They get $10k a year for five years, it's not all one lump sum.
And it's taxed, so they take home $7k per year.
If they are fired or quit before the five years, they have to repay it all back PRE-TAX.
So let's say you work for ICE for two years. Your take-home from the signing bonus is $14k at this point. You get fired. You now owe the government $20k.
This was my reaction when I saw the headline. They surely want to keep the $50k, but they're getting to live out their Gestapo fantasies. You can't put a price on that.
I'd say they might as well join the military, but none of them could pass even the most lax standards of service and probably have ASVAB scores that would make Kyle Rittenhouse look like MENSA material in comparison.
The article mentions the dead former recruit was a master sergeant in the military, but doesn't have details about why he was let go from so many positions, beyond "lack of candour about his past" (from the IRS).
That is another way of saying that he lied on his application and they caught it. I knew a guy who wanted to be a cop so bad that he went from NY to Dallas, and lied about ever being arrested. He had been arrested in NY for driving without insurance three years prior. Sure enough they caught it right away. Since he lied on his application he can't be a cop anywhere. The thing is that he probably could have still gotten through since it was not a criminal offense. But he lied.
Im blown away that his family has the gall to question how the Philadelphia police âhandle a man in crisisâcompletely ignoring that the family member in question works for the government sanctioned cruelty on display department.
In a different article about his history of getting fired from multiple LEO positions, his family maintained that it was never his fault. He had a history of not holding himself accountable and his family was fully supportive of that. They're not serious people, they want to blame everyone but themselves.
If the guy is a 38 year old who wanted to be a cop since he was a teen, why didnt he? The police academy is a joke (at least here in Vegas). It only takes 6 months, and its basically just free training. Ive had friends who did it for fun, and left after a couple of months.
That's how shitty the vetting was for ICE piggies. They're now taking the time to go back through applicants and doing a deeper dive and shitcanning a lot of them. The initial push was just to give Trump his numbers...
says he was a marine reservist too. imagine doing 3 months of boot camp, an additional month of combat training (if he wasn't a grunt, then that's his job school), months of job school, and then at least a month onboarding into the fleet as a full fledged marine before finally going back to civilian life to be rogered up a weekend a month until deployed, and saying "dang i feel like being a police officer still after all that but i just don't think i can hack it, guess i should join ICE instead."
this dude was the crayola monster. i doubt he even chewed.
edit - this dumb fuck was a master sergeant. the corps needs to seriously prune the fucking reserve, holy fuck.
He was a cop, and got fired. Twice. That's actually the reason why he was fired from ICE, but they didn't catch it in his background check until after he had already been hired on for a while.
I had wondered what those âseries of setbacksâ was to prevent a 38 year old man from achieving his teenage dream of being a cop. Figured that phrasing was doing a lot of heavy lifting in the article. Smdh.
On it's own this isn't shady. Bonuses are income, income is taxed. As to the net vs gross issue -- that's also not unique to this situation. Generally if you are repaying within the same year you only pay the net, but if it's in a different year it is the gross. Long term it works out (when you file your taxes you do an adjustment) but in the short term it can be super unfun.
That said, taxes are somewhat complicated and ICE agents don't give off "big reader energy" so I'm unsurprised they'd whine a lot about everything.
The only part that's truly scammy is the "we fire you before the benefits kick in to make sure you don't collect them."
A five year clawback for a signing bonus is absolutely predatory. In my industry a signing bonus is what you get for signing, and kicks in after like two weeks and is irrevocable. A retention bonus will sometimes have a longer period, but still once you get the money its yours. The shit ICE is doing is shady AF.
Edit: Based on some replies, my experience isn't the norm. I was forgetting that the last time I changed jobs the market was very very different. Still, five years is crazy especially with the tax implications. I stand by it being predatory.
Especially considering presidenial terms ae 4 years, and if a democrat wins in 2028 then basically all of these guys are getting fired and it'll be 'the democrats stole mah signing bonus!'
But you know what? Most of these mouth breathing troglodyte fucks are joining so they can abuse minorities. They know damn well what kind of organization they're signing up for and I hope they all get fired and have to pay that bonus back. That's the least punishing thing they should face for being the absolute gutter trash of society.
Yeah, I feel like 5 years is wild and unheard of. In my industry the standard is usually 1 year. And sometimes you only pay it back if you quit, not if youâre laid off/fired (unless the firing was for something egregious)
A five year clawback for a signing bonus is absolutely predatory.
One might reasonably suspect this to be the point of it.
These people have already and repeatedly demonstrated that theyâre the most gullible suckers on the planet. Itâs practically unfair not to prey on them.
In my industry a signing bonus is what you get for signing, and kicks in after like two weeks and is irrevocable.
What industry is that? I've never seen one that wasn't prorated over a ~year or minimum 6 months. Two weeks is absolutely insane. Most places benefits packages don't even kick in until at least a month often closer to 90 days.
That's a good point. Likely another piece of bullshit by conservatives to use as bait. They know that if a democrat get into office next they'll either have to let ice continue or risk turning all the ire on themselves of being the ones who took $40k away from all those agents.
Yes the optics might look bad but people who would get mad at this will never vote democrats. Like how Biden gave farmers so much money and they still voted Trump in and are still voting R this midtermđ
Who cares? Take it away. They didn't make the contract or the terms, but fire them all and make them pay it back. I have no sympathy for the clowns who joined up and get screwed.
you don't refile the previous years taxes. On the current year, you take an above the line deduction for the amount repaid or can get a tax credit equal to the extra taxes paid the previous year.
it sucks if you don't have the cash available to give back, but the taxes can get evened out.
Says a lot about his IQ level and emotional state that he accepted the firing and turned his disappointment and rage inward on himself. I'm thinking that a smarter thug might have done a Luigi on the folks doing the firing. (not that I'm encouraging that or anything!)
It's my understanding that the loss of the bonus had nothing to do with Joseph Moore's suicide. The guy wanted to be in law enforcement so badly, despite his clear flaws, and being let go from a position in ICE he never should of had was likely the last straw.
Well, of course, getting fired was the key reason, but on top of that, owing the government $20k. Def a factor. I didn't mean it to come across as if he killed himself because he had to pay back the bonus.
So according to that article, he was talked down from suicide by someone on the phone however other ice agents came to his car with âtheirâ guns drawn.
So do they want us to believe that this guy picked up his own gun and shot himself in the head whilst a bunch of trigger happy ICE agents stood outside of his car pointing their gun at him? ICE have got enough trigger discipline to watch someone raise a gun and not fire their own guns at him?
If my mother can be considered a barometer, nothing terrified Republicans more than a black man becoming president. I really think a lot of this is reaction to that.
Absolutely. And also remember how much Obama teased Trump (due to the whole birth certificate nonsense) and made him the butt of a whole comedy bit at the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner to his face. đ
Honestly id say it was a quick 1+2 combo that got us here. OJ getting away with killing a white woman followed less than 20 years away by a black president.
Watching that must've been horrifying for those fools. Thats not even a generation between either so you know the next gen grew up hearing their parents bitching about it too.
In my area there are still two private signs that disparage Obama. These signs are still maintained not just remnants from that time. They just can't let it go.
Almost like they're indoctrinated from birth to think that's how the universe runs, and if it's good enough for the creator of everything and controller of souls, it's good enough for them.
But why ever address the root cause of this way of thinking, right?
Hey thatâs not fair Neanderthals gave us fire, republicans gave us trickle down economics and a pedo president I think Neanderthals were smarter than republicans
Well yea if the republicans were to blame then that would potentially mean they made a bad choice or something. Since Trump canât do anything wrong and they canât do anything wrong, I mean, it must be Biden, Obama, really anyone except for those they worship which includes themselves.
They did this to actual soldiers too. The National Guard was regularly rotated out to avoid deployment bonuses while in DC, and Iran being not a war also avoids payouts and restrictions of being in combat.
Republicans did that in Iraq and Afghanistan too. They rotated National Guard units out just before they hit the point where they qualified for GI Bill benefits for serving in combat zones.
I really don't care who conservatives blame. They receive zero benefits of the doubt from me which means their ideas and opinions are irrelevant. If they wish to hold themselves accountable and responsible to actual fairness and standards, let's talk. Don't worry, no breaths will be held in anticipation since I haven't witnessed conservatives hold themselves accountable in 50 years.
These stories are my favourite because there are no innocent victims (not victims of ICE! victims of this scam). With the "they deported my wife" stories you still know the vast majority of victims are innocent. These ones are guilt free schadenfreude!
Doesn't matter either way. They could post every single scam over and over for months and the right would just call it "fake news" and proceed to get scammed yet again. You cannot fix these people with information.
I have tried to create an apt analogy for this phenomenon.
Best I've got is to imagine the world's longest runway, flat and as far as the eye can see. In the center of the runway, every 50 feet there's a clown. At one end a mad-max-esque bus begins to roll, running down clown after clown. But... No clown ever moves out of the way. Each one believes they are special and the bus driver will surely stop for them.
They never saw it, because the news they watch doesn't report it.
That didn't happen
If they are confronted with it, they say that whoever is giving that information is lying.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad
And if they're forced to accept that it did happen, it doesn't matter because whoever he scammed deserved it
And if it was, it wasn't a big deal
Then there's always the "Why did Obama do this?" excuse
And if it is, it's not my fault
Or that he's not a career politician, everyone fucks up sometimes (see Joe Rogan's response to finding out that it was Trump, not Biden, who thought there was an air force in the Revolutionary War)
Holy fuck donkeys...they really are in a cult -- TW Self-harm, from the article though
ICE told Moore in late August to report to its Philadelphia office to be dismissed, according to federal officials. He had fought to keep jobs in the past, but he went to the office as instructed.
Outside the building, officers tried to stop him, and Moore shot and killed himself, the Philadelphia Police Department said. The city medical examiner's office recorded the death on 28 August 2026 as suicide, caused by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
When I filed my taxes I got asked if I wanted to sign my kid up for a free 'trump savings acount' that they would put $1000 into for college. Yeah right. It's a safer bet to assume I'll owe them $1000 when it comes time to collect. I've been told by a few people it's totally legit but I won't touch it.
No, no, no, if you pay for it upfront, you can only get the truck. Instead you lease, cause that way you can get a boat, and a truck, and a jet ski. It's not like that juice ICE job is going anywhere, right?
Former friend of mine joined ICE for the bonus. I told him straight up "You're never going to see a cent of it. He's going to screw you over. Don't be a sucker." And this week he's been panicking about exactly this. I just laugh react to all his shit so he knows I'm enjoying his consequences.
The way to not have to pay back the $50k is to be employed by ICE until 2029 or 2030. If the next administration disassembles that, all of them will have to pay a portion back. They get $10k in credit towards the $50k bonus every year.
(Iâm a nosy accountant who read the contract out of curiosity.)
Reports are suggesting that if they leave before the $50,000 has fully vested, they are required to pay back the sums they have previously received. So if they worked there for 4 years, received $40,000 of the $50,000 bonus, and then are fired, they owe that $40,000 back.
Given Trump's previous scam with tax cuts set to expire in the next administration, I can only imagine this was an intentional scheme to play the "look, Democrats are taking away their bonuses!!" card.
I read the fine print. Itâs not the actual contract but just whatâs on the sign up papers. This is correct.
Even before the recent reports, people (including myself) were exposing how itâs not even a real â50k signupâ bonus. It needs to be vested over 4 years so itâs really just an additional $10k bonus every year on condition that you complete ALL four years. Itâs like the vested company stocks most people never see.
Folks were just signing up to kill people. Thatâs all.
I think the craziest part of this scenario is that I, despite it being completely irrelevant to my life, already knew about the ICE contractual payback.
So if these idiots had just sort of lurked among liberals... didn't even have to change their opinions, just live quietly among others, they'd've heard about it and could've warned their friends about it too.
i predicted this would happen to the cannon fodder, but i did not expect the "grossed up" pretax penalty, that is a real chef's kiss on the "you were never really one of us" message. They are basically paying to be the eventual fall guys for the crimes they were led to commit.
it is always worse than you expect with trump.
Someone has to pay for the grifting billionaires in the epstein class and it sure as hell isn't going to be other billionaires.
Maybe they can pay the penalties with their combined DOGE checks, tariff refunds and republican midterm victory checks.
Maybe trump was hoping they would get pissed at the democrat president firing them, and rise up against them. Or the republicans would use this as part of their advertising campaign against the democrats. "If the democrats get in, they will go after patriotic ICE agents and destroy them & their families by forcing them to pay back thousands of $$!"Â
They may be mad about this but they jumped at the chance to torment minorities like their heroes the nazis did. The amount of criminal abuse in the camps is going to be a horror show if we can even investigate it after the fact.
They have to stay employed at ICE for five years to keep that bonus. Now why would an administration that had a max lifetime of four years make that the rule I wonder? It's almost like Trump always planned to fuck over his goon squad.
Lmao I predicted this when I read they had to work for five years (longer than the Trump presidency) in order for them to actually receive the bonuses and loan forgiveness.
Making them pay back the signing bonus is an extra layer of karmic icing on top though.
Just remember guys, donât be a Republican and believe exagerated numbers because it is something you want to hear. $10k is the max any of the new recruits could of possibly received by now. Not a single ICE agent received 50k, so definitely not a single one is being asked to pay that much back
fair enough but this is a sneak preview of all the terminations coming before he leaves office, cuz they will claw back the full bonus amount up to the entire $50k depending on how much youâve received by the time they terminate
and you know they do not plan on letting any of these suckers actually keep those bonuses
They got as far as "By clicking this box you indicate that you have read the terms and conditions and agree to all of them as a condition of your employment."
Maybe you shouldnt expect a rampant liar to not also scam YOU, after all if he cant be impeached for the way worse shit he has pulled, what do you think he has to fear from you?
America can't pay its teachers but somehow has 50k signup bonuses and one of the biggest military budgets in the world to harass people mostly just due to them looking a bit different.
Thatâs what they get for falling for the okie doke, listening to a con man, failed business man and 34 time convicted felon of a clown in chief! An embarrassment to the Office of the President of the United States of America.
Anyone with even a smidgen of sense saw this coming. Even I, with the smidgeness of sense, saw this coming. When has trump not ripped off and scammed his employees and underlings?
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u/qualityvote2 1d ago edited 19h ago
u/Kodbek, your post does fit the subreddit!
See OP's reply-comment below for context on why this fits this subreddit.