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   ICE nodding to far-right extremists in recruitment posts, experts say | CBC   
   News   
      
   At first glance, there may not appear to be anything unusual about the   
   social media posts that are part of the ongoing recruitment drive by U. S.   
   Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).   
      
   The posts, which encourage Americans to join ICE, use the same aggressively   
   patriotic imagery that's become a hallmark of the Trump administration's   
   online communications.   
      
   But to observers of the far-right, and to members of the far-right   
   themselves, there is something else that is recognizable in the language of   
   the posts.   
      
   "I would describe it as oddly very familiar as someone who has been looking   
   at the white nationalist and neo-Nazi movement for nearly a decade now, "   
   said Hannah Gais, a senior research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law   
   Centre, a non-profit that monitors right-wing extremism.   
      
   "It's disturbing to see that coming from a government agency. "   
   FILE - A person walks near the stage during an Immigration and Customs   
   Enforcement (ICE) hiring fair in Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday, Aug. 26,   
   2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)   
   A person walks by the stage during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement   
   (ICE) hiring fair in Arlington, Texas, in August 2025. A recruitment drive   
   starting last year added 12,000 new ICE officers, more than doubling the   
   size of the force. (Julio Cortez/The Associated Press)   
      
   Gais is among several U. S. experts tracking a series of references in the   
   ICE recruitment posts that, while obscure to most, seem to be winking to   
   extremists.   
      
   That's raised the question: Who, exactly, ICE is trying to recruit?   
   Invoking non-fiction book popular with neo-Nazis   
      
   In the year since returning to power, U. S. President Donald Trump has   
   overseen a dramatic expansion to ICE, the agency within the Department of   
   Homeland Security responsible for enforcing immigration within the country.   
      
   Trump has set a goal of deporting one million people per year. But as ICE   
   has ramped up arrests, it has been repeatedly accused of racially profiling   
   suspected immigrants and using excessive force in its operations.   
      
   Under the "Big Beautiful Bill" passed last summer, ICE was given $8 billion   
   US to hire thousands more agents. The ensuing recruitment drive included   
   social media outreach.   
      
   On Aug 11, 2025, ICE posted an image on its socials of Uncle Sam at a   
   crossroads. It included the tag line "Which way, American man? "   
      
   Which way, American man? https: //t.   
   co/nZkBEj3GGi pic. twitter.   
   com/Nvz5DlgpKx   
   —DHSgov   
      
   The post echoed a meme popular among right-wing influencers, who use the   
   phrase "Which way, Western man? " to illustrate a choice between an image   
   meant to represent liberal values and an image representing their own   
   preferred option.   
      
   But the phrase itself is taken from the title of a 700-page antisemetic   
   nonfiction book written by William Gayley Simpson and published by a neo-   
   Nazi press in the late 1970s.   
      
   The book has long been a favourite among white supremacists.   
   Using white supremacist anthem   
      
   By itself, the language could have been chalked up to an unfortunate   
   coincidence. But other troubling posts soon followed.   
      
   In October, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, posted   
   an image of George Washington on horseback with the URL to the ICE   
   recruitment page. This time the tag line read "America for Americans. "   
      
   It's a slogan that was used in a xenophobic speech by President Theodore   
   Rosevelt in 1916, before being picked up by the Klu Klux Klan, according to   
   America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by   
   Harvard history professor Erika Lee.   
      
   Finishing this fight. pic. twitter.   
   com/6Ezq9NUqMq   
   —DHSgov   
      
   Not long after, DHS borrowed imagery from the popular video game Halo,   
   writing "destroy the flood" atop an armed vehicle.   
      
   In the world of the video game, the flood refers to a parasitic alien   
   lifeform. It's also reminiscent of the language far-right groups use to   
   describe non-white immigrants, according to Gais.   
      
   Most recently, in the aftermath of the killing of Renee Good in   
   Minneapolis, ICE put out a recruitment post emblazoned with the line "We'll   
   have our home again. "   
      
   On Instagram the post first appeared with a clip from a song of the same   
   name by the Pine Tree Riots.   
      
   "It is a song only known in white nationalist circles, " said Heidi   
   Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.   
      
   Since 2020, the song has been circulated on the messaging app Telegram   
   almost exclusively by accounts linked to far-right extremists, according to   
   analysis by Open Measures, a research firm that specializes in online   
   extremism.   
      
   With lyrics about replacement by foreigners, Beirich says the song is only   
   popular in white nationalist spaces. "This is the kind of thing that I   
   can't find to be a mistake, " she said.   
   An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shoots pepper spray at a   
   protester outside of the Bishop Whipple Federal Building, Monday, Jan. 12,   
   2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)   
   An ICE agent shoots pepper spray at a protester outside of the Bishop   
   Whipple Federal Building, Monday, Jan. 12, in Minneapolis. The agency has   
   been accused of racially profiling suspected immigrants and using excessive   
   force. (Jen Golbeck/The Associated Press)   
   'Message received, ' say Proud Boys   
      
   ICE says it received around 220,000 applications during its recruitment   
   drive last year, and hired 12,000 new officers, more than doubling the size   
   of its force.   
      
   Beirich wonders how many of those applicants were drawn by the   
   controversial social media posts.   
      
   "The most dangerous part is that this is probably attracting white   
   supremacists and other racial extremists to perhaps join the ranks of ICE.   
   And that is a very toxic, very dangerous situation if it's happening, " she   
   said.   
   People are checked in during an ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement,   
   hiring fair Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio   
   Cortez)   
   People check in during an ICE hiring fair in Arlington, Texas, in August   
   2025. Far-right groups like the Proud Boys have boosted ICE's recruitment   
   memes: 'If you know, you know. ' (Julio Cortez/The Associated Press)   
      
   There have been no recent reports of extremists infiltrating the ranks of   
   ICE. But far-right groups have been responding favourably to the social   
   media recruitment campaign, recirculating the posts on their own social   
   media channels.   
      
   A Proud Boys chapter reposted the "We'll have our home again" ad next to a   
      
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