DHS Using White Supremacist and Neo-Nazi Symbols in ICE Recruitment, Study Finds

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has incorporated white supremacist, antisemitic, and neo-Nazi imagery into its recruitment materials for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch project.

The review found that DHS social media accounts and web content have used graphics and slogans originating from extremist sources, while also disproportionately depicting Black and Brown people in posts highlighting arrests and detention.

Hatewatch traced one widely shared DHS recruitment post, published on June 11, to an X account associated with white nationalist content. The graphic showed Uncle Sam posting a sign reading "Help your country ... and yourself ... REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS." The original creator, an account under the name "Mr. Robert," celebrated its federal use, writing, "TODAY OUR EFFORTS ARE COMING OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE!" DHS dismissed the report's findings.

Other recruitment images posted by DHS referenced or resembled extremist publications. One graphic echoed the neo-Nazi text "Which Way Western Man?" by William Gayley Simpson, while another depicted armed white men posing as father and son with the caption: "We're taking father/son bonding to a whole new level." As the organization explains:

"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."

Posters also employed rhetoric such as "invasion" and "defend the homeland," phrases long tied to the white nationalist "great replacement" conspiracy theory, which claims white people are being displaced and replaced in Western nations. Lindsay Schubiner of the Western States Center 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"

Concerns about whitewashing and white nationalist imagery in DHS communications have been on the radar of critics for a while. A July 25 report from The Guardian took a deep dive into the department's use of "A Prayer for a New Life," a painting by Morgan Weistling showing a white pioneer family.

The image, posted with the caption "Remember your Homeland's Heritage" prompted scholars and critics to comment that the post advanced a selective vision of American identity that excludes Indigenous, Black, and immigrant contributions. Adam Klein, a media scholar at Pace University, said DHS's wording around the image evokes far-right and anti-immigrant rhetoric:

"The [Weistling] painting isn't violent at all. On the surface, it's a beautiful image. But when you look at where it's coming from, with [DHS using] language like 'homeland' and 'heritage', that's really evocative of anti-immigrant sentiment"

Responding to criticism at the time, a DHS spokesperson told The Guardian: "this administration is unapologetically proud of American history and American heritage. Get used to it." .