A US journalist has become embroiled in a public dispute with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after publishing an account of how she was allegedly offered a job with the agency following a brief interview, no completed paperwork and despite testing positive for cannabis. 

Slate reporter Laura Jedeed described the experience in an article published this week, prompting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to publicly deny her claims and brand her account “a lazy lie”.

Jedeed insists ICE “effectively hired” her after an interview lasting less than six minutes at a career expo in Texas last August, arguing that the episode exposes major security lapses in the agency’s recruitment system.

Interview lasts minutes and no paperwork submitted

Jedeed attended an ICE Career Expo at the Esports Stadium Arlington near Dallas in August 2025, where the agency was promoting rapid recruitment of deportation officers. Her initial intention, she wrote, was to understand the process from the inside.

Instead, she says, she found herself advancing through all stages of hiring.

Following a short wait, she met with a recruiter who asked only basic questions – her name, birth date, age, military or law enforcement background and the reason she left the Army. Jedeed served two tours in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division before later working as a civilian analyst. She omitted from her résumé that she was a journalist and openly “anti-ICE”, and a critic of Donald Trump.

She says she was told: “They are prioritising current law enforcement first. They’re going to adjudicate your resume.” The recruiter instructed her to watch for follow-up emails.

Before leaving the expo, she spoke to a working deportation officer who warned she would not “hit the streets right away” if hired. When she mentioned she might prefer desk work, she says his demeanour changed, and he replied: “Just to be upfront, the goal is to put as many guns and badges out in the field as possible.”

‘Tentative offer’ email followed by drug test request

Jedeed received an email on 3 September informing her she was being extended a “tentative offer” and directing her to a government jobs portal to submit forms authorising a background check, providing identification details and confirming she had no domestic violence convictions.

She says she did not complete any of the paperwork.

Yet three weeks later, she received another email thanking her for progressing and instructing her to schedule a drug test. Despite having used cannabis days earlier, she underwent the test.

Online dashboard shows ‘Final Offer’ and ‘Entered on Duty’

Nine days later, curious about her application status, she checked the USAJobs portal.

“What I actually saw was so implausible, so impossible, that at first I did not understand what I was looking at,” she wrote.

According to Jedeed, the system showed her as having received a final job offer and listed her status as “Entered on Duty” as of 30 September, assigned to her home state of New York – even though she had not signed a single form.

“By all appearances, I was a deportation officer,” she wrote. She added that the portal even showed she had passed a background check and fitness test, despite the date showing several days in the future.

Jedeed ultimately declined the offer, accepting the possibility that it stemmed from administrative error but arguing it reflected deeper issues within ICE’s recruitment pipeline.

Concerns over vetting and public safety

In her article, she questioned whether similar oversights could allow unsuitable applicants into armed roles.

She wrote: “How many convicted domestic abusers are being given guns and sent into other people’s homes? How many people with ties to white supremacist organisations are indiscriminately targeting minorities on principle, regardless of immigration status?”

Speaking to The Guardian, she said DHS should worry about “the security implications of the story”, adding: “It’s another example of how little they care about the safety of the American people they are allegedly protecting.”

Slate’s spokesperson Katie Rayford backed her account, saying the publication possessed video evidence showing Jedeed had moved through multiple hiring stages “beyond the ‘tentative selection letter,’ including receiving a final offer letter and being given a start date.”

Her reporting also highlighted how the agency, which had roughly 10,000 agents prior to Trump taking office, grew by an additional 12,000 new recruits in 2025 – more new hires than existing staff – raising concerns of a major cultural shift inside ICE.

DHS calls the story false

DHS responded publicly to Jedeed’s article on X, claiming: “This is such a lazy lie. This individual was NEVER offered a job at ICE. Applicants may receive a Tentative Selection Letter... which is not a job offer.”

Jedeed reposted the message with the comment “You sure about that?” alongside a screen recording appearing to show her application dashboard marked with check-boxes for “application”, “tentative”, “offer”, “pre-employment”, and “final offer”, with the page positioned in the “onboarding” stage for the role of deportation officer dated 3 September 2025.