The Deeper Challenges at ICE and CBP

When leadership fails and loses the support of the workforce, the organization fails as well.

The problems at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection driving the current Department of Homeland Security shutdown go much deeper than the disturbing and often violent immigration enforcement tactics being used on a routine basis. Rather, they center on a dysfunctional culture and leadership deficits at the top that are failing the agency, the workforce, and the public.

The warning lights are blinking red. A recent public employee engagement survey undertaken in November and December by my organization, the Partnership for Public Service, found that only 9% of ICE respondents and just 21% of CBP respondents believe their agencies’ political leaders maintain high standards of integrity.

(john m flores via Wikimedia Commons)

Moreover, the survey found that just 12% of ICE respondents and 20% of CBP respondents trust their organization’s political leaders while only 18% of ICE respondents 23% of CBP respondents feel confident they could report illegal acts without retribution.

This survey was undertaken after the Trump administration canceled the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey in 2025 that for more than two decades has measured employee views on leadership and a wide range of workplace issues at DHS and agencies across the government. Though our independent survey does not permit the same richness as an internally run government survey like the FEVS, it is still a valuable and the only available management tool that points leaders toward critical challenges should they choose to listen.

When leadership fails and loses the support of the workforce, as it has at ICE and CBP based on indicators from my organization’s survey, the organization fails as well.

One of the most disturbing findings is that ICE and CPB employees, many of whom are law enforcement officers, are afraid to report violations of the law without retribution -- a clear sign of a dysfunctional culture in which employees are set up to make bad decisions that do not serve the public interest.

A former ICE lawyer recently described the agency’s training programs for new recruits as “deficient, defective and broken.” He said that 240 hours of “vital classes” from a mandatory 580-hour training program have been eliminated, including instruction about the legal boundaries for the use of force, how to safely handle firearms, and the proper way to detain and arrest immigrants.

Though ICE and CPB over the years have been criticized for acting with fewer constraints than other law enforcement agencies when it involves arrests, the disregard for the law and constitutional rights as well as a lack of accountability has been on full display in several cities across the country during the administration’s immigration crackdown, and most recently in Minneapolis. This is no more apparent than with the recent actions of DHS leadership.

Over the course of the past two months, two American citizens were tragically killed after encounters with ICE and CBP officers. Witnesses and phone videos of these two shocking incidents showed that neither Renee Good nor Alex Pretti posed a danger to the immigration agents, but DHS leadership claimed they had engaged in “domestic terrorism” and initially boldly maintained that Pretti waved a gun at officers and wanted to “inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.”

When leaders distort the facts and create a culture of fear and reprisal, then employees are unlikely to raise issues that could result in these life-or-death situations.

DHS, created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was supposed to protect the nation domestically and internationally from a dangerous world but it now appears headed in the opposite direction with agencies such as ICE and CPB demoralized and led by leaders who are not held to account for the egregious culture they have fostered.

As Congress remains deadlocked on funding DHS for fiscal 2026 because of the dispute over immigration enforcement issues, the Senate and House also need to focus on the leadership, management, and workforce failings of ICE and CPB highlighted in my organization’s survey.

This will require greater oversight by the Republican-led Congress, something it so far has been unwilling to do, by making sure the laws are being followed and that there are protections for workers who seek to speak truth to power, including protecting whistleblowers who seek to report violations of the law.

Congress should also require DHS to conduct quarterly employee pulse surveys to better understand perceptions of staff, make the data publicly available, take meaningful action to address staff feedback and require the agency leaders to be held accountable.

My organization’s survey of ICE and CPB employees indicates they are demoralized, dissatisfied with their leadership, and feel their organizations are not adequately serving the public. The warning lights are flashing – it’s time for leaders and for Congress to act.

Max Stier is the founding president and CEO of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, an organization focused on building a better government and a stronger democracy.

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