ICE offers $50k signing bonuses in attempt to poach Utah sheriff’s deputies

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Sheriff’s Association is asking U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to stop trying to poach their deputies.

Seven Utah sheriffs’ offices recently entered into a partnership agreement with ICE, called the 287(g) program.

Kane County Sheriff Tracy Glover, who serves as the President of the Utah Sheriff’s Association, says recently ICE’s Salt Lake City Field Office informed him that deputies who were being trained to be part of the 287(g) program were now receiving letters from ICE in Washington, D.C. offering them a $50,000 signing bonus to come work for ICE.

“They’re asking us to enter into these 287(g) agreements and sort of help them with their job and their function and then they come back around and try to steal our employees,” Glover expressed. “It just didn’t seem like a good look. It didn’t seem like it was super professional, so we’ve taken issue with it.”

ICE bonuses come at difficult time for states

This comes at a time when several sheriff’s offices have already expressed difficulties in retaining deputies and offering competitive pay.

“We’re in competition for quality employees across the statewide level as well, not just with the federal government, but with state government and city entities,” Glover explained. “So we’re used to that. We’re used to that level of competition, but we just particularly didn’t like this move.”

The $50,000 signing bonuses being offered would be paid out $10,000 a year over a five-year term. The agency is also offering other benefits like student loan repayment. The incentives come as part of the Trump administration’s push to hire 10,000 ICE agents, to achieve his goal of removing one million undocumented immigrants a year. Funding for these new hires was recently included in the Big, Beautiful Bill. 

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ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor is the federal government’s most prestigious legal division, and you can be part of it.

We’re currently offering hiring bonuses up to $50,000, and you can earn a six-figure salary representing the… pic.twitter.com/qVXycyAAU4

— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) July 28, 2025

While the incentives are tempting, Glover says he is not aware of any Utah deputies taking ICE up on their offer at this time.

Even though Glover says he is not happy about these recruitment letters, he is optimistic they can still have a good working relationship with ICE’s new leadership in the Salt Lake City Field Office. He called their new director, “a breath of fresh air.”

“We’d prefer that they don’t try to poach our deputies, but we’re hopeful that we can work well together moving forward,” Glover said.