ICE has created a $100 million, yearlong recruiting campaign. This initiative includes paying online influencers to promote the agency and encourage young followers to consider enforcement jobs, according to an internal strategy document reviewed by The Washington Post.
The 30-page plan, referred to as a “wartime recruitment” effort, details a marketing push aimed at hiring thousands of new deportation officers and support staff as the Trump administration increases immigration enforcement, the Post reported. The document suggests promoting enforcement work as a mission. It plans to use digital ads, sponsorships, and influencer partnerships to connect with gun-rights supporters, military audiences, and other groups the agency believes are likely to respond.
A key part of the strategy sets aside at least $8 million for partnerships with online influencers whose audiences are mostly Gen Z and millennials. These influencers often engage with “military families,” “fitness,” and “tactical/lifestyle enthusiast” communities, the Post reported.
The document states that the agency wants to focus on “former agents, veterans, and pro-ICE creators” to host live streams, attend events, and create both short- and long-form content across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Rumble, X, and YouTube.
According to the document, the goal is to build trust through “authentic peer-to-peer messaging” and to “normalize and humanize careers at ICE through storytelling and lived experiences,” as reported by the Post. The strategy estimates that over 5,000 applicants could result from the influencer program, costing about $1,500 per application.
The Post reported that ICE also plans to promote recruiting messages using geotargeted ads and sponsorships linked to live events and media streams, including sports venues. The strategy document mentions using ads served to gaming consoles, connected TV devices, and streaming services, in addition to traditional placements like billboards and other outdoor advertising.
The recruiting campaign includes financial incentives to speed up hiring. The Post reported that the agency is offering signing bonuses of up to $50,000 and has relaxed some hiring restrictions, such as age limits, in its effort to grow its workforce.
The plan has gained attention because it combines significant spending with messaging that presents immigration enforcement in martial terms. The Guardian, which also reported on the document, described the initiative as a media blitz targeting ideologically aligned audiences, like conservative radio listeners and gun-rights advocates. The influencer part of the strategy focuses on younger communities online.
The Post reported that the campaign has seen a substantial response in a short time, generating over 220,000 job applications and 18,000 tentative offers within five months.
However, recruitment ads have sparked complaints in some spaces, such as Spotify listeners who objected to the ads, and one NASCAR viewer, who saw recruitment messaging during live streams, said in a Reddit post that they changed the channel, later telling the newspaper, “I had never felt such distaste for our government airing such ads.”
The internal document did not name specific influencers expected to participate, according to the Post, but it outlined a strategy centered on creators who can portray enforcement work positively. Spotify says ICE recruitment ads no longer running on its platform and it is yet to be seen how many follow.
