Takeaways from AP's review of recent criminal cases against ICE employees and contractors

At least two dozen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees and contractors have been charged with crimes since 2020, and the wrongdoing includes patterns of physical and sexual abuse, corruption and other misuses of authority, a review by The Associated Press found.

While most cases happened before Congress voted last year to give ICE $75 billion to hire more agents and detain more people, experts say such crimes could accelerate given the volume of new employees and their empowerment to use aggressive tactics to deport people.

Almost every law enforcement agency contends with bad employees. But ICE's rapid growth and mission to deport millions are unprecedented, and the immense power that officers exercise over vulnerable populations can lead to abuses.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that wrongdoing was not widespread in the agency, and that ICE ''takes allegations of misconduct by its employees extremely seriously.'' She said that most new hires have worked for other law enforcement agencies, and that their backgrounds were thoroughly vetted.

''America can be proud of the professionalism our officers bring to the job day-in and day-out,'' she said.

Here are some takeaways from AP's findings:

ICE's growth could lead to problems like the Border Patrol saw

After the Border Patrol doubled in size to more than 20,000 agents over a 7-year period ending in 2011, it was embarrassed by a wave of corruption, abuse and other misconduct by some of the new employees.

Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske recalled cases of agents who accepted bribes to let cars carrying drugs enter the U.S. or who became involved in human trafficking. He said ICE will likely see even more serious problems.

ICE agents are particularly ''vulnerable to unnecessary use of force issues,'' given that they are conducting enforcement operations while facing protests, Kerlikowske said. With the number of people in ICE detention rapidly growing to 70,000, there are more opportunities for misconduct involving employees and contractors responsible for overseeing detainees.

Several ICE officials have been arrested in the last year

Arrests of ICE personnel over the last year have been a headache for the agency, which has labeled many of the people they deport as the ''worst of the worst'' because of their rap sheets.

Two ICE employees in Minnesota faced federal sexual misconduct charges related to underage girls last year, including an employment eligibility auditor arrested in a sting operation in November. The auditor has pleaded not guilty. An ICE investigator in the state pleaded guilty to sending images and videos of himself having sex with a 17-year-old girl, whose background he searched in a law enforcement database.

Two ICE agents face charges for incidents that occurred outside Chicago while they were off-duty but which involved their agency work. One was charged last month with assaulting a protester who was filming him at a gas station. Another was cited for driving drunk shortly after leaving work at a detention center with his government firearm in the vehicle.

Many of the cases involve violence and sexual abuse

The AP's review found a pattern of charges involving ICE employees and contractors who mistreated vulnerable people in their care.

A former top official at an ICE contract facility in Texas was sentenced to probation on Feb. 4 after acknowledging he grabbed a handcuffed detainee by the neck and slammed him into a wall last year. Prosecutors had downgraded the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor.

Other charges involved corruption

Other similarities involved ICE officials charged with abusing their power for financial gain.

A deportation officer in Houston was indicted last year on charges that he repeatedly accepted cash bribes from bail bondsmen in exchange for removing detainers ICE had placed on their clients targeting them for deportation. He has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of accepting bribes and was released from custody while awaiting trial.