The Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) has a requirement for staffing support in detention facilities, field offices and/or at other locations to augment processing functions from ERO field office law enforcement officers (LEOs) to ESTs.

As of February 2025, there are approximately 7.6 million illegal aliens on ICE’s nondetained docket. ICE’s workforce is less than 10,000 personnel with approximately 1,100 assigned to manage cases on the non-detained dockets. At least 25 percent of the non detained population require assignment to a higher level of supervision due to criminal convictions, pending criminal cases, or receipt of final orders. ICE urgently requires additional resources to immediately implement the direction provided in the EOs. ICE would be unable to recruit, hire, vet, train, and deploy staff as quickly as a contractor can. ESTs will bolster the workforce and revamp how ICE manages its non-detained population by moving purely administrative functions from field office law enforcement staff (LEO) to ESTs thus increasing the LEO time spent performing mission critical enforcement and removal actions. ESTs will give ICE the ability to reassign at least 675 officers to tasks that better align with the EOs. With ESTs, non-detained docket officers will be able to take all appropriate actions to comply with the EO’s by prioritizing conducting at-large arrests, removals, and detention related activities.

ESTs will manage field office alien check-ins, monitor immigration case statuses (and the outcome), assist with coordinating removals, update contact information to ensure that the alien can be located, respond to telephone calls, triage complaints and grievances, manage outreach mailboxes, enter data into ICE’s system of record, manage alien files, capture biometrics, organize and collect immigration related documents, field questions related to the immigration process, coordinate with ICE to assign aliens to an appropriate monitoring program, and notify ICE if someone is not complying with the terms of a conditional release or when someone is a risk to community safety.

ERO has approximately 50,000 detention beds and plans to double this amount in 2025. The ESTs will be utilized to conduct many of the same administrative processing tasks that will be done in the non-detained setting and apply those tasks to the detained setting for aliens in ICE custody.

• ICE’s law enforcement mission requires it arrest and detain aliens unlawfully present in the United States to effectuate their removal. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) has an immediate need for staffing support in detention facilities, field offices and/or at other locations to augment processing functions from ERO field office law enforcement officers (LEOs) to ESTs.