Reps. Jayapal and Balint Push Meta and Google to End ICE Ad Partnerships Using White Nationalist Propaganda

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, and Becca Balint (VT-AL), Vice Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, have sent letters demanding answers from Meta and Google after reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using their platforms to run immigration enforcement recruitment for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) using "self-deportation" and other advertisements that rely on white nationalist imagery and rhetoric.

In letters sent yesterday, the lawmakers warn that these advertising campaigns are part of an effort to massively expand ICE recruitment, including to surge ICE officers to cities like Minneapolis, Chicago, Portland, and New Orleans. To meet these recruitment targets, ICE has lowered hiring standards and turned to paid digital ads across major platforms.

The letter to Meta cites reporting that DHS has spent millions of dollars on paid ads with their platforms, including ads clearly connected to white nationalist themes, using images and slogans historically used by neo-Nazi groups. In one recent example, "DHS posted a recruitment ad on Instagram proclaiming 'we'll have our home again', which is a song popularized in neo-Nazi spaces and used in white nationalist calls for a race war." The letter to Google also calls out a reported $3 million in ICE advertisements on Google and YouTube that promoted 'self-deportation,' a strategy being used by the Trump administration to intimidate immigrants into leaving the country. In total, ICE placed $5.8 million in ads with Meta and Google last year.

Reps. Balint and Jayapal underscored the real-world consequences of expanded and insufficiently vetted immigration enforcement, citing deaths, warrantless arrests, mass raids, and a record number of deaths in ICE custody. "The impact of an unqualified army of ICE agents being unleashed across the country has been severe," the lawmakers said.

The lawmakers are demanding transparency about the scope of the companies' agreements with DHS and are calling on Meta and Google to commit to ending their digital advertising partnerships with the agency. They also raised concerns that the advertisements may conflict with the companies' own content and advertising standards, questioning how this material was permitted to run on their platforms in the first place.

The lawmakers' letter to Meta can be viewed here.

The lawmakers' letter to Google can be viewed here.

Issues: Immigration