US Democratic lawmakers urge Meta, Google to end ICE ad partnerships

Two senior Democratic lawmakers, including Indian American Representative Pramila Jayapal, have urged Meta and Google to end their digital advertising partnerships with the US Department of Homeland Security, alleging that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has used the platforms to run recruitment and “self-deportation” ads drawing on white nationalist imagery and rhetoric.

In separate letters to the chief executives of Meta and Google, Representatives Becca Balint and Pramila Jayapal sought detailed information about the companies’ agreements with DHS and asked them to commit to halting the advertisements.

The lawmakers said the campaigns are part of a broader push by ICE to rapidly expand its workforce, including deploying more officers to cities such as Minneapolis, Chicago, Portland and New Orleans, while lowering hiring standards to meet congressional mandates.

They alleged that ICE has increasingly relied on paid digital advertising on major tech platforms to recruit thousands of agents, using messaging linked to white nationalist themes to attract applicants.

In a letter to Google, the lawmakers said DHS had partnered with the company “as part of a large-scale campaign that uses white nationalist-inspired propaganda to recruit immigration enforcement agents,” and called on the company to stop enabling the effort.

They cited reports showing DHS spent more than $1 million on “self-deportation” ads in the past 90 days and about $3 million on Spanish-language ads on Google and YouTube promoting the same approach. Lawmakers said ICE spent a total of $5.8 million on advertising with Meta and Google last year.

As an example, they pointed to a DHS recruitment ad on Instagram that used the phrase “we’ll have our home again,” which they said has been popularised in neo-Nazi spaces. Similar language and imagery, they argued, have historically been associated with white nationalist groups.

In their letter to Meta, Balint and Jayapal cited reporting that DHS spent more than $1 million on “self-deportation” ads targeted at users interested in Spanish-language content, Latin music and Mexican cuisine, and millions more on recruitment ads across Facebook and Instagram. Since August, DHS has paid Meta an additional $500,000 for recruitment advertising, they said.

The lawmakers warned that the recruitment drive coincides with ICE lowering hiring standards, including waiving age limits, offering signing bonuses of up to $50,000 and deploying new recruits without adequate vetting or training.

They argued that the expansion has had serious consequences, citing deaths, warrantless arrests, mass raids and a record number of deaths in ICE custody.

The letters also questioned how the ads were approved under Meta’s and Google’s policies on hate speech and discriminatory content. The lawmakers asked both companies to disclose the scope of their agreements with DHS, whether the ads comply with internal standards, and whether they communicated with DHS about the content of the campaigns.

With IANS inputs