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What are the standard physical fitness requirements for ICE agents?
Executive summary
Available reporting and agency materials show ICE (and its HSI arm) requires recruits to pass pre‑employment physical assessments that typically include push‑ups, sit‑ups and a timed 1.5‑mile run — reporting cites concrete cutoffs such as 15 push‑ups, 32 sit‑ups, and a 1.5‑mile run under 14 minutes as the basic standard many recruits struggled with [1] [2]. ICE and DHS materials also describe formal Physical Ability/Physical Fitness Tests (PFT/PAA) and agency training standards for special agents that must be met before academy entry and/or graduation [3] [4].
1. What the public reporting says: a simple, pass/fail battery
Multiple news outlets summarizing internal ICE materials describe a short, conventional law‑enforcement fitness battery: a set number of push‑ups, sit‑ups, and a 1.5‑mile run with specific minimums — one widely cited figure is 15 push‑ups, 32 sit‑ups and a 1.5‑mile run in under 14 minutes — and reporters say many recent recruits failed to meet those minima [1] [2] [5]. The Atlantic’s reporting that prompted follow‑ups focused on those exercises and internal emails calling some candidates “athletically allergic” [6].
2. What ICE’s own materials say: formal PFT/PAA for HSI and other components
ICE’s HSI recruitment pages and internal handbooks state applicants must clear a pre‑employment Physical Fitness Test (PFT) and again pass a PFT at the HSI Academy to graduate; the agency frames these standards as job‑related and predictive of academy performance [3] [4]. DHS and ICE communications repeatedly emphasize that fitness and medical standards are conditions of employment and that prior‑service hires still must meet them [1].
3. Older and related federal fitness documents: practical, scenario‑oriented standards
Training and performance guidance used across DHS components (including documents from FLETC and CBP referenced in public files) describe Physical Abilities Assessments (PAA) and Fitness Graduation Standards that include practical exercises such as takedown/defensive techniques, obstacle‑style practicals and endurance elements — indicating the fitness testing is not only situps/pushups/runs but also job‑task assessments in some courses [7].
4. Disagreement and agency pushback: how standardized are the numbers?
DHS/ICE officials responded to reports by saying some published figures reflect only a subset of classes and that the “figures you reference are not accurate,” asserting most recruits are prior law‑enforcement and that standards have not been lowered — though they also said they are moving fitness checks earlier in the sequence for efficiency [1]. This is a competing account to reporting that highlighted a large failure rate on the basic battery [6] [2].
5. Variations by job and component: not one single universal test
Available sources show multiple fitness products: older DRO pre‑employment PFTs, HSI PFTs, and CBP/FLETC practical standards — and they make clear that different ICE components and job classifications (deportation officers, HSI special agents, etc.) have distinct assessment programs and requirements [8] [3] [7]. Public reporting sometimes conflates these, which can create apparent inconsistencies across accounts [5].
6. Recruitment context: scale, incentives, and operational tensions
News stories place the fitness discussion amid an aggressive hiring push and large applicant pools, and note incentives (bonuses, loan forgiveness) plus concerns that speeding recruitment could bring unvetted candidates into training [6] [2] [9]. DHS emphasized they are not lowering standards while also shifting when fitness checks occur — a procedural change that could affect how failure rates are counted [1].
7. What is not (clearly) in the available reporting
Available sources do not provide a single, current ICE‑wide table of exact pass/fail cutoffs for every role and age/sex category, nor do they publish a consolidated, up‑to‑date PFT protocol that covers every ICE component in public reporting (not found in current reporting). For precise, role‑by‑role standards you must consult ICE’s official job pages or internal PFT/PAA manuals cited by the agency [3] [4].
8. Takeaway for readers and applicants
For applicants: train for push‑ups, sit‑ups and a 1.5‑mile run as a baseline and review ICE/HSI recruitment materials for role‑specific guidance [3]. For readers: expect competing narratives — public reporting citing specific cutoffs and failure rates [6] [1] [2] and DHS responses arguing those figures reflect subsets of classes and that standards remain intact [1].