Outside the Beltway

Expanding ICE

Steven L. Taylor · Friday, January 2, 2026 · 5 comments

As we contemplate how seriously to take the propaganda coming out of the Department of Homeland Security (spoiler: we should take it very seriously), let’s note that 2026 is going to bring a significant increase in the size of ICE, and the way the agency is recruiting is worth noting. WaPo reports: ICE plans $100 million ‘wartime recruitment’ push targeting gun shows, military fans for hires.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are planning to spend $100 million over a one-year period to recruit gun-rights supporters and military enthusiasts through online influencers and a geo-targeted advertising campaign, part of what the agency called a “wartime recruitment” strategy it said was critical to hiring thousands of new deportation officers nationwide, according to an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post.

Nothing at all ominous or problematic about using “wartime” rhetoric to specifically recruit people who are already predisposed to have integrated violence into their worldviews!

The spending would help President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation agenda dominate media networks and recruitment channels, including through ads targeting people who have attended UFC fights, listened to patriotic podcasts or shown an interest in guns and tactical gear, according to a 30-page document distributed among officials in this summer detailing ICE’s “surge hiring marketing strategy.”

The Department of Homeland Security has spoken publicly about its fast-tracked effort to significantly increase ICE’s workforce by hiring more than 10,000 new employees, a surge promoted on social media with calls for recruits willing to perform their “sacred duty” and “defend the homeland” by repelling “foreign invaders.” The agency currently employs more than 20,000 people, according to ICE’s website.

But the document, reported here for the first time, reveals new details about the vast scale of the recruitment effort and its unconventional strategy to “flood the market” with millions of dollars in spending for Snapchat ads, influencers and live streamers on Rumble, a video platform popular with conservatives. Under the strategy, ICE would also use an ad-industry technique known as “geofencing” to send ads to the phone web browsers and social media feeds of anyone who set foot near military bases, NASCAR races, college campuses or gun and trade shows.

There is a clear attempt here to cultivate specific ideological points of view and integrate them into ICE’s deportation push. All of this corresponds with a massive infusion of cash from the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Congress this summer tripled ICE’s enforcement and deportation budget to about $30 billion by passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, helping to start a hiring spree that officials have said would be necessary to carry out the Trump administration’s promise of the biggest mass deportation in American history. Officials set a goal of 1 million deportations within the first year of Trump’s term.

I get that the places being targeted make some level of sense in terms of finding interested applicants, but the very specific messaging is clearly attempting to get the kind of person who is more likely to be predisposed to think that the solution to our national problems is the deployment of force.

Americus Reed, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, said the ICE strategy reminded him of the “Army of One” campaign that the military once used to build up recruits as mighty warfighters critical to safeguarding the American way of life.

“They’re aiming for that sweet spot of people who’ve got something to prove, who want to have that power, under the guise of patriotism,” he said.

I would note that the military’s focus is external. Turning those themes into recruiting tools for an entity aimed internally is a recipe for harassing citizens.

Indeed, it strikes me as far from a sweet spot to want people who have “something to prove” and “want power” by unleashing them to engage in Kavanuagh Stops while making them feel patriotic for so doing.

All of this is happening while the aforementioned budget is making ICE potentially the largest federal law enforcement agency.