Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Activists Entice ICE Agents to Quit by Finding Them New Jobs

Activists Entice ICE Agents to Quit by Finding Them New Jobs

The organization says within hours of launching the campaign, two ICE employees asked for help getting different gigs.
Protesters at ICE facilities sometimes chant “quit your job” at agents outside the lockups. Now an activist group is taking the message further: they’ll help ICE agents quit and find new jobs.

Since its launch this summer, the immigrant-rights group Never Again Action has held regular protests outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. There have been confrontational encounters with agents, but also conversations that left activists wondering whether ICE employees might abandon the agency.

On Monday, Never Again Action’s Atlanta branch put that question to the test with a career services program for ICE agents who wanted to quit. Within 24 hours, two immigration employees had asked for help leaving their roles, the organization says.

Emily Baselt, an organizer with Never Again Atlanta, began considering the program in July, after a protest outside ICE’s Atlanta field office.

“A lot of the protesters were chanting ‘quit your job,’” Baselt told The Daily Beast. “I saw an interaction between one protester and a relatively young DHS [Department of Homeland Security] agent who was standing outside the building [...] The protester was asking him whether he was OK with what was happening at the border, if he was OK with kids in cages.”

The agent seemed conflicted, she said. “I could tell he was kind of wrestling with this a little bit.”

Morale in U.S. immigration agencies is reportedly low and sinking, likely a side effect of the Trump administration’s aggressive policies. Though President Donald Trump signed an order purporting to end a policy of family separations at the border last year, the separations reportedly continue under a loophole. The recent deaths of at least seven children in Customs and Border Patrol centers highlighted inhumane conditions, and an August ICE raid on Mississippi chicken factories became the largest workplace mass arrest in at least a decade.

In the CBP, which is a separate agency from ICE, plunging morale has reportedly contributed to an outbreak of officer suicides.


“My continuing thought has been that this level of activity combined with the disastrous policy of wholesale separating children from parents has a very negative impact on CBP personnel. They did not join to take a 2-year-old from his mother,” former CBP commissioner Gil Kerlikowske told Quartz in July.

Baselt said she is sure some people became ICE agents did so because they supported the agency’s mission. But she wondered whether other agents were eyeing the exits.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about the fact that it’s easy to say ‘quit your job,’ but it’s not always easy to walk out like that,” she said.

She and other Atlanta activists were inspired by the career services departments at universities, and wondered whether they could also provide career guidance for disillusioned ICE agents. On Monday, the Atlanta group launched a website that matches ICE agents with confidential career advisers, and held a demonstration advertising the website outside the Atlanta ICE field office. The launch date also had religious significance for Never Again Action, a Jewish-led group, since it went live the day before Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement.

The launch went viral on Twitter—mostly to a positive reception, although it caught some flak from the left. “We’ve had a couple people criticize it, saying that if they want to quit, they should just quit,” Baselt said.

But for at least two fed-up agents, the campaign was a welcome one. “Within maybe three hours of launching, we got our first request from a conscientious objector who wants help defecting,” Baselt said on Tuesday.

Although the campaign launched in Atlanta, both agents who asked for help changing careers worked elsewhere in the U.S., she added.

“Based on the two people who reached out to us, there are definitely people there who don’t want to be there,” Baselt added. “The defector who came in overnight is a Customs and Border Patrol agent who has been there for many years. The comment that person left was something like ‘I’m drowning in this place.’”
AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
Intel Reports Revenue Beats but Sees 81% Rise in Losses
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
Tulsi Gabbard Unveils Evidence Alleging Political Manipulation of Intelligence During Trump Administration
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Trump Announces Coca-Cola to Shift to Cane Sugar in U.S. Production
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
Moonshot AI Unveils Kimi K2: A New Open-Source AI Model
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
×