Provo • Much like Uncle Sam in the famous World War I poster, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement wants YOU.
A Department of Homeland Security job fair in Provo drew hundreds of attendees Monday, with some lining up in front of the Utah Valley Convention Center as early as 5:30 a.m.
“This is not about money or anything like that, not for me,” said Ricky Chess, an Army veteran who attended the fair. “It’s for a calling. I was born to serve. My whole family served in the military, and I’m just continuing that service that ICE is providing.”
As President Donald Trump continues his immigration crackdown, ICE is looking to add more than 14,400 new employees by year’s end, according to The New York Times. Those roles include deportation officers, criminal investigators and general attorneys.
To fuel such a rapid expansion, ICE has waived age requirements and is offering a slew of benefits for new hires, including signing and retention bonuses of up to $50,000 and up to $60,000 in student loan forgiveness. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which he signed earlier this summer, commits about $30 billion to hiring and training initiatives for the agency into 2029.
While candidates waited inside the convention center Monday, a handful of protesters lined the sidewalk outside, showing disapproval of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
(Dylan Eubank | The Salt Lake Tribune) A protester, who declined to give her full name, demonstrates outside an ICE job fair in Provo on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025.
Emma Krumlauf was among those who objected to the ICE recruitment efforts.
“Immigration needs more reform, but this is not the way to go about it,” Krumlauf said. “If you just throw money at people to get hired on for a job and just do your bidding, you’re going to have people line up because they respond to money.”
Monday’s job fair drew throngs of applicants amid heightened security in the wake of the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at nearby Utah Valley University.
The job seekers were kept mostly out of view. Reporters and photographers were not allowed inside.
Not all who attended were pursuing work with ICE. William German, for example, was looking at a position conducting immigration interviews with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“The appeal?” German said. “Just the idea of just making sure that this nation is secure.”
The job fair continues Tuesday at the Utah Valley Convention Center.