Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, we now have funding to recruit and hire Americans who want to patriotically serve their country and protect American communities," Lyons added.
The recruitment drive comes amid what has been at least an 830% increase in assaults on agents amid riots and protests throughout the country, according to DHS data. Noem said earlier this month that number has since spiked to 1,000%.
