The Rebranding of DHS, ICE, and CBP: Are Nazi and White Supremacist Slogans Deliberate or Out of Ignorance?
The Steady State | by Charles A. Ray
Ice Recruitment Poster
The killing of two American citizens who were demonstrating against aggressive ICE/CBP operations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in early January has generated renewed concern about the immigration function of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in particular, ICE. Everything, from ICE’s bloated budget and expansion (it is now the highest-funded federal police organization in the United States) to its recruitment methods, has come under increased scrutiny. One of the things that has received less scrutiny, though, is the way DHS has branded itself and ICE in its recruitment and other public communications, and in many ways this is as troubling as the aggressive, questionably legal way the agency’s employees conduct themselves on the street.
In DHS recruitment materials and other encounters with the public since January 2025, there has been a noticeable presence of Nazi and white supremacist overtones in messaging. The administration has pushed back hard against such descriptions. While the messaging being used by DHS is not a verbatim version of Nazi propaganda, when taken in conjunction with other actions, the similarities are disturbing. The white supremacist slant of DHS is nothing new. Historically, DHS has been criticized for having white supremacist and anti-government personnel in its ranks, and since the beginning of the second Trump administration, a number of top DHS leaders and other officials dealing with immigration issues have come from groups that are part of the organized anti-immigrant movement. There has been an increase in near-Nazi, white nationalist content in the DHS recruiting and social media over the past year, some of it subtle, such as messages about the loss of (white) American culture, but a lot of it bearing overt nationalist and antisemitic imagery.
The Nazification and White Nationalization of ICE hasn’t been restricted to just slogans. The conduct and dress of ICE as currently deployed on American streets bears a disturbing resemblance to the 1930s. The dress and haircut of former on-scene ICE commander, Gregory Bovino, for example, with his distinctive brass-buttoned, calf-length greatcoat and his Himmler-like haircut. As he appeared on the streets with his masked ICE thugs, pepper-spraying and physically abusing demonstrators and media, he evoked images of a senior SS officer presiding over aggressive raids in the name of the Führer. Two days after an ICE agent killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, DHS released a recruitment post on Instagram with the title “We’ll Have Our Home Again,’ along with a song of the same name that is popular on neo-Nazi spaces.
While the DHS rebuttal that its messaging is not ‘literal’ Nazi propaganda, the combined impact cannot be ignored, and the persistent use of such imagery tends to undercut the claims of innocence. The messages display a recurring theme, picturing ICE as the ‘crusading knights’ defending the ‘homeland’ against ‘alien invaders.’ That the knights are all white and the invaders are people of color is telling. If it’s deliberate, DHS is lying to the public. If it’s out of ignorance, it’s still inexcusable and equally frightening. The cumulative, long-term impact of this brand of propaganda is corrosive and will take a long time to erase. There isn’t a one-to-one direct parallel between the US today and Nazi Germany of the 1930s, but there doesn’t have to be. The damage is being done, and that’s what matters.
One final word on comparisons. Anti-ICE activists compare ICE to the Gestapo, a comparison that I strongly disagree with. The Gestapo, or State Security Police, of Nazi Germany was a disciplined, well-organized, intelligent organization, completely unlike today’s undisciplined ICE. A more accurate, though not necessarily totally accurate comparison would be the Sturmabteilung (SA), Hitler’s Brownshirts, a paramilitary organization founded in 1921, whose mission included intimidating opponents and disrupting activities of rival political parties through the use of violence. A historical note to those promoting ICE right now: after Hitler consolidated his power, the SA’s influence was significantly reduced, and many of its members were imprisoned or executed, falling victim to the very regime it helped bring to power.
The excesses of ICE in Minnesota might be forcing the administration to reevaluate its methods. Or it might just be forcing them to change the messaging. Pulling back on the violence and intimidation would be welcomed, but if it continues to use its current messaging to recruit, what we see is a temporary ceasefire, not an end to the war on the American people.
Charles A. Ray served 20 years in the U.S. Army, including two tours in Vietnam. He retired as a senior US diplomat, serving 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, with assignments as ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Republic of Zimbabwe, and was the first American consul general in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He also served in senior positions with the Department of Defense and is a member of The Steady State.
Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 360 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.