The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using white nationalist imagery and language to recruit new employees and arrest immigrants.
A Hatewatch review of DHS social media posts and web content found that the federal agency utilizes white nationalist and anti-immigrant images and slogans in recruitment materials. In addition, while recruitment images feature white people almost exclusively, the agency’s social media disproportionately posts images of Black and Brown people accused of violating federal immigration laws. In some cases, the images and language appear to come directly from antisemitic and neo-Nazi publications and a white Christian nationalist website.
The unprecedented quadrupling of funding contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July makes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the federal government. According to the National Immigration Law Center, the act immediately allocates $32 billion for immigration and deportation operations. At the same time, President Donald Trump’s administration is deploying National Guard troops to assist some ICE operations and partnering with some governors and private prison companies to expand detention facilities across the United States. In some cases, ICE agents have arrested U.S. citizens, some allegedly for documenting ICE activities.
Historically, DHS has faced criticism for harboring in its ranks employees who hold white supremacist and antigovernment views. Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, several top DHS leaders and immigration advisers were drawn directly from groups making up the organized anti-immigrant movement. Within this context, DHS’ social media campaign reflects an escalating trend in American immigration enforcement toward overt use of white nationalist and anti-immigrant myths to recruit personnel and justify departmental operations.
DHS recruitment ads
The increase in white nationalist content appears to originate with a June 11 post. That day, DHS’ official X and Instagram accounts posted a graphic of Uncle Sam hammering up a sign with the caption: “Help your country … and yourself … REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS.” A hotline number for ICE accompanied the post. Mother Jones reported the doctored graphic of Uncle Sam originated from an X user called “Mr. Robert,” who is associated with white nationalist content. Mr. Robert’s bio highlights the phrase: “Wake Up White Man.” Mother Jones reported on other white nationalist content associated with the account, which included racial slurs and reposting neo-Nazi users. Mr. Robert applauded the use of their graphic, posting, “TODAY OUR EFFORTS ARE COMING OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE!” A DHS spokesperson dismissed Mother Jones’ assertions about where the graphic came from.
DHS has since continued to post a barrage of graphics, ranging from overt nationalist and antisemitic imagery to coded racist dog whistles about the supposed loss of white American culture, in attempts to recruit people to join ICE. In one recruitment poster, published on Aug. 11, a white Uncle Sam caricature in the style of a Norman Rockwell painting stands at a crossroads of directional signs that include such phrases as “INVASION,” “CULTURAL DECLINE,” “HOMELAND” and “LAW & ORDER.” The poster includes the caption “Which way, American man?” — which appears to be a nod to the influential white nationalist text Which Way Western Man? by William Gayley Simpson. Published by an imprint associated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance, the book is a reflection and critique of society from Simpson’s travels. While critical of some aspects of society, it largely frames Western civilization as superior and veers into sexist and antisemitic commentary.
Another poster DHS published on its website and social media accounts features the iconic Uncle Sam “I Want You” U.S. Army recruitment image accompanied by the phrase: “America has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need YOU to get them out.” DHS is also circulating a similar poster using the same “I Want You” Uncle Sam imagery calling to “DEFEND THE HOMELAND.”
A poster published on Aug. 6 features two white men, one older and one younger, with the caption: “We’re taking father/son bonding to a whole new level.” The two men appear in front of an American flag backdrop, wearing military-style garb and body armor while holding assault rifles. The men have no visual identifiers affiliating them with any government agency. Instead, they look like they could be mercenaries or members of an extremist antigovernment militia. The ICE poster raises questions about what sort of people, from what ideological backgrounds, the agency is targeting for recruitment.
Lindsay Schubiner, director of programs at the Western States Center, a social justice group, told Hatewatch, “They [DHS’ social media posts] are not only intended to recruit staff but to normalize the dehumanization of immigrants. At the same time, bigotry and dehumanization wrapped in the American flag conditions Americans to accept the heightened horrors and blatant disregard of civil rights that ICE is inflicting upon our communities.”
In February, CNN reported the rising trend of people allegedly posing as ICE agents to commit violent assaults. This prompted some lawmakers to propose a requirement that DHS staff carry visible identification. While the bill awaits a vote, agents who claim to be acting on behalf of ICE continue to conduct raids and abduct residents with their faces covered and without displaying identification.
On an Aug. 14 episode of a podcast affiliated with the white nationalist group American Renaissance, hosts Jared Taylor and “Paul Kersey” (aka Michael Thompson) found the images DHS posted amusing, titling the episode “The ICE Man Cometh.” During the episode, Taylor noted it was a “big, big change” for DHS to be putting out such content.
“Impossible to imagine a Democrat administration whipping up this kind of force in this kind of way,” Taylor said. “What a remarkable change.”
Another DHS recruitment graphic discussed on the show features a vintage advertisement for a Ford luxury van, overlaid with the caption: “Want to deport illegals with your absolute boys?” Kersey commented, “You should after a hard day of deporting illegals, sir, be able to kick back with your boys and laugh about what you just accomplished.”
Whose faces are featured matters
For decades, anti-immigrant, white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups and figures have used terms like “invasion” or “invaders” to describe immigrants and migrants — many of whom are people of color — coming into the country. The idea fits into the racist and antisemitic conspiracy theory of the “great replacement,” which claims white people are being displaced and replaced in Western nations.
The use of the term “invasion” suggests immigrants are inherently harmful and undesirable and must be met with a military response. Assailants responsible for racialized mass shootings, including in places like Pittsburgh and El Paso, Texas, left behind digital footprints citing a so-called migrant “invasion” to justify their deadly violence.
Despite its association with anti-immigrant thought leaders and white nationalist killers, right-wing lawmakers have readily adopted “invasion” as a buzzword.
Schubiner told Hatewatch this rhetoric “lays the groundwork for real-world bigoted violence: the white nationalist conspiracy theories these posts echo have inspired multiple acts of mass violence.”
DHS social media posts show a preference for featuring white people in ICE recruitment ads and primarily Black and Brown people in posts celebrating ICE agents’ arrests and detention. The stark contrast between the images and their place in DHS’ social media narratives echoes a recent federal court finding of “a mountain of evidence” that federal agents in Southern California were “conducting roving patrols without reasonable suspicion and denying access to lawyers.” According to the Los Angeles Times, DHS reported a more than 50% decrease in arrests after the prohibition on racial profiling went into effect. On Aug. 1, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the June temporary restraining order against DHS.
DHS’ deportation efforts under Trump have energized and validated some hate groups. American Renaissance is scheduled to host its annual conference in November with the theme being “White Advocacy in the Age of Trump.”
“The 2024 election was as pivotal as any in American history,” reads a description for the conference. “In just a few months, Donald Trump proved that borders can be closed, illegals can be deported, and anti-white policies can be stamped out — all under existing law.”
In 2022, DHS released a report on its efforts to “prevent, detect, and respond to potential threats related to domestic violent extremism” within its ranks. It included recommendations from a working group for the department, but it’s unclear if any were implemented and enforced. The report came after border patrol agents shared derogatory jokes about Latinx lawmakers, migrants dying in the desert, and vulgar images of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Facebook group existed as part of a larger environment of racism and abuse within the U.S. Border Patrol over its history, as documented by the American Immigration Council.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, along with the Western States Center and other civil rights and social justice organizations, raised the alarm about Customs and Border Protection agents, who are under DHS, fostering a friendly and collaborative relationship with extremist paramilitary groups operating at the southern border. During a 2023 congressional hearing, when pressed by Ocasio-Cortez, CBP leadership revealed there is no clear policy on agents associating with extremist groups.
Xenophobic rot at the top
DHS is now being led by figures affiliated with extremist ideology. Stephen Miller, who serves as White House deputy chief of staff and adviser to DHS, has a well-documented history of anti-immigrant extremism. Miller has shown an affinity for white nationalism, including promoting the racist dystopian novel The Camp of the Saints, a favorite text among anti-immigrant and white nationalist figures.
Trump tapped former acting ICE director Tom Homan as border czar in his new administration. Homan was the previous mastermind behind the first Trump administration’s family separation program. He spent the years during the Joe Biden administration collaborating with anti-Muslim hate group The United West on a border-focused project. He also appears to have met with an associate of a hate group, the Proud Boys, in 2024.
In July, Todd Bensman, a senior fellow with the anti-immigrant hate group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), joined DHS as a senior adviser to Homan. CIS serves as the main think tank for the organized anti-immigrant movement, producing biased reports to frame immigrants as being more prone to criminal behavior and circulating white nationalist content. CIS was founded by the late John Tanton, the white nationalist and eugenicist architect behind the modern-day anti-immigrant movement. Beginning in the 1990s, Tanton pushed ideas of an immigrant “invasion.” Bensman joins Jon Feere, another CIS alumnus who rejoined the Trump administration as ICE’s chief of staff. CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian reposted DHS’ “Which Way, American Man” ad on X.
In July, a federal judge blocked a bid by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the Trump administration to end temporary protected status for more than 63,000 Nicaraguans after finding it to be rooted in racism. U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson accused Noem of using language based in “the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population.”
Image at top: The Department of Homeland Security is combining Uncle Sam imagery with white nationalist-style messaging in recruiting posts on social media. (Photo illustration by the SPLC; source images from X and iStock)