How many ICE employees are current or former federal law‑enforcement officers versus civilian support staff?

1. What the agency itself reports about headcount and roles

ICE’s public materials break the agency into directorates and give headcounts for key law‑enforcement positions: Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) is said to have more than 8,500 employees, including more than 6,100 deportation officers and more than 750 enforcement removal assistants, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is listed as having more than 8,500 employees, including more than 6,500 special agents and about 700 intelligence analysts ^[1]. ICE’s “Who We Are” page and related summaries describe the broader agency as having “more than 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel” and identify mission‑support directorates that account for attorneys, administrative staff and contractors ^{[3] [2]}.

2. Turning those numbers into an approximate split

Using the agency’s own role counts gives a rough arithmetic: the two headline sworn cadres—ERO deportation officers (~6,100) and HSI special agents (~6,500)—sum to roughly 12,600 sworn law‑enforcement officers on ICE’s public pages, while analysts, enforcement‑removal assistants, OPLA attorneys, mission support staff and contractors comprise the rest of the agency’s “over 20,000” workforce ^{[1] [2] [3]}. That produces an approximate split in which roughly 60%–65% of the named positions in those directorates are sworn officers and the balance is civilian or support; however, because ICE reports some figures by directorate and others only as aggregate totals, that percentage is an estimate rather than a precise accounting ^{[1] [2]}.

3. Where ambiguity and reporting gaps persist

ICE’s public materials list many role categories but do not publish a single, up‑to‑date roster that classifies every employee as “sworn law enforcement” versus “civilian support” across the entire agency, and some numbers vary between pages and secondary sources ^{[1] [3] [2]}. For example, enforcement removal assistants and intelligence analysts appear in counts but their civilian or sworn status is not consistently labeled in public FAQs and summary pages, and the agency’s total workforce figures are given as “more than” values rather than precise snapshots, which leaves room for interpretation ^{[1] [3]}.

4. Independent and journalistic reporting that frames the workforce question

News outlets and watchdog pieces repeatedly describe ICE as a mix of sworn officers and civilian staff and have emphasized large hiring drives and changes to the agency’s size in recent years, but those accounts typically rely on ICE’s published tallies or broader agency totals rather than producing an independent headcount breakdown down to each job series ^{[4] [5] [6]}. Wikipedia and legal reference summaries echo the “over 20,000” figure and characterize ICE as composed of law‑enforcement and support personnel, but those sources aggregate public statements and reporting rather than providing a primary, granular personnel inventory ^{[2] [4]}.

5. Bottom line and reporting limitations

The best answer that the available reporting supports is that ICE publicly acknowledges roughly 12,000–13,000 officers in its two main sworn corps (ERO deportation officers plus HSI special agents) and an overall workforce of “over 20,000” law‑enforcement and support personnel, implying several thousand civilian support employees, analysts, attorneys and contractors make up the remainder; the precise official split by sworn v. civilian across the entire agency is not published in a single, unambiguous table in the materials reviewed and therefore cannot be stated with exact precision from these sources alone ^{[1] [2] [3]}.