According to news outlets, Secretary Kelly ordered that ICE hire an additional 10,000, and Border Patrol an additional 5,000.
10,000 is a lot. ICE as a whole currently stands at ~20,000. I'm not sure if they're at their staffing levels or understrength.
Border Patrol is supposed to be at about 21,000 or so, but I believe they're well understrength.....the 5,000 might only bring them slightly above current staffing, or possibly not at all if their attrition keeps up the way it is.
1) Can we even afford it?
2) Where are all the IAs going to be housed?
3) Is there going to be an increase in immigration court staffing, given that's a HUGE bottleneck?
4) Are they even going to be able to hire that many? GenPop has such a bad outlook on LE right now, with immigration enforcement especially being a divisive issue. LE academies across the nation are having trouble getting qualified candidates, including BP and FAMS (not that FAMS is part of this discussion, just an example).