Federal immigration authorities plan to significantly boost staffing at a national tip intake center headquartered in Williston.
According to federal contracting records posted on October 1, the Homeland Security Investigations Tip Line, which processes tips from law enforcement and the general public 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is looking to add 100 new customer service representatives.
The tip line acts as the central national hotline for the public to report issues to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including suspected undocumented immigrants.
The staffing increase is separate from ICE’s recently posted plans to hire about a dozen analysts to increase social media and other web surveillance from another intelligence hub based in Williston. Taken together, the plans indicate a significant effort to ramp up surveillance and intelligence-gathering capabilities to aid in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The tip line’s website asks the public to call or write with information on more than a dozen crimes, including worksite enforcement, terrorism and drug smuggling. According to its website, the tip line was initially created to crack down on sex offenders, especially child predators, and now averages more than 15,000 calls per month.
Workers in a Williston office on Harvest Lane answer the calls and vet online tip submissions, then share the intel with ICE field offices around the country.
“The contractors will be expected to provide customer service and interpersonal communication skills to support the ICE law enforcement mission,” the federal contracting documents show.
“They will review, analyze, and process tips for further action.”
The 100 new customer service reps would be expected to process a minimum of 80 web tips and 18 phone tips per shift. The positions would all be remote.
The documents posted by the federal government are a “request for information,” meaning the government is asking for input on its plans but is not yet soliciting formal proposals.
It’s unclear how many people currently staff the tip line or whether the hiring is made possible by the infusion of billions of dollars into immigration enforcement from Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
ICE did not respond to requests for comment.
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