Pros
- Providing Mission Support to Law Enforcement Officers (LEO)/Agents (LEA)/Deportation Officers (DO) in the field was very fulfilling. I often feel bad that they (the field) are risking themselves to enforce our laws, whether our immigration system is "right or wrong," when their HQ Leadership is more interested in their own political agendas and climbing the ladder. I am not a LEO, but it was awesome supporting the LEOs. - Work/Life balance is "ok" at ICE. But there are better ways to get this, like, working for a different Federal Agency. USCIS, IRS, Education, Defense, etc.
Cons
- Leadership is incompetent and owned by a specific contractor (the one Snowden worked for). For example, higher level Federal Employees will be in cubes, yet, you'll find these contractors occupying offices typically reserved for senior officials. Also, you'll find these contractors coming out of the woodwork and entering Federal employment, occupying high-level positions when there are much more qualified internal Federal employees (no, I was not one of the internals that wasn't picked for promotions due to an incoming contractor, but witnessed this on a couple of occasions). - As the survey says, this is one of the worst places to work in Federal Government. I do believe that it is "the worst." We'll see what happens with the 2014 survey. - If you are a LEA and haven't received your appropriate compensation yet, I'm sorry for that as well. You're in my thoughts and I hope that eventually they can downsize useless overpaid management and the extended BAH contract to get you appropriate compensation. - After being with other Federal Agencies prior, I've never seen anything like it. Do not work for ICE.