What are the physical fitness test standards for ICE ERO agents in 2025?
Executive summary
ICE’s public hiring pages in 2025 say a mandatory Pre‑Employment Physical Fitness Test (PFT) screens applicants to ERO/Deportation Officer programs and that failing any single PFT event fails the whole test; applicants who fail may retest once within 45 days [1] [2]. Debates in reporting and third‑party training products cite a four‑event PFT — sit‑ups, push‑ups, a short sprint and a 1.5‑mile run — but authoritative 2025 ICE documentation with exact numeric cutoffs is not published in the supplied sources [3] [4] [2].
1. What ICE says publicly about the PFT: mandatory gatekeeper and retest rule
ICE’s careers page states a mandatory PFT will be used to screen applicants required to attend ICE’s Basic Immigration Enforcement Training Program and related academy courses; failing to attain the designated minimum standard for any event constitutes failing the entire PFT, and selectees who fail the first attempt must retest within 45 days or be removed from the hiring process [1] [2].
2. What the PFT reportedly contains: four timed events, per reporting and trainers
Multiple non‑official sources and third‑party training products describe the ERO/Deportation Officer PFT as consisting of four timed events: sit‑ups, push‑ups, a 220‑yard sprint (sometimes cited) and a 1.5‑mile run. A private vendor’s July 2025 training plan explicitly lists the events candidates are tested on and markets a 4‑week program to prepare for that PFT [4]. A media article repeating ICE’s “agency website” details lists specific numeric targets but does so outside of an ICE source [3].
3. Where reporting and ICE documentation diverge — standards, numbers, and provenance
Reporting (The Mirror) quotes concrete numbers — e.g., “32 sit‑ups in under a minute, 22 push‑ups in under a minute, a 220‑yard sprint <47.73s, and a 1.5‑mile run <14:30” — but that story cites “the agency’s website” rather than linking a specific ICE page; the official ICE careers page provided in the search set confirms the PFT exists and the pass/fail and retest policy but does not publish those numeric cutoffs in the supplied sources [3] [2]. The private training plan (Mountain Tactical Institute) asserts the event list and is explicitly a third‑party product purporting to prepare candidates for the test, not an official ICE standard sheet [4].
4. How ICE frames fitness relative to hiring and training timing
DHS/ICE commentary in later reporting (outside the strict 2025 ICE careers page but present in the search results covering 2025–2026 policy debates) emphasizes that recruits must meet physical ability standards as a condition of employment and that fitness checks may be shifted earlier in training for efficiency — a point used by officials to rebut claims of lowered standards amid rapid hiring [5]. The search results include a DHS news item that repeats a medical/fitness test requirement in the context of other hiring changes; it does not, in the provided results, list PFT event standards or numeric targets [6].
5. Training vendors and their incentives — useful but not authoritative
Commercial training plans (e.g., the Mountain Tactical Institute product) offer structured regimens and list the PFT events, which can help candidates prepare. These vendors have an incentive to mirror perceived official standards to sell programs; they are not a substitute for ICE’s official instructions. The vendor’s July 2025 product explicitly states it is built to prepare athletes for the ERO PFT [4].
6. Limits of available reporting and what’s not found
Available sources in the search set do not provide an official ICE table of numeric minimums for each PFT event on the 2025 ICE careers PFT page; they do not confirm whether the numeric cutoffs cited in some media pieces remain current or apply universally across ages/genders/positions [2] [3]. The older 2007 DRO/IEA test documents appear in the results but are historical; their presence does not prove those numbers apply in 2025 without explicit ICE confirmation in the supplied set [7] [8].
7. Practical takeaway for applicants and journalists
Use ICE’s official careers/PFT page as the baseline policy source for process rules (mandatory test, fail‑one‑event fails PFT, one retest within 45 days) and treat vendor or media numeric cutoffs as secondary unless ICE publishes the exact metrics. Seek direct confirmation from the ICE link titled “Physical Fitness Test” for up‑to‑date numeric standards before relying on specific replications in training programs or news stories [2] [4] [3].
Limitations: this analysis uses only the supplied results; the exact numeric pass/fail standards for the 2025 ERO PFT are not published in those sources and therefore cannot be asserted here (not found in current reporting).