JUST IN: Kristi Noem announces DHS has received 80,000 applicants for ICE positions

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Wednesday morning that the agency has received 80,000 applications for positions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She also said that the age limit for entry to those positions has been abolished and anyone aged 18 or over can apply to work for the agency.

"This is one of the things that I'm so excited about," Noem said, "because we've seen our ICE officers be terrorized by activists, by violent people who want to do them harm, and they have continued to go out bravely and do their jobs and make sure that they're upholding the rule of law. And so our recruitment efforts to hire 10,000 new ICE officers has been extremely successful," she said.

"As of today," she continued, "we have over 80,000 applicants for those 10,000 positions already. People and patriots across this country that say 'we want to join, we want to help and be a part of this effort.'

"It's overwhelming to see the amount of response and support that our ICE officers have gotten and people who want to join their ranks. So I would tell everybody, go to join.ice.gov and go there and sign up, be a part of this team that is helping make America safe again with President Trump."

She also said that ICE has "removed any of the age barriers. We no longer have a cap on how old you can be, or you can continue at age 18. Sign up for ICE and join us and be a part of it. We'll get you trained and ready to be equipped to go out on the streets and help protect families."

This boon of applications comes just after Noem announced a recruitment effort with "robust" benefits packages. These include:

• A maximum $50,000 signing bonus
• Student loan repayment and forgiveness options
• 25% Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP) for HSI Special Agents
• Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime (AUI) for Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) Deportation Officers
• Enhanced retirement benefits 

DHS also bolstered their recruitment effort with a graphic of how they were portrayed by the long-running animated show South Park. South Park, in response, told ICE to "eat a bag of dicks."