ICE wants to recruit agents who are fans of weapons and fighting: They would use influencers to attract them

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to invest 100 million dollars over the course of a year in a massive recruitment campaign aimed at or are enthusiasts of fighting or the military field.

According to a report this Wednesday by The Washington Post, after reviewing an internal document from the agency, ICE frames the plan as a strategy it calls "wartime recruitment", with the intention of flooding social media and leveraging influential figures from the conservative and anti-immigration spectrum.

It also includes cgeolocalized advertising campaigns targeted at specific profiles.

The document, approximately 30 pages long and which reportedly began circulating internally last summer, details advertisements targeted at individuals who have attended UFC fights or NASCAR races, listened to patriotic podcasts, or shown interest in firearms and tactical equipment, according to the report.

The strategy includes advertisements and broadcasts from influencers on platforms like Snapchat or Rumble (described as popular among conservatives), and the use of a geolocation advertising system known as “geofencing,” which allows for sending ads to web browsers and social media on phones located within specific coordinates during designated time windows.

With that tool, ICE could—according to the text—impact attendees at a sports event, a weapons fair, or even those who approach a tactical equipment store or a military base with notifications.

More budget for arrests and deportations

The report adds that in July, the U.S. Congress tripled the funds allocated for ICE arrest and deportation operations to $30 billion, and that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—which oversees ICE—has already publicly discussed increasing its workforce, currently around 20,000 employees, by an additional 10,000 officials.

According to the text, since President Donald Trump's return to the White House in January, the administration has intensified its policy against irregular immigration.

The report indicates that there are no clear figures yet, but it is believed that the U.S. may have deported hundreds of thousands of people this year, and that over a million migrants in an irregular situation may have used a federal incentivized self-deportation plan.