| Part ofa series on the |
| Immigration policy of the second Trump administration |
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Targeting of U.S. citizens |
Targeting of immigrants
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Controversies |
During thesecond presidency of Donald Trump, the United StatesImmigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) significantly increased recruiting efforts.[1] They are attempting to hire 10,000 new employees in 2026, up from 20,000 employees in December 2025,[1] and have allocated $100 million in one year for what they have referred to as a "wartime recruitment" campaign.[2]
TheDepartment of Homeland Security and the White House have posted recruitment ads toTikTok,X, andInstagram, and they purchased ad space to promote ICE onHulu,HBO Max,Snapchat,Spotify, andYouTube.[1] Their recruitment efforts have usedmemes andonline influencers to promote ICE deportations, and they have used ageo-targeted advertising targeting people who attendedUFC fights, listened to patriotic podcasts, or had shown an interest in guns and tactical gear.[2] Some ads usedwhite nationalist slogans.[3][4][5]
ICE is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security, that was formed to uphold the mission of "[p]rotecting America through criminal investigations and enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety".[6] The organization was created after theSeptember 11, 2001 attacks as part of a major government reorganization, along with the Department of Homeland Security,US Customs and Border Protection, and theUS Citizenship and Immigration Services.[6][7]
One of Donald Trump'ssecond term campaign promises as was to crack down on illegal immigration and aspresident of the United States, his administration has pursued adeportation policy generally described as "maximalist", and as a "mass deportation" campaign, involving the detention, confinement, and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of suspectedillegal immigrants and their family members. Trump also signed several executive orders related to immigration such as declaring a national emergency at theUS-Mexico border, ending the process of "catch and release" for illegal immigrants and suspending allrefugee admissions to the US.[8][9] On January 23, 2025, ICEbegan to carry out raids onsanctuary cities, and the Trump administration reversed the policy of theBiden administration to give ICE permission to raid schools, hospitals andplaces of worship.[10][11] By January 2026, politicians, journalists, and scholars have increasingly called ICE aparamilitary force.[12]
DHS announced in the summer of 2025, their intent to recruit and hire more then 10,000 deportation officers, using a "wartime recruitment" tactic according to internal memos. ICE officials allocated about $100 million over one year to recruit new agents.[13]
Sarah Saldaña, the former director of ICE during theObama administration, said that ICE used to fill open positions primarily through local police departments and sheriff's offices, but now they are hiring untrained recruits eager for combat. She said the mentality of trying to recruit as many agents as possible "tends to inculcate in people a certain aggressiveness that may not be necessary in 85 percent of what you do."[2]
Newly hired ICE law enforcement personnel receive their training at theFederal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) inGlynco, Georgia. Prior to 2025, ERO Officer trainees had to complete the basic 13-week ERO academy.[14] In 2025, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) training was cut in half to run eight weeks, with training six days a week, Spanish-language courses were eliminated and academy training reduced to 47 days allegedly owing to Trump being the 47th president.[15] In January 2026,The Intercept reported on a hiring binge with "shorter training, looser requirements, and flashy bonuses", leading to evidence of incompetence on display, as in humiliating "videos of agents falling down and dropping their guns" going viral on social media.[16]
Slate journalist Laura Jedeed applied to ICE in order to learn about their application process.[17] Jedeed reported that her interview took six minutes, stating that they only asked basic questions like her name, date of birth, whether she had military or law enforcement experience, and her reasons for leaving the armed forces.[17] She wrote that the recruiter told her "the goal is to put as many guns and badges out in the field as possible."[17] Jedeed remarked that she then received a "tentative offer" instructing her to fill out follow-up forms, which she ignored, and then she took a drug test shortly after using cannabis.[17] According to the journalist, ICE subsequently formally offered her a job, which she turned down.[17]
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The agency's aggressive and meme-heavy publicity campaign was run by political appointees in their 20s, and received criticism from political commentators and scholars for being unprofessional and intentionally cruel.[18][19] The campaign noticeably re-used WWII-era US propaganda posters, several of which had text that suggested the goal of deportations was to protect American culture, and several of which were accused of promotingwhite nationalism by scholars and historians or were previously promoted by far-right accounts.[20] TheSouthern Poverty Law Center found the DHS using "white nationalist and anti-immigrant images and slogans in recruitment materials" for ICE and that some "images and language appear to come directly from antisemitic and neo-Nazi publications and a white Christian nationalist website".[21]
One ad shared by the White House featured a song produced and popularized by white nationalist group the Pine Tree Riots. The ad was captioned "We'll Have Our Home Again" which was the name of the song, with "join.ice.gov" written below.[3][4][5]
Two other ads were released, one for ICE recruitment captioned "Which way, American man?", and the other captioned "Which way, Greenland man?", which referred to theGreenland Crisis. A connection was drawn byNBC news toWhich Way Western Man?, a book used by white nationalist groups that praisesAdolf Hitler.[5][22][23]
Another used the slogan "One Homeland. One People. One Heritage." OneRutgers University professor drew a parallel with the Nazi slogan "One people, one realm, one leader."[5][24]
When asked about one of the slogans byPolitico, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson accused Politico of being a "deranged leftist who claims everything they dislike must be Nazi propaganda."[23]
Some ICE recruitment videos used musicians' songs against their will. ICE has also usedAI-generated images for recruitment. In one ad targeting police officers, they attackedsanctuary cities: "You took an oath to protect and serve, to keep your family—your city—safe. But in sanctuary cities, you're ordered to stand down while dangerous illegals walk free."[1]
Approximately 15,000 federal law enforcement workers have been reassigned to work on immigration enforcement, as have state police and other state-level officials, making for 25,320 government officials total.[25]
In October 2025, Spotify was criticized for running recruitment advertisements forICE after receiving $74,000 from theDepartment of Homeland Security.[26][27]
In January 2026, Spotify confirmed ICE ads are no longer running on their platform after the government advertising campaign ended.[28] Later that month, the advocacy groupIndivisible sent a public letter to Spotify's new CEOs calling on the company to pledge to stop running ICE ads going forward.[26]
