WaPo: ICE Ads Will Target UFC, Podcast, Gun Fans ‘Willing to Perform Their Sacred Duty’

Screenshot via https://www.ice.gov/join

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning a sprawling, $100 million “wartime recruitment” campaign aimed at gun-rights supporters, UFC fans, and conservative media consumers “willing to perform their ‘sacred duty’ and ‘defend the homeland,'” according to a Wednesday report from The Washington Post.

Per a 30-page internal ICE document reviewed by the Post’s Drew Harwell and Joyce Sohyun Lee, the agency intends to “flood the market” with influencer partnerships and geo-targeted digital ads reaching people who have attended UFC events, listened to “patriotic podcasts”, or shown interest in firearms and tactical gear.

The effort is meant to advance President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation agenda by dominating recruitment channels across social media, podcasts, and streaming platforms.

The document outlines plans to spend millions on ads on Snapchat and live streams on Rumble, as well as the use of “geofencing” technology to target anyone who passes near military bases, NASCAR races, college campuses, or gun and trade shows.

Ads will also be served to users interested in “conservative news and politics,” “physical training,” and “military and veterans’ affairs,” with a focus on people whose lifestyles are described as “patriotic” or “conservative-leaning.”

ICE plans to spend at least $8 million on influencer partnerships, estimating the program would generate more than 5,000 applicants at a cost of roughly $1,500 per application.

Recruitment materials, the Post reported, are designed to appeal to Americans “willing to perform their sacred duty” and to “defend the homeland” by repelling “foreign invaders.” ICE’s recruitment website further declares, “America has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need YOU to get them out.”

This comes as Congress recently tripled ICE’s enforcement and deportation budget to roughly $30 billion, fueling an expansion the Trump administration says is necessary to meet a goal of 1 million deportations in its first year. ICE currently employs more than 20,000 people and is seeking to hire over 10,000 additional officers, offering signing bonuses up to $50,000.

Former ICE Director Sarah Saldaña warned that the speed and tone of the campaign risk attracting recruits eager for combat rather than public service. “That mentality you’re fostering tends to inculcate in people a certain aggressiveness that may not be necessary in 85 percent of what you do,” she told the Post.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not dispute the document’s claims or figures and instead praised the effort as “wildly successful,” saying the agency received more than 220,000 applications in five months and issued over 18,000 tentative job offers.