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| ICE posters are sent out on social media with messages that might appeal to White supremacists. |
If you're a person of color, you can be detained for no other reason other than you look suspicious. You can thank the worst Supreme Court in US history for making racial profiling legal.
From the perspective of the average person, their actions resemble a kidnapping. If you object, they turn their attention to you, sometimes pushing objectors tot he ground.
And the vast majority of the unidentified agents are white.
I'm sure that after a while, the agents grow tired of being the "bad guys," -- performing detentions that are probably illegal and acting like bullies.
No wonder there is a high turnover rate.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE are on a desperate hiring spree, trying to reel in 10,000 new agents by the end of the year. If you're jobless or stuck in a low-paying job and you blame immigrants for your status. ICE incentives could be appealing. The carrot ICE offers includes a $50,000 signing bonus and student loan repayment
But they're also using the stick of what many are calling white nationalist propaganda to get the word out, and it's raising a lot of eyebrows.
Now, I'm just a writer here at the Edge, trying to make sense of things. But when you start seeing posts on social media that use slogans like "Which way, American man?", it's hard to ignore.
As critics like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) point out, that phrase is tied to some pretty nasty stuff. They're using coded language and imagery that glorifies the past, with white settlers pushing Native Americans into the shadows. And if you're in the know, you'll catch the other coded messages, like capitalizing "Heritage" and "Homeland". It's a dog whistle, pure and simple.
And they're not just casting a wide net; they're dropping their standards to fill the ranks. They're hiring impressionable 18-year-olds and shortening training. What could go wrong, right?
But it gets worse. This isn't just a recruitment issue. This is about a pattern of behavior. You've got an ICE prosecutor in Dallas who was running a racist, anti-immigrant social media account. And remember that detention center captain in Nevada with the neo-Nazi ties? He was an ICE contractor. These aren't just one-offs; they're symptoms of a systemic problem.
With the passage of the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” ICE is now the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the government. What is it doing with all that cash? Well, on July 29, DHS’s website and social media accounts launched a Nazi-style propaganda campaign, featuring a familiar, albeit unsettling, image of Uncle Sam with the message: “America Needs You.”
A DHS press release about the recruitment campaign used the title "DHS Launches 'Defend the Homeland'...".
This phrasing has been criticized for reinforcing fear-based and anti-immigrant narratives.
One recruitment poster featured a white, Norman Rockwell-style Uncle Sam at a crossroads with various directional signs. In the modified cartoon, the signs include phrases like “INVASION,” “CULTURAL DECLINE,” and “HOMELAND”. This echoes the so-called "displacement theory," white nationalist fears about the supposed loss of white American culture.
Now, I'm just a writer here at the Edge, trying to make sense of things. But when you start seeing posts on social media that use slogans like "Which way, American man?", it's hard to ignore.
As critics like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) point out, that phrase is tied to some pretty nasty stuff. They're using coded language and imagery that glorifies the past, with white settlers pushing Native Americans into the shadows. And if you're in the know, you'll catch the other coded messages, like capitalizing "Heritage" and "Homeland". It's a dog whistle, pure and simple.
And they're not just casting a wide net; they're dropping their standards to fill the ranks. They're hiring impressionable 18-year-olds and shortening training. What could go wrong, right?
But it gets worse. This isn't just a recruitment issue. This is about a pattern of behavior. You've got an ICE prosecutor in Dallas who was running a racist, anti-immigrant social media account. And remember that detention center captain in Nevada with the neo-Nazi ties? He was an ICE contractor. These aren't just one-offs; they're symptoms of a systemic problem.
With the passage of the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” ICE is now the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the government. What is it doing with all that cash? Well, on July 29, DHS’s website and social media accounts launched a Nazi-style propaganda campaign, featuring a familiar, albeit unsettling, image of Uncle Sam with the message: “America Needs You.”
A DHS press release about the recruitment campaign used the title "DHS Launches 'Defend the Homeland'...".
This phrasing has been criticized for reinforcing fear-based and anti-immigrant narratives.
One recruitment poster featured a white, Norman Rockwell-style Uncle Sam at a crossroads with various directional signs. In the modified cartoon, the signs include phrases like “INVASION,” “CULTURAL DECLINE,” and “HOMELAND”. This echoes the so-called "displacement theory," white nationalist fears about the supposed loss of white American culture.
Groups like Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC are calling this what it is: propaganda.
"We are alarmed by ICE and DHS’s failure to remove and disavow white supremacist content from their platforms," posted AAJC on social media.
"ICE’s use of the phrases “Which way, American man?”, "invasion" and "cultural decline" — tied to known white nationalism — is not policy, it’s propaganda. Dog whistles like this fuels extremism and endanger communities."
"Even more disturbing is ICE’s use of masked agents and unmarked vehicles, including rental moving trucks, to conduct raids in communities," says AAJC. "These tactics mirror those used by extremist groups like the Proud Boys and evoke a long, painful history of racialized hate against Asian, Black and Latin communities.
And what's the official response? Crickets. Or worse, a dismissive brush-off. When Newsweek asked about the "Which way, American man?" post, an assistant DHS secretary shot back with a sarcastic "Where are we quoting a white supremacist?". It's the classic stonewall.
But here's the bottom line: when a government agency starts using the language and symbols of hate groups, it's not a mistake. It's a message. And the message is loud and clear: they're not just recruiting agents; they're courting extremists. And that's something we all need to be concerned about.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge.
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