‘This veers into propaganda’: Inside the massive effort of Noem’s DHS to push deportation arrests on social media
A new report reveals how Immigration and Customs Enforcement is pushing out videos of arrests across its social media platforms.
Over the past year, ICE and other federal agencies have used memes and popular social media trends to promote President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. Now, The Washington Post reports that the public affairs team at ICE — which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, led by Secretary Kristi Noem — has worked closely with the White House to produce videos of agents confronting and arresting immigrants.
The Post reviewed thousands of internal messages between ICE officials for its report.
David Lapan, a retired Marine Corps colonel and former DHS press secretary under the first Trump administration, said the agency’s social media usage veers far from the more “professional and buttoned-up” strategies under past administrations.
“We were supposed to present the facts, not hype things up. But this veers into propaganda, into creating fear,” he told the Post. “We didn’t have this meme-ification of various serious operations, these things that are life or death. … It’s not a joking matter. But that’s the way they’re treating it now.”
The White House directed the agency in June to start “flooding the airwaves,” according to a message from an ICE official published by the Post.
“We need all hands on deck to start ‘flooding the airwaves’ per White House direction on ALL ICE arrests nationwide today. The request is to flood social and traditional media with imagery of ICE arrests,” the official reportedly wrote.
One message exchange published by the Post appears to show an ICE video producer and an ICE official discussing how to frame videos of recent arrests.
“We made several dozen arrests today very quickly. Not sure if these all had criminal histories beyond being in the U.S. illegally,” an ICE video producer said.
“I’d like to try to put this out without focusing on the aliens or their crimes, but to demonstrate that we’re out working hard,” an ICE official responded.
Another exchange published by the Post appears to show a different ICE video producer and the ICE assistant director for public affairs discussing which song to put over a video.
“Think country songs… this is Houston after all,” the producer said.
“I feel like we need something a little more hard-core,” the assistant public affairs director responded.
Some of the recent pro-ICE videos have used popular songs, such as Sabrina Carpenter’s “Juno” and SZA’s “Big Boys,” prompting swift backlash from the artists. Carpenter called the video featuring her song “evil and disgusting,” while SZA accused the White House of “rage-baiting artists for free promo.”
