How have ICE agent base salaries changed since 2015 and what drove the changes?
Executive summary
ICE entry-level deportation officer pay advertised in 2025 ranged from $49,739 to $89,528 a year and agencies were offering large signing/retention bonuses (up to $50,000 in some USAJOBS listings) as part of a recruitment push funded by congressional appropriations in 2025 [1] [2] [3]. Private salary aggregators show broader, higher mid‑range averages in late 2025 — ZipRecruiter reported typical ICE-related roles near $64k–$74k annually and per‑hour estimates around $30 [4] [5].
1. Pay trend snapshot: advertised salaries vs. aggregator averages
ICE’s advertised range for deportation officers in 2025 — $49,739 to $89,528 annually — is the clearest official figure reported in major outlets and job listings [1] [3]. Commercial aggregators such as ZipRecruiter, Salary.com and Glassdoor report different central tendencies: ZipRecruiter’s December 2025 U.S. estimate for “ICE” roles was about $64,304 annually (~$30.92/hour) and other ZipRecruiter listings for “ICE Immigration” cited averages from roughly $73,895 to $75,565 in 2025 depending on timing and job title [4] [5]. Glassdoor and Salary.com provide still different ranges — Glassdoor’s pooled ICE salaries include high median figures for some job classes and Salary.com lists typical agency ranges roughly $65,747–$85,153 — showing that reported pay depends heavily on which positions and data sources are included [6] [3] [5].
2. What changed since 2015 according to available reporting
Available sources do not provide year‑by‑year ICE base salary tables dating back to 2015. The materials here focus on 2025 advertised pay, aggregate snapshots, and recruitment incentives; they do not present a chronological chart showing annual base-salary changes since 2015 (not found in current reporting). The clearest change documented in these sources is a 2024–25 surge in hiring incentives and advertised ranges coinciding with new congressional funding and the Trump administration’s recruitment push, rather than a step‑by‑step increase in statutory base pay lines [1] [3].
3. Drivers of the 2024–25 pay picture: bonuses, funding and politics
Reporting points to three drivers behind higher advertised total compensation in 2025: a large infusion of congressional funding earmarked for immigration enforcement, explicit recruitment and retention bonuses in agency job announcements (some USAJOBS postings offer up to $50,000), and public political priorities to expand the ICE workforce — all of which inflate reported pay packages beyond base salary alone [2] [3] [1]. Newsweek and Snopes both emphasize that recruitment incentives and legislative funding, not merely across‑the‑board base‑pay raises, explain much of the higher advertised pay in 2025 [3] [1].
4. How bonuses and overtime complicate comparisons
Journalistic and job‑listing sources warn that advertised upper ranges often reflect overtime potential, locality pay differentials and temporary sign‑on/retention bonuses — not guaranteed, permanent base pay. Snopes highlights that the full recruitment bonus package had a deadline and that returning retirees could receive larger incentive offers than brand‑new hires, illustrating how incentive design skews headline salary comparisons [1] [2]. Aggregator differences also show variation: ZipRecruiter’s city and state breakdowns and Glassdoor’s role‑specific reports produce varying medians depending on sampling [7] [5] [3].
5. Competing perspectives and hidden agendas
Sources diverge on emphasis. Pro‑recruitment narratives (including agency job postings and agency statements reported in Newsweek) frame higher pay as competitive and necessary to staff enforcement goals and point to Congress’s funding as a policy success [2] [3]. Fact‑checking and neutral aggregators (Snopes, ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor) stress that many claims of “six‑figure” starting pay are misleading because they conflate bonuses and overtime with base pay and because eligibility rules affect who receives full incentives [1] [5] [3]. USAJOBS postings and agency statements have an implicit recruitment agenda; private aggregators may sample unevenly across job types and regions [2] [4].
6. What remains unclear and what to watch next
Available reporting does not give a complete, audited time series of ICE base salaries from 2015 to 2025, nor does it publish a comprehensive breakdown of base pay versus temporary incentives across all hires (not found in current reporting). To track whether base salaries (not just bonus‑inflated total compensation) have risen materially, look for official DHS/ICE pay tables, Office of Personnel Management locality pay changes, and Congressional budget documents that separate base pay increases from one‑time bonuses and overtime funding (available sources do not mention these tables in detail here).
Sources cited: Snopes fact‑check (salary ranges, bonus eligibility) [1]; USAJOBS job announcement (signing/retention bonus language) [2]; Newsweek reporting on advertised pay and new funding [3]; ZipRecruiter and other aggregator snapshots for late‑2025 averages and hourly conversions [7] [4] [5]; Salary.com and Glassdoor overviews of ICE pay ranges [6] [5].