Rep. Steube Introduces the ICE FROST Act

WASHINGTON - Representative Greg Steube (R-Fla.) today introduced the Increased Compensation for Enforcement and Federal Retention for Officers in Strategic Theaters or (ICE FROST) Act to increase pay for federal law enforcement officers performing immigration enforcement operations in high-risk areas across the country.

"Federal law enforcement officers performing immigration enforcement operations are being sent into increasingly dangerous environments created by sanctuary city policies, violent criminal activity, and the consequences of the Biden administration's open-border crisis," said Rep. Greg Steube. "While radical Democrats continue attacking ICE officers for enforcing federal law, these men and women are risking their lives to protect American communities. The ICE FROST Act ensures officers are properly compensated for the dangers they face while enforcing our nation's immigration laws."

The ICE FROST Act establishes an annual 25% supplemental bonus payment for federal law enforcement officers performing immigration enforcement operations. The bill also provides an additional annual 15% supplemental bonus payment for such personnel serving in hazardous duty areas designated as having elevated violent crime levels, transnational criminal organizations, significant concentrations of illegal aliens, and documented threats or assaults against federal law enforcement officers.

Hazardous duty areas designated under the legislation include the Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Memphis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Washington-Baltimore metropolitan areas, among others.

The legislation also establishes additional surcharges on certain overseas remittance payments to help offset the cost of the supplemental bonus payments. This includes a $199 surcharge for remittance payments to Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, as well as a $99 surcharge for payments to countries with a visa overstay rate exceeding 2%.

Background: Federal immigration enforcement personnel increasingly operate in jurisdictions facing elevated violent crime, growing transnational gang activity, and large concentrations of illegal aliens unlawfully present in the United States.

In recent years, ICE officers and other federal immigration personnel have faced growing hostility while carrying out enforcement operations in major metropolitan areas across the country, including documented incidents of assaults, threats, and interference directed at law enforcement personnel.

Hazardous conditions for immigration enforcement personnel are especially prevalent in large urban regions with elevated violent crime rates and significant activity tied to transnational criminal organizations.

Read the bill text here.