Idaho bar offering a month of free drinks to customers who help ICE make arrests

An Idaho bar made a splash on social media after offering a month of free beer to customers who helped Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest undocumented immigrants.

The Old State Saloon in Eagle, a suburb of Boise, told customers on social media Saturday that “anyone who helps ICE identify and ultimately deport an Illegal from Idaho gets FREE BEER FOR ONE MONTH at Old State Saloon!”

The small town watering hole added that it “may award multiple months to one person if multiple illegals are deported.”

The bar wrote that any customers who do so should send “a detailed email with any evidence, photos, videos, summary of events, dates and times” to the bar’s email.

The post quickly gained attention from many in the MAGA world who lauded the effort, while comments from anti-ICE Americans were few and far between. The eyebrow-raising offer comes as the Trump administration has sent hundreds of ICE agents into Democratic-led cities to target undocumented immigrants.

The Trump administration claims that its wide-ranging deportation campaign is on track to break records this year, with more than 515,000 people who have been deported since the president took office.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the administration was “on pace to shatter historic records” because the president’s agenda “has jump-started an agency that was vilified and barred from doing its job for the last four years,” McLaughlin told Fox News last month.

Combined with another 1.6 million people the administration says have self-deported this year, Trump can be credited with sending over 2 million undocumented people out of the country, according to officials.

Meanwhile, right-leaning social media users flocked to the controversial post. Some offered to “pitch in” to pay the tab for the free drinks, or to buy the bar’s owner a drink to show their support for the effort.

While many seemed supportive in the bar’s post, several commentators were bewildered and outraged by the promotion.

“You would have turned in Anne Frank,” one person wrote.

“That’s a cheap price to sell your soul,” another added.

Another wrote, “Time to cancel this place,” to which the bar replied, “Good luck.”

Old State Saloon seemed to play into the controversial post, sharing screenshots of 1-star reviews that had been left on their Google Business page and writing, “And the 1 star reviews roll in from the loser LEFT.”

Despite an influx of negative reviews, the bar pushed forward with the odd promotion, later offering a free beer to any “illegal” wishing to self-deport.

“Any illegal who’d like to self-deport may have one free beer before ICE responds to Old State Saloon to pick you up,” the bar wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security appeared to support the bar’s efforts by resharing the original post with a GIF. The bar then replied, “Let’s go! Deport them all!”

It’s not the first time the bar has made headlines over a controversial promotion. In 2024, the saloon’s owner, Mark Fitzpatrick, held “Heterosexual Awesomeness Month” and gave discounts and free beer to heterosexual men and women.

The promotion took place in June, coinciding with Pride Month.