How many Border Patrol and ICE agents has the federal government added since 2021?
Executive summary
Since 2021 there is no evidence of a large net increase in Border Patrol agents; federal reporting shows Border Patrol onboard levels fell through FY2024 and remained below the 22,000 authorized level, with staffing "just over 19,000" as of mid‑2024 [1] [2]. For ICE, public claims conflict: ICE press releases assert roughly 11,700–12,000 hires from a recruitment campaign [3] [4], while an independent read of Office of Personnel/ federal workforce data cited by reporting shows 7,114 ICE hires since the start of the administration referenced [5]; available sources do not provide a single reconciled net‑change figure for ICE since 2021 [5] [4].
1. Border Patrol: authorized increases, actual staffing fell
Congress raised the authorized number of Border Patrol agents from about 19,000 to 22,000 in recent years, but actual onboard staffing did not follow—agency and oversight reporting say the Border Patrol "failed to reach its hiring goals" from FY2021 through FY2024 and that total onboard staff decreased in each of those years [2]. Independent reporting cites CBP/GAO numbers showing Border Patrol staffing was "just over 19,000" as of June (year specified in that reporting) and well short of the 22,000 target set by Congress [1]. Earlier historical context shows Border Patrol peaked at 21,444 in 2011 and was roughly 19,357 in FY2022, underscoring that the force has not experienced dramatic net growth since 2021 [1] [6].
2. ICE: competing tallies and public claims
ICE and Department of Homeland Security communications have loudly touted a sprawling recruitment campaign, with agency press releases claiming the hiring of roughly 11,751 to 12,000 officers, agents and mission staff as part of what ICE called its "most successful" recruitment push [3] [4]. Those releases frame the change as historic and quantify hires in the low‑to‑mid tens of thousands [3] [4]. Yet a separate reporting thread that cites federal workforce database figures reports 7,114 ICE hires since the start of the administration in question—thousands fewer than ICE’s public figure—and notes ICE did not respond to questions about the discrepancy [5]. That disconnect exposes either differences in counting methodology (appointments vs. onboard personnel vs. categories of staff) or inconsistent public messaging [5] [4].
3. Why the numbers diverge: definitions, timing and categories
The sources themselves point to plausible reasons for divergent totals: ICE press statements bundle "law enforcement officers, criminal investigators, attorneys and mission support staff" into aggregate hire counts [4], while the workforce database referenced by reporting appears to track federal employee records that may exclude certain temporary hires, contractors, or positions not yet onboarded [5] [4]. For Border Patrol, Congress can authorize positions while actual filled positions lag due to attrition, training pipeline limits, and hiring shortfalls—explaining why authorized increases have not translated into net added agents [2] [1].
4. Bottom line and limits of available reporting
Based on the supplied reporting, Border Patrol did not add a material net number of agents since 2021—in fact, onboard staffing declined year over year through FY2024 and remained around 19,000, short of the 22,000 authorization [2] [1]. For ICE, the answer depends on which source is believed: ICE’s own public announcements claim roughly 11,700–12,000 hires from the recruitment campaign [3] [4], but a federal workforce data readout reported in the press lists 7,114 hires over the period in question [5]. The available documents do not reconcile these tallies; they do not produce a single, independently verified net‑change figure for ICE since 2021, and they do not provide an authoritative, comparable baseline-plus‑onboard accounting that would let a straightforward arithmetic answer be given without further data [5] [4] [2].