Noel King

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I'm Noelle King.

It's Today Explained.

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ICE recently undertook a nationwide surge aimed at hiring thousands of agents and summed up by these three lines at ice.gov slash join.

America has been invaded by criminals and predators.

We need you to get them out.

You do not need an undergraduate degree.

The frenetic pace is raising some questions about how agents are being vetted.

A left-leaning freelance journalist named Laura Jadid said last week that she'd applied for a job at ICE and been accepted despite having been publicly critical of the agency in her reporting.

Not only did the drug test not seem to be a deal breaker, I appeared to have been offered a final job offer.

The truth is, they're taking anyone with a pulse.

DHS called her allegation a lazy lie on X, and Jadid replied with a screen grab that appeared to show she had reached the final offer stage.

Coming up on Today Explained, inside the chaos of ICE recruiting, edgelord memes, allegations of Nazi and white nationalist illusions, and zero apologies.