Selected parts for those who don't want to brave the soft paywall:

**At an ICE career expo, thousands line up to ‘defend the homeland’**

So far, the Department of Homeland Security said it has received more than 130,000 applications, and if the hiring fair in this community wedged between Dallas and Fort Worth offers any indication, plenty of people are eager to sign up. Despite polls showing that growing numbers of Americans [disapprove](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/04/25/trump-immigration-approval-ratings-drop-poll/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9) of Trump’s aggressive tactics and images of [masked ICE agents](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/07/02/ice-raids-arrests-masks-warrants-kids/) whisking immigrants off the streets, 3,000 applicants showed up to submit résumés at last week’s career expo, drawn in part by the president’s call to serve and the promise of a signing bonus of up to $50,000 for top recruits.

Kole Wunschel, 18, passed a dozen protesters who taunted him and his father as they made their way into Esports Stadium. “America was built by immigrants,” read one woman’s sign. Another yelled, “Why are you signing up for the Gestapo?” “I want to do anything that betters our country,” Wunschel said before his father, Kim, cut him off.

The recruiting push has come with militaristic branding that evokes World War II-era U.S. propaganda posters featuring Uncle Sam, casting immigration enforcement as a defense against an “invasion.” At the hiring expo, a video played on a large screen in a dimly lit room touting ICE’s role investigating human trafficking and drug-smuggling, and showing agents in fatigues and bulletproof vests.

“I keep seeing these memes where Indians are bragging about taking our tech jobs,” said Ely, 36. “So I said, ‘Oh yeah? Well I’m going to work with these guys that are going to arrest you, slam your face on the pavement and send you home.’”

Some candidates said they do have reservations about what the job might entail. Osborne, the former Marine, said there might be orders he doesn’t feel entirely comfortable with, like being told to arrest the parent of a young child whose only crime was crossing the border illegally.

“That would weigh on my heart,” Osborne said. “It’s a tough moral question, for sure.”

Still, he said, “To call ICE the Gestapo — that’s ridiculous.”

