In an unprecedented move, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is launching a massive $100 million recruitment campaign, dubbed a "wartime" effort, to rapidly expand its ranks. The drive aims to support the Trump administration's ambitious mass deportation goals, targeting a specific demographic through a year-long media blitz.
A Targeted Media Campaign for Aggressive Hiring
The agency's strategy, as revealed in internal documents reported by the Washington Post, involves a highly focused advertising approach. The campaign will target audiences on conservative radio, gun rights platforms, military affairs channels, and within the broader "Maga-verse." One provocative ad asks: "Want to deport illegals with your absolute boys?"
To reach its ideal candidates, ICE is employing geofencing technology. This ensures recruitment ads are served to people near locations like military bases, Nascar races, gun shows, and college campuses. Furthermore, the agency plans to spend over $8 million on partnerships with online influencers in the fitness, military, and tactical lifestyle spheres. These influencers will promote the administration's immigration agenda to Gen Z and millennial followers through livestreams and events.
Lucrative Incentives and a Flood of Applicants
The recruitment push is backed by substantial financial incentives to attract new hires. ICE is offering a signing bonus of up to $50,000—a sum higher than the median annual personal income in the United States. Additionally, the agency promises up to $60,000 in student loan forgiveness for successful applicants.
This aggressive hiring spree follows the signing of HR 1 into law in July, which allocated $45 billion for immigration detention and $32 billion for enforcement activities and personnel. The funding allows ICE to hire approximately 14,000 new employees. The strategy appears to be working in terms of volume: the agency has already received over 220,000 applications and extended more than 18,000 tentative job offers, sometimes on the spot.
Controversial Tactics and Expert Concerns
However, the campaign's tone and speed have raised significant concerns among marketing experts and citizens alike. The ads heavily utilise American symbolism—featuring figures like Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty—while framing immigrants as "criminals and predators." The agency's website declares: "America has been invaded. We need YOU to get them out."
Americus Reed, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, warned the Post that the campaign is aimed at "that sweet spot of people who've got something to prove, who want to have that power, under the guise of patriotism." Critics fear the rhetoric could attract more aggressive, combat-oriented applicants.
Despite the controversy, the message resonates with some. At a recruitment fair in Arlington, Texas, over a hundred people queued before doors opened, with attendees telling the New York Times they were motivated by patriotism. One applicant, Mahin Ahmed, an immigrant himself, stated, "When I saw Uncle Sam pointing that finger, I just had it in my heart."
The Road to a Million Deportations
The ultimate goal of this recruitment surge is to dramatically scale up enforcement operations. Tom Homan, the White House border czar, told Reuters that with more officers, immigrant arrests will "explode" in 2026. This includes increased workplace raids.
This marks a shift from recent administration signals that it would focus publicly on apprehending individuals with serious criminal convictions, following backlash against highly visible operations in major cities. Currently, ICE is detaining a record 68,440 people, the vast majority without a criminal conviction. Nevertheless, the administration remains far short of its first-year goal of one million deportations, having carried out roughly 300,000 removals since Trump's second inauguration.
