The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is reportedly investing millions of dollars in a television advertising campaign across key metropolitan areas, an Associated Press analysis has revealed.
The initiative aims to recruit local law enforcement officers, who may be frustrated by their cities’ restrictions on immigration enforcement, into President Donald Trump’s extensive deportation efforts.
The adverts feature a narrator stating: “You took an oath to protect and serve, to keep your family, your city, safe. But in sanctuary cities, youāre ordered to stand down while dangerous illegals walk free.”
These messages are accompanied by images of the targeted cities and ICE agents conducting arrests.
This campaign, airing in over a dozen cities including Chicago, Seattle, and Atlanta, forms part of ICEās ambitious $30 billion initiative to hire 10,000 more deportation officers by the end of the year to supercharge deportations.
The money is part of the $76.5 billion sought by Trumpās Republican administration for ICE ā a 10-fold increase in its current budget ā as part of the sweeping, multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts bill enacted in July.
ICE is offering substantial incentives, including bonuses of up to $50,000 for new recruits and other benefits such as tuition reimbursement, to fast-track hiring.
Despite a partial federal government shutdown due to Congress’s failure to pass a spending measure, these advertisements underscore that the push for mass deportations, a top priority for the Trump administration, remains well-funded.
Millions spent on the 30-second ads
The ads open with a video of each metroās familiar skyline and the narratorās voice announcing, for example, āAttention, Miami law enforcement.ā
Beyond that, the spots are identical, inviting officers to ājoin ICE and help us catch the worst of the worst. Drug traffickers. Gang members. Predators,” according to a review of the ads on the ad-tracking service AdImpact.
The 30-second spots began running in mid-September in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Boston; Chicago; Denver; New York; Philadelphia; Sacramento, California; Seattle; and Washington, D.C. Adding to the list a week ago: Atlanta; Dallas; El Paso, Texas; Houston; Miami; Salt Lake City; and San Antonio.
As of Friday, total spending on the ads had topped $5.7 million, with the most spent since mid-September being $853,745 in the Seattle area.
However, Atlanta saw the most in the past week, $794,084, according to AdImpact.
It was unclear why ICE targeted those locations and not others. There is no standard definition of what is a sanctuary jurisdiction although it generally refers to cities or states that limit their cooperation with ICE.
Some but not all of the cities appear on a Justice Department list of cities that āthat impede enforcement of federal immigration laws.ā
Asked in an Associated Press email to explain why specific areas were chosen as advertising targets, Department of Homeland Security officials declined to provide an explanation.
Instead, they replied with a 16 September press release, near the beginning of the ad campaign, reporting that it had received more than 150,000 applications and had extended 18,000 tentative job offers.
Some cities where the ads have been playing, particularly Boston and Chicago, have been repeatedly criticised by the Trump administration for their policies that limit how much they can work with federal immigration enforcement.
ICE has launched immigration crackdowns in both of those cities. Local officials in Chicago have been particularly outspoken against the stepped-up enforcement.
Albuquerque is among the smallest metropolitan areas where the ads are airing, though the city’s mayor, Tim Keller, has been a vocal opponent of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
In July, Keller signed an executive order barring city employees from assisting federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement āunless legally required.ā
Local police can’t compete with ICE promises
Associated Press reached out to police departments in areas where the ads were running. Most departments either did not respond or said they did not comment on actions of outside agencies. A few, including Sacramento and Miami, said they had not noticed any of their officers leaving for positions at ICE or DHS.
Four of the markets where the ads are playing are in Texas, including San Antonio.
Danny Diaz, the president of the city’s Police Officers Association, said he’d seen the ads and was concerned about prospective recruits who might be thinking of joining the city’s police department joining ICE instead.
āWe canāt compete with a $50,000 signing bonus,ā Diaz said. āI do think that the younger generation will jump on that.”
The government shutdown could dampen ICE’s recruitment hopes, he said.
“Theyāre furloughing federal employees, and I donāt think individuals want to leave one department to go work for a federal agency when they donāt know if theyāre going to receive a check or not,” he said, referring to the lapse in funding that has led to federal law enforcement officers going without pay.
Philadelphia police Capt. John Walker said it’s too early to tell whether the ad campaign has had an impact on the city’s recruiting. Instead, he suggested, the ads appeared more geared toward reassuring viewers that the Trump administration was addressing illegal immigration.
āIt’s the psychological feel. You want to know that there are cops out there because it makes you feel good,ā said Walker, who’s in charge of Philadelphia police recruiting. āThat’s all this is, strengthening the belief that they’re doing something.ā
The ad blitz comes as law enforcement departments around the country are struggling to meet staffing demands.
