DHS Career Expo Draws Hundreds Of Jobseekers To Fill Roles At ICE, CBP Among Others

CHANTILLY, VA — Hundreds of job-seekers have turned out to the Dulles Expo Center for a two-day hiring event hosted by the Department of Homeland Security, according to an agency spokeswoman.

Since Thursday, the agency has conducted interviews and already made offers to hundreds of others to fill vacancies across the agency’s workforce, the spokeswoman said.

Prior to the event, DHS contacted law enforcement agencies, advertising openings in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

While some of these positions would be in the Washington, D.C. area, many of the openings were across the country, with some deployed to strengthen the country’s southern border, according to the spokeswoman.

The DHS Career Expo comes after tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, have left their jobs via deferred resignation programs, or have been placed on leave, according to the Associated Press. There is no official figure for the job cuts, but at least 75,000 federal employees took deferred resignation, and thousands of probationary workers have already been let go nationwide.

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The Trump administration on Monday renewed its request for the U.S. Supreme Court to clear the way for plans to downsize the federal workforce, while a lawsuit filed by labor unions and cities proceeds.

The Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal workforce, introduced a draft amendment to change its hiring processes to determine the suitability of personnel.

"For too long, agencies have faced red tape when trying to remove employees who break the publicʼs trust,” Acting Director Chuck Ezell said in a release. “This proposed rule ensures misconduct is met with consequence and reinforces that public service is a privilege, not a right.”

The ripple effects will be felt around the country, according to the Associated Press. Roughly 80 percent of federal workers live outside the Washington area, and government services — patent approvals, food inspections, park maintenance and more — could be hindered depending on how cuts are handled.

Not all the positions DHS sought to fill were in law enforcement or would require a security clearance. Job openings were also posted on the USAJOBS.com, the federal government’s official employment website.

The following agencies participated in this week’s hiring event in Chantilly:

• Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers
• Federal Protective Service
• Transportation Security Administration
  • Federal Air Marshal Service
  • Investigations
• United States Coast Guard
• United States Secret Service
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Demonstrators Protest ICE Hiring Event Over Due Process Concerns

On Friday morning, two demonstrators held up signs near the Willard Road entrance to the expo center parking lot. They expressed their opposition to recent ICE operations in which masked law enforcement officers apprehended people off the street to be deported.

“Their whole mode of operations is wrong. I want them to see my message that there's a problem with it,” said one of the protesters, who was holding a sign that said “Due Process Is Law.”

The second protester came out to raise public awareness that ICE was participating in the hiring event.

“We knew that they weren't advertising that it's ICE, because we would have included that on our signs,” she said. “We regret that, because I think most of the people coming by have no idea this is happening.”

On Monday, Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, defended his tactics against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed as they ramp up arrests to fulfill President Donald Trump’s promises of mass deportation, according to the Associated Press.

“I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is,” Lyons said, at news conference in Boston to announce nearly 1,500 arrests in the region as part of a month-long “surge operation,” according to AP’s reporting.

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The Associated Press contributed to the reporting of this story.