Caitlin Dickerson

And so border patrol officers are used to operating with more freedom when it comes to search and seizure, when it comes to detaining people.

And we've also seen that it's an agency that has more of a history of violence, frankly, of bad conditions inside detention centers.

I've reported on some really, really troubling conditions in border facilities specifically.

Because this is an agency that's used to dealing with people who don't tend to be English speakers, don't tend to have legal representation, don't really have the ability to defend themselves in addition to having fewer rights and protections legally.

So to have those officers move into American cities, dealing with a much different population, I think is also a big part of why this immigration enforcement push has been so intense and looked so different from what the public is used to.

We don't know a lot about these new recruits, nor I think does the Trump administration.

So what we know is that.

Going into the Trump administration, ICE had about 7,000 deportation officers on the ground.

They claim to now have hired 12,000 more people, doing so by offering big pay bumps, signing bonuses up to $50,000.

And through these campaigns that I mentioned that make overtures to ICE.

Everything from patriotism to outright white supremacy and trying to recruit people as quickly as possible because the administration has described hiring as critical to be able to carry out its deportation goals.

As part of that, though, the vetting for new officers has been limited significantly.

So training for new ICE officers is now less than half the time that it once was.

That's to get these new officers on board as quickly as possible.

And the background checks that are being done to the extent that they are are very questionable.

So a lot of questions about the level of training and skill and even just knowledge of the backgrounds of who these new 12,000 officers are.

I think the general directive to anyone working in immigration enforcement right now is deport as many people as possible, no matter the cost.

So these arrests since Trump took office have never been targeted.

And that's because of a disconnect between the numerical promises that the president made on the campaign trail and the reality that

There simply aren't a million people, as he promised, to deport each year who have horrific records of criminality and violence that just doesn't exist.