Fast Times at Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Flush with cash and soaring with hubris, Trump appointees are supersizing ICE.
In a video produced by the Department of Homeland Security this month, two tricked-out ICE vehicles roll around on the National Mall to “Toes” by rapper DaBaby: “My heart so cold I think I’m done with ice (uh, brr) / Said if I leave her, she gon’ die / Well … you done with life.”
The vehicles feature a new ICE logo and DEFEND THE HOMELAND in block letters, painted in a color scheme similar to the president’s private plane. The Lincoln Memorial zips by and DaBaby continues: “Better not pull up with no knife / ’Cause I bring guns to fights.” There’s the White House, the Washington Monument, the U.S. Capitol. On the tinted glass of the pickup, PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP is stenciled in all caps, like a production credit.
“What I look like with all this money?” DaBaby asks, more of a taunt than a question.
The 29-second spot—shared on social media earlier this month with the caption “Iced Out” and a freezing-face emoji—treats ICE’s new taxpayer-funded fleet like flashy bling, but it’s a proclamation that the president’s mass-deportation campaign is entering a swaggering new phase. For many longtime Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and agency veterans, the video epitomizes the transformation of ICE from an agency focused on legalistic immigration procedures into a political instrument and propaganda tool.
