Have there been federal pay raises or hiring bonuses for ICE or Border Patrol in 2024–2025?
Executive summary
Yes: during 2024–2025 there were concrete moves to boost pay and offer hiring/retention bonuses for Border Patrol and ICE, ranging from statutory proposals and administrative plans to agency recruitment incentives and signing/retention bonuses announced in 2025 (CBP recruitment incentives, ICE signing/retention offers, and proposed special salary rates) [1] [2] [3] [4]. Lawmakers and the Department of Homeland Security also proposed related staffing surges and pay authorities in 2024 that set the stage for these 2025 incentives [5] [6].
1. The legislative prelude: bills and bipartisan deals that imagined raises and hiring surges
Congressional measures and bipartisan border packages in 2024 and early 2025 included funding and authorities explicitly designed to expand staffing at CBP and ICE and to permit higher pay or hiring flexibilities—examples include the Pay Our Border Patrol and Customs Agents Act filed in the 118th Congress and a bipartisan border deal that funded thousands of positions and authorized hiring reforms and pay measures for DHS components [7] [6] [5].
2. CBP’s concrete recruitment incentives in early 2025: $30,000 and more on paper and later claims of higher caps
U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it increased recruitment incentives to as much as $30,000 for newly appointed Border Patrol agents entering duty on or after Jan. 8, 2025, per CBP’s announcement [1]. Subsequent reporting and DHS summaries also described broader incentive packages—published outlets and DHS statements in 2025 referenced packages that could total far more when combining signing, academy-completion, remote-location, and multi-year retention payments, with media reports describing potential caps up to $60,000 for new Border Patrol hires under certain programs [2] [8].
3. ICE’s incentives in 2025: signing bonuses, loan forgiveness and annual retention pay
Reporting documented ICE recruitment moves in 2025 that included signing bonuses and loan-forgiveness offers; industry reporting noted plans of up to $50,000 in signing bonuses as part of an effort to hire thousands more officers, and coverage described $10,000-per-year retention-style bonuses for existing agents as part of broader incentive schemes tied to 2025 funding packages [9] [3].
4. OPM and the special salary rate: an administrative pay-raise pathway
The Office of Personnel Management in late 2025 moved to create a special salary rate intended to cover law enforcement groups including Border Patrol agents and ICE criminal investigators—an administrative mechanism that effectively raises base pay rates for covered positions if implemented, and which was publicly reported as part of the broader 2025 pay agenda [4]. The reporting indicates an intention to institutionalize higher pay beyond one-time bonuses for certain law-enforcement occupations [4].
5. Scale and timing: who got what and when (limits of available reporting)
Most concrete, contemporaneous agency announcements and reporting focus on 2025 implementation: CBP’s $30,000 recruitment incentive notice dated to Jan. 2025 and multiple outlets reporting expanded, sometimes larger combined-incentive packages during 2025; many headline figures for “up to $60,000” or “up to $50,000” reflect aggregated or program-specific caps rather than a single line-item federal salary increase across-the-board [1] [2] [9] [8] [3]. Sources show legislative proposals and appropriations in 2024–2025 created the authority and funding for these incentives, but do not show a single uniform across-the-board federal general-schedule pay raise enacted for all ICE or Border Patrol employees during 2024–2025 [7] [5] [6].
6. Competing frames, motivations and risks: recruitment vs. retention vs. standards
Supporters framed bonuses and special pay as necessary to reverse persistent hiring shortfalls and to staff new missions after Congress funded large hiring surges, with agencies touting large application numbers and hiring goals [6] [2]. Critics and some observers warned rapid expansions and waived hiring constraints could raise training and attrition concerns, pointing to historical cautionary examples and worries about hiring standards as agencies scale up [9]. Those differences reflect implicit agendas: lawmakers and DHS prioritize staffing and border control capacity, while oversight voices prioritize vetting, training quality and long-term retention [5] [9].
7. Bottom line
The factual record in the provided reporting shows targeted recruitment and retention bonuses and administrative pay-authority steps for Border Patrol and ICE were enacted or announced in 2025 (CBP’s $30,000 recruitment incentive, reporting of combined incentives up to $60,000 for CBP, ICE signing/retention bonus programs, and OPM’s special salary-rate action), and these trace to legislative funding and proposals developed during 2024–2025—but there is no single source here showing a uniform across-the-board federal general-schedule pay raise for all ICE or Border Patrol staff during 2024–2025 separate from these bonus and special-pay measures [1] [2] [3] [4] [7] [5] [6].