What are the average annual salaries of ICE agents in different locations, such as New York or Los Angeles, in 2025?
Executive summary
Published salary ranges for ICE agents in 2025–2026 show wide variation depending on job title, locality pay and career stage, with advertised base ranges around $49,739–$89,528 and marketplace averages that cluster in the $60k–$70k band (Newsweek; MoneyDigest/OPM; ZipRecruiter) [1]overtime-benefits-and-more-101768196481258.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">[2][3]. Specialized roles and self-reported data sources show higher averages—Glassdoor lists substantially larger figures for “Special Agent” roles—while official hiring notices emphasize locality pay and overtime as the decisive variables [4][5].
1. What the official advertised base pay looks like
Public reporting that cites the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and related compilations shows an advertised base-pay band for ICE deportation officers and similar positions between $49,739 and $89,528 per year; outlets such as Newsweek and Hindustan Times repeat this OPM-derived range when describing entry and mid-career pay for ICE roles [1][2].
2. Market-average snapshots from job sites: national and regional figures
Aggregate job-board snapshots produced by ZipRecruiter put the national “Ice Agent” average at roughly $62,702 (Jan 2026) while site-specific slices show California around $61,881 and New York City closer to $68,598—figures that reflect posted jobs, applicants and self-reported salaries rather than formal government payroll rolls [3][6][7].
3. The split between “agent” and “special agent” pay
Different job titles matter: ZipRecruiter’s separate listing for “Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent” shows an average near $65,642 (Dec 2025), while Glassdoor’s user-submitted data for Special Agents reports a much higher mean—around $137,680—illustrating how higher-grade investigative or supervisory positions, long service, or inconsistent self-reporting can push averages well above advertisement bands [8][4].
4. How locality pay, overtime and bonuses change take-home totals
ICE and federal job announcements stress that the “actual salary range will be based on the applicable locality pay for the selected duty location,” and that overtime, locality differentials and agency bonuses can materially raise compensation beyond base pay—an explicit caveat in USAJobs/ICE listings and reporting about recruitment bonuses and overtime [5][1].
5. Entry-level and GS-grade framing used by some outlets
Some reporting frames ICE pay in General Schedule (GS) terms: outlets citing historical GS start points note entry-level agents sometimes begin at GS‑5 pay (a markedly lower historic rung) and can advance to GS‑13 levels with corresponding jumps in base pay; these GS references help explain why headline ranges look broad and why experience/grade matter [9][10].
6. Why reported averages diverge so widely
Differences between OPM-based advertised ranges, job-site averages and employee self-reports create divergence: OPM/agency postings provide base bands, ZipRecruiter and similar sites aggregate posted salaries and applicant data to produce regional averages, and Glassdoor reflects self-reported pay that often skews higher for senior or specialized roles—so “average” depends on which dataset and job title are being sampled [2][3][4].
7. What can’t be concluded from these sources alone
No provided source gives a single definitive 2025 payroll table for every ICE position by city; the reporting instead offers ranges, marketplace averages and caveats about locality pay and overtime—therefore precise 2025 annual pay for a named ICE agent in New York or Los Angeles cannot be pinned to one number from these sources alone without agency payroll data [1][5][3].
8. Bottom line for New York and Los Angeles in practical terms
Using the available reporting, reasonable working estimates put typical ICE “agent” pay in large coastal cities in the low-to-high $60,000s annually on average according to ZipRecruiter snapshots (New York City ~ $68,598; California statewide ~ $61,881), while advertised OPM/agency base bands span roughly $49,739–$89,528 and specialized investigators or long-tenured special agents can report much higher figures on sites like Glassdoor [7][6][1][4].