• by Tanya Gazdik , December 31, 2025

Editor's Note: Story was updated to include media buying agency. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are planning to spend $100 million over the next year on recruitment. 

“A strategy document shared among immigration officials details plans to use influencers and geo-targeted ads to supercharge their push to hire thousands of deportation officers nationwide,” according to an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post. “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 strategy “calls for ICE to ‘flood the market’ with recruitment messaging across platforms ranging from Snapchat to conservative-friendly video services like Rumble, while also leaning on an ad-industry tactic known as ‘geofencing’—pushing ads to phones that pass through designated locations,” notes The Daily Beast. “The targeted zones include military bases, NASCAR races, college campuses, and gun and trade shows, the outlet says.”

ICE is working with People Who Think, a Louisiana-based creative agency, which received the contract in August.

"Federal records show the contracts have gone to two firms. One is a Republican ad company in Louisiana called People Who Think, which has been awarded $77 million," according to ProPublica.com, which reported on the contracts being awarded in November. "But the majority of the money — $143 million — has gone to a mysterious LLC in Delaware. The company was created just days before it was awarded the deal. Little is known about the Delaware company, which is called Safe America Media and lists its address as the Virginia home of a veteran Republican operative, Michael McElwain. McElwain has long had his own advertising company (separate from the Delaware one), but there’s little evidence that firm could handle a nine-figure federal contract on its own: It reported just five employees when it received COVID-19 relief money a few years ago."

The aggressive recruitment campaign is at a scale never seen before. It is being promoted on social media with calls for recruits willing to perform their “sacred duty” and “defend the homeland” by repelling “foreign invaders.”  

“The agency is reportedly signing on nearly 10,000 new agents in an effort to meet the demands of President Trump's immigration agenda,” according to PBS. “But some critics are concerned about the recruitment tactics and changes ICE has made to hiring and training standards.”

The new hires would more than double the number of deportation officers, from roughly 6,000 to 16,000.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July included almost $75 billion extra for ICE, making it the highest funded law enforcement agency in the U.S. government, outstripping the FBI, notes PBS. 

“DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin called the recruitment campaign ‘wildly successful’ and ‘under budget and ahead of schedule,’” according to The Latin Times. “She went on to say that ICE has received more than 220,000 job applications in five months and made over 18,000 tentative job offers. More than 85% of new hires had experience in law enforcement, McLaughlin added.”

The agency has removed age limits for applicants and has offered signing bonuses of up to $50,000.