How does Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP) work and which ICE roles qualify for it?
Executive summary
Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP) is a statutorily authorized premium that adds a fixed percentage to the base pay of covered federal criminal investigators to compensate for irregular, unscheduled, or extensive availability requirements; OPM guidance and ICE materials show that LEAP typically equals 25% of an eligible investigator’s base pay [1] [2]. ICE’s own career and policy documents indicate LEAP is intended for criminal investigator LEOs whose duties require substantial unscheduled duty—positions certified annually where unscheduled duty averages two or more hours per workday [3] [4].
1. What LEAP actually is and how the math works
LEAP is governed by Title 5 and implementing OPM regulations as “Availability Pay for Criminal Investigators,” and it is applied as a premium percentage of an employee’s rate of basic pay rather than as per-hour overtime; OPM guidance and reporting commonly cite LEAP at a fixed 25% of basic pay for covered criminal investigators [1] [2]. ICE job postings and FAQs reinforce that LEAP is separate from locality pay, Title 5 overtime, or Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime (AUO), and is used where positions require irregular availability that cannot be scheduled in advance [3] [5].
2. Which ICE roles are explicitly eligible (and why)
ICE policy and recruitment material consistently link LEAP to criminal investigator LEOs—roles identified as “criminal investigators” or special agents within Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and comparable ICE investigative series are the primary candidates for LEAP [3] [1]. ICE’s internal premium-pay guide specifies that “the vast majority of criminal investigators” are subject to availability pay provisions, but it also requires that each position meet a threshold for minimum annual average unscheduled duty—so the job series label (e.g., 1811 criminal investigator) plus duty certification matter, not simply the agency name [4] [1].
3. How ICE applies LEAP in practice and where nuance appears
Operational guidance shows LEAP is not blanket coverage for all ICE personnel: positions must demonstrate that unscheduled duty averages two or more hours per regular workday and that the requirement is certified annually; therefore many field investigative roles (special agents) are covered while some apparent “law enforcement” positions may not be if their duty patterns are primarily scheduled or administrative [4]. ICE career pages and job announcements for Deportation Officers and other ERO roles note that some vacancies “may require substantial amounts of irregular or occasional overtime” and mention LEAP for positions that meet those duties, but they stop short of automatically listing every ERO role as LEAP-eligible—signaling that eligibility depends on position certification and job-specific classification [6] [5].
4. Distinguishing LEAP from other pay programs and common misunderstandings
LEAP differs from Title 5 “45 Act” overtime, AUO, and locality/special rate adjustments: it is a fixed availability premium rooted in 5 U.S.C. § 5545a and implementing regs (5 CFR 550.181–186), paid because duties require frequent unscheduled work rather than for overtime hours worked under FLSA frameworks [1] [3]. Popular salary trackers and secondary sites explain why ICE “agent” pay often appears higher than base GS pay—because LEAP (25% in many references) plus locality or special rate adjustments can materially raise total compensation—but they also note eligibility “depends on the position and requirements,” so headlines implying all ICE officers receive a 25% bonus oversimplify the legal and administrative criteria [2] [7].
5. Open questions, caveats and where reporting is thin
Public ICE policy documents and OPM regulations clarify the statutory mechanics and certification criteria for LEAP but do not publish a simple roster of every ICE job title that receives the premium; available job announcements, ICE FAQs, and internal premium-pay guides show the framework and common applications (criminal investigators/special agents) while leaving role-by-role determinations to position classification and annual certification processes [3] [1] [4]. Reporting and secondary salary analyses fill practical gaps—e.g., commonly citing a 25% LEAP rate [2]—but authoritative confirmation of whether a specific ICE ERO Deportation Officer or other specialty role currently receives LEAP requires review of that position’s official classification and ICE’s annual certification, information not fully disclosed in the provided sources [6] [5].