White House uses memes and pop music in $100 million deportation campaign

The Trump administration has launched a $100 million social media campaign to recruit thousands of new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, part of a massive push to deport one million people annually.

The recruitment drive relies on viral videos and memes featuring arrests and deportations set to popular songs by artists Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter. Both musicians have publicly condemned the campaign, calling the videos "hateful" and "evil."

Internal documents describe the initiative as a "wartime recruitment" effort. It comes as Congress increased ICE's budget to more than $170 billion over the next four years.

The agency has already hired 12,000 additional employees, marking a 120% increase in its total workforce.

Recruitment advertisements are appearing on national television and streaming platforms such as Hulu and Spotify. The campaign utilizes geo-targeting technology to reach potential candidates at college campuses, gun shows, and military bases.

The surge in staffing is designed to support the president’s second-term goal of executing one million deportations per year.

The recent recruitment surge by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) represents far more than a routine expansion of the federal workforce; it signals a fundamental strategic pivot in how the agency engages the public and executes policy. By weaponizing internet culture and pop-culture memes, the administration is making a calculated attempt to normalize—and even "rebrand"—deportation operations. This tactical shift seeks to engage a younger demographic through provocative humor, effectively transforming a public enforcement agency into a "troll-adjacent" brand.

The massive budgetary expansion and personnel influx point toward a broader recalibration of national priorities: the construction of a domestic deportation apparatus of unprecedented scale. This trajectory suggests a transition from standard immigration enforcement toward what resembles a domestic front in a wider conflict against migrant populations.

For immigrant communities, including the Vietnamese diaspora, this policy shift creates a climate of profound instability. A pledge to deport one million individuals annually—including those currently maintaining legal status—effectively erodes the legal security of permanent residents. Under this new framework, green card holders could face removal proceedings for minor infractions, fueling a pervasive atmosphere of fear and signaling that no status is truly secure.

These mass deportation policies and the surrounding aggressive rhetoric pose a direct and existential threat to the Vietnamese-American community. Small businesses—particularly the nail salons and phở restaurants that serve as our economic backbone—stand to be devastated by labor disruptions and a pervasive climate of fear. Even for those who are already naturalized citizens, there is profound anxiety regarding family members in mixed-status households, whether they are navigating the F2B process or other residency requirements. By framing immigrants as a "hostile force," this rhetoric risks fueling discrimination and endangering a community largely founded by "boat people" who sought refuge in the United States. Ultimately, the push for mass removals erodes the sense of safety and the hard-won standing that Vietnamese Americans have built in this country.