What is the diversity breakdown of ICE agents by ethnicity and gender?
Executive summary
The available reporting indicates ICE's workforce is majority white, with Hispanic/Latino staff a substantial minority and women underrepresented relative to men; public and secondary sources provide specific percentages but are inconsistent across years and definitions, and ICE itself publishes EEO-1 data and diversity dashboards that the agency says track race/ethnicity and gender [1] [2] [3]. Contemporary reporting also documents shifts in total headcount — ICE more than doubled its officer and agent roster to roughly 22,000 in 2025 — which complicates direct comparisons of percentage breakdowns over time [4].
1. What the numbers say: racial and ethnic breakdowns reported by third parties
Aggregated labor-market analyses and news summaries report that white employees make up the plurality of immigration enforcement officers — one site calculated about 59.6% white among “immigration officers” broadly, with Hispanic/Latino roughly 15.6% and Black or African American about 11.4% — but those figures appear to pool different immigration occupations and time periods rather than ICE-specific EEO-1 snapshots [1]. Other outlets citing ICE data or Univision reporting note much higher Hispanic representation specifically among ICE and Border Patrol ranks — claiming nearly 30% of ICE agents are Latino and that Latino agents outnumber Black agents roughly 2 to 1 in a 2017 data set — underscoring that Hispanic/Latino presence in immigration enforcement is significant though estimates vary by source and year [5].
2. Gender composition: underrepresentation of women in enforcement roles
Scholarly and agency-focused reviews observe that law‑enforcement roles within immigration agencies have historically been male‑dominated, with women comprising a markedly smaller share of enforcement officers; an academic essay and DHS reporting discuss the presence of women and women of color in immigration enforcement but also treat those groups as minorities relative to men in enforcement positions [6] [3]. ICE’s public diversity portal says the agency publishes EEO‑1 data broken out by gender and race/ethnicity, which is the direct source to determine the exact current gender split among agents if one accesses the agency’s most recent EEO‑1 file [2].
3. Why numbers differ: definitions, timeframes and rapid hiring
Discrepancies across sources are driven partly by differing definitions — “immigration officers” versus ICE agents versus Border Patrol agents — and by varying timeframes: some figures draw on 2017 EEO information or academic interviews from 2014–15, while the agency’s workforce surged in 2025 from roughly 10,000 to over 22,000 officers and agents, altering the composition and meaning of percentage shares [5] [4]. The DHS Inclusive Diversity report frames ICE as among the more ethnically diverse federal law‑enforcement components, but it presents those data and diversity initiatives in the context of recruitment and inclusion efforts rather than a static demographic snapshot [3].
4. Context and critiques: recruitment, role of Latinos in ICE, and methodological caveats
Researchers and commentators have highlighted that Latino recruits are actively sought for language skills and local knowledge and that economic incentives drive many Latinx officers to join, a dynamic that both increases Hispanic representation and raises questions about how ethnic identity is used operationally in enforcement [7] [5]. At the same time, some advocacy and opinion pieces assert higher Latino shares in Border Patrol and ICE — for example, a 2019 opinion citing 24–30% Latino representation in ICE — illustrating that public discussion often draws on different internal datasets or media releases [8]. Because sources vary by year, agency component, and whether contractors or civilian staff are included, precise current percentages require consulting ICE’s latest published EEO‑1 submission on the agency’s diversity page [2].
5. Bottom line and limits of available reporting
The clearest, evidence‑based conclusion is that whites form the largest ethnic group among immigration enforcement personnel in the datasets cited, Hispanics/Latinos are a substantial and sometimes plurality/minority depending on the subset and year, Black and Asian agents represent smaller shares, and men outnumber women in enforcement roles; definitive, current percentages for ICE agents specifically depend on ICE’s own EEO‑1 releases and the timeframe and subcomponent being examined [1] [5] [2] [4]. The reporting assembled here does not include a single, authoritative up‑to‑the‑minute ICE EEO‑1 table embedded in these sources, so readers seeking exact, current breakdowns must consult ICE’s published EEO‑1 or DHS diversity reports directly [2] [3].