It is well-reported that Trump, as a private citizen, stiffed his subs. Now it seems that Trump, as a public servant, is reneging on promises made to the newest ICE agents. Various of these new federal employees have taken to Reddit to air grievances. The main thrust of their complaints is that they have not received paychecks, their health insurance is AWOL, and their signup bonuses have so far been theoretical rather than paid.
Regardless of the caliber of the new recruits — the reports of their quality are not glowing — none of them will perform at their best if money concerns are added to poor training and indifferent leadership. It is hard to maintain a professional organization when bosses expect employees to be paid like amateurs.
This is how International Business Times UK reported the state of pay:
Despite a historic recruitment drive that added 12,000 agents in recently, the agency's administrative backbone appears to be buckling, with employees desperate enough to turn to the Reddit to detail their struggles.
In raw, unfiltered Reddit posts now spreading beyond law-enforcement circles, ICE officers describe going a month or more without a paycheque, struggling to secure medical cover for sick children, and watching promised bonuses quietly stall.
Here are some of the Reddit posts. One new recruit complains:
“Been here for about two months, still waiting for my health insurance...is anyone having that issue as well? I chose BCBS Basic. MSS told me they don’t know how long it will take, and I have a sick daughter with no insurance
[BCBS is Blue Cross Blue Shield. MSS is Medical Support Systems]
The administration’s motto should be “Can’t do it now. And I have no idea how long it will take before I know how to do it.”
Plus-Frosting2456’s gripe is that he’s working for free.
“Mannnnn Monday is 4 weeks since I started and I haven’t been paid yet
No wonder Plus is an angry SOB. Although he (I assume he’s a guy. I have seen the killings, and as far as I can tell, there are no female Brown Shirts in the frame) should turn his aggression on his bosses. The taxpayers have paid their taxes. It isn’t our fault the administration is shafting him.
Another Reddit poster, WarningFit5992, is an ‘expert’ on the bonus vis-à-vis the IRS. He reports:
Don’t expect much, it’s like $6,000 after taxes and they put it in the regular paycheck so you end up paying about 4-5k in taxes on one check
I recommend that WarningFit5992 find himself a better accountant. I know that current ICE recruits are in a relatively high tax bracket for new federal employees. But nobody’s tax rates are that high.
More interestingly, another Reddit user claimed the bonus was not the one-and-done, straight-into-the-bank benefit many imagined. WuThePho, in a post titled “Don’t spend the bonus,” claims:
$50k sign on bonus - this gets dispersed 10k per year. But you won’t get all of it after you get taxed on it.
The fine print: must finish the full 5 years, you cannot quit or get fired or you’ll have to payback the bonus you received. The full amount pre-tax so the full 10k.
Trumps presidential term is 4 years…so you might get fired. And look at that, you didn’t serve your full 5 years. So now you have to payback all the money, pre-tax.
And you can’t file for bankruptcy because it’s the government.
I have no idea if Wu is right. But it does dovetail with Trump’s duplicitous track record.
I freely admit that a few Reddit posts prove nothing. For all I know, these three DHS employees are just victims of a limited hiccup in DHS’s HR/employee interface. And the rest of the ‘have gun will travel’ gang are fully paid and benefited.
But, given the administration’s DOGE enthusiasm and the top man’s disinterest in anyone else’s well-being, I would not be surprised if this is a systemic failure. To paraphrase Three 6 Mafia’s most notorious hit, “It’s hard out here for a punk.”
