As President Donald Trump plots to halt student loan forgiveness for many government and nonprofit workers, his administration is offering a special type of debt relief to one category of workers: new ICE agents.
The Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday it will offer student loan forgiveness and repayment options to new Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruits — along with a $50,000 signing bonus.
The announcement comes as the Trump administration works to limit the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program for groups the president considers political enemies. Since 2007, borrowers employed by the government or nonprofit organizations serving a wide range of public interest causes have been eligible for forgiveness through PSLF.
But in July, the Department of Education took a major step in altering the program’s rules to exclude certain employers in accordance with Trump’s executive order “Restoring Public Service Loan Forgiveness,” which claims the loan forgiveness “has misdirected tax dollars into activist organizations that not only fail to serve the public interest, but actually harm our national security and American values, sometimes through criminal means.”
Under the revised rules, nonprofits that help transgender youth access gender-affirming care and attorneys who provide legal assistance to undocumented immigrants, among others, might no longer qualify, according to the press release from the Department of Education.
Final language has yet to be published; before it takes effect, there will be an opportunity for public comment.
Experts in higher education and student debt told The Intercept that the administration is deploying the financial aid system as a tool to advance its political agenda, punish perceived enemies, and reward allies.
“This just shows the lengths that the Trump administration will go to to weaponize Public Service Loan Forgiveness and debt more broadly to achieve their fascist objectives,” said Persis Yu, deputy executive director and managing counsel at the Student Borrower Protection Center.
Over the last few years, Republicans have fought to limit student debt relief for borrowers. Last year, Republican attorneys general successfully lobbied the Supreme Court to pause the SAVE Plan, an income-based repayment plan implemented by the Biden administration that allowed borrowers to make smaller monthly payments and achieve debt relief within a shorter time frame. The Big, Beautiful, Bill signed by Trump in July eliminates the SAVE Plan as of July 1, 2028, and replaces it with significantly less generous repayment options for student loans.
“We’re going to see a wave of defaults happening, and we’re going to see more people who can’t afford their payments.”
On Friday, the Department of Education resumed interest accrual on SAVE Plan loans, meaning nearly 8 million borrowers are now seeing their debt grow.
On top of that, the spending bill creates new limits on federal borrowing for graduate students and parents taking out loans on behalf of their children — meaning families and people attending higher cost educational programs such as medical school will likely have to take out higher interest private loans.
We’re going to see a wave of defaults happening, and we’re going to see more people who can’t afford their payments.
Partridge said implementing changes that will make life harder for millions of borrowers while championing debt forgiveness for ICE agents is peak hypocrisy. “It is hypocritical to provide additional funding for debt relief for certain categories of workers while seeking to deny it to everyday Americans,” said Partridge.
