Leaked messages reveal how federal agents became content creators on demand
Why tf was that ICE agent filming Renee Good anyway?
For years, ICE’s communications office ran like any government PR department: press releases nobody reads, public service announcements nobody sees. Then Trump’s second term started, and the whole operation transformed into what one former DHS producer described as “if someone from Reddit took over.”
The Washington Post obtained thousands of internal ICE messages revealing how the White House has been pressuring the agency’s public affairs team to “flood the airwaves” with arrest videos. Not just any videos. Dramatic, viral-ready content showing migrants being chased, cuffed, and mocked – regardless of whether the footage accurately represented what actually happened.
Here’s how the propaganda machine works – according to the WaPo story:
ICE producers shadow raids and send footage to private team chatrooms. One October operation across Houston netted over 120 arrests. The team celebrated in their group chat: “Arrests are wonderful!” “Great shooting!”
But before they could post, they had to figure out the framing.
The messages show staff were instructed to brand arrestees as the “Worst of the Worst” even when they had no criminal record. When someone lacked convictions, producers hunted for anything “newsworthy” – maybe an “egregious immigration history” would work instead. One official admitted footage got dropped if “the truth of the operation” didn’t fit the slogan.
Emily Covington, ICE’s assistant director for public affairs, asked if a deportation-flight video from Texas could be re-edited so it wouldn’t “feature tons of females.” A producer confirmed they’d remove the women from the B-roll. Apparently the visuals of actual deportees didn’t serve the narrative they needed.
The operation ran on sheer volume.
During one Los Angeles blitz, ICE’s X feed jumped from three posts earlier in the day to 38 posts in 11 hours. Mugshots. Clips of “illegal aliens” being grabbed and hauled away. The White House wanted content. The team delivered content.
When professional producers weren’t available, public affairs officers got sent into the field with phones as a “footage force multiplier.” One staffer ended up in the emergency room with a bloodied hand after being hit by a rock outside a marijuana farm. Another complained about being sent to volatile scenes wearing a t-shirt while agents around him wore body armor. ICE says they now provide vests and first-aid supplies.
The tone in the internal messages ranged from uncomfortable to gleeful. Someone shared a “Hide Yo Wife. Hide Yo Kids” meme four days into Trump’s term.
Another mocked a migrant’s mugshot as an “MS13 heart throb.” Someone joked about checking immigration paperwork for Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani after the team restricted ICE access to its parking lots.
ICE’s X account posted footage of a bound protester in Portland being wheeled face-down on a cart, set to the lyrics “they see me rollin’.” DHS called Illinois demonstrators “imbecilic morons.” For Halloween, they shared a montage of mugshots warning there would be “no sanctuary for creatures & criminals of the night.”
Some federal prosecutors worried the posts could taint jury pools or raise allegations of bias. The DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs said she was unaware of such concerns and suggested lawyers should raise issues with her instead of talking to journalists.
The copyright infringement is almost comic. The agencies repeatedly used music and imagery without permission. At least five government videos got taken down after complaints from representatives for Theo Von, MGMT, Jay-Z, Joey Valence, Chamillionaire, and the Pokémon Company – the latter objected to a “Gotta Catch ’Em All” deportation cartoon. When one employee warned about violations, others waved it away. White House lawyers allegedly approved the approach.
Pro-Trump influencers like Benny Johnson were invited along on raids as part of the push. The content didn’t need to be accurate. It needed to go viral. It needed to frame mass deportation as critical to protecting the American way of life.
When asked about the Post’s reporting, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson blamed “career DHS bureaucrats” for complaining “about finally having to do their jobs.” The administration is “working at breakneck speed” to “deport criminal illegal aliens and get information out to the public.”
Getting information out. That’s one way to describe editing women out of deportation footage because they don’t fit the visual narrative you’re selling.
SOURCES
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2025/ice-social-media-blitz/