Reps. Jayapal and Balint Call on Meta and Google to End ICE Partnerships Promoting White Nationalist Content

U.S. Representatives Challenge Tech Giants Over ICE Recruitment Ads with Extremist Messaging

Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Becca Balint have formally confronted Meta and Google regarding their role in hosting controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recruitment advertisements that allegedly contain white nationalist imagery and rhetoric.

In letters sent to the tech giants, the lawmakers expressed serious concerns about Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending millions of dollars on digital advertising campaigns that appear designed to intimidate immigrants and expand ICE’s enforcement capabilities in targeted American cities.

Jayapal, who serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, and Balint, Vice Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, specifically highlighted troubling content appearing on these platforms. One Instagram advertisement cited in their letter to Meta featured the slogan “we’ll have our home again,” which the representatives identified as language popularized in neo-Nazi circles and associated with calls for racial conflict.

The congressional inquiry revealed that ICE placed approximately $5.8 million in advertisements with Meta and Google platforms in the past year, including a reported $3 million specifically for Google and YouTube ads promoting “self-deportation” strategies. This approach, previously employed during the Trump administration, aims to pressure immigrants into leaving the United States voluntarily through intimidation tactics.

According to the lawmakers, these advertising campaigns support a broader effort to dramatically expand ICE’s presence in urban centers including Minneapolis, Chicago, Portland, and New Orleans. They expressed alarm that ICE has allegedly lowered hiring standards to meet ambitious recruitment targets, potentially compromising the quality and conduct of enforcement personnel.

“The impact of an unqualified army of ICE agents being unleashed across the country has been severe,” the representatives stated in their letters, pointing to documented cases of warrantless arrests, deaths during enforcement actions, mass raids on immigrant communities, and increasing fatalities of individuals in ICE custody.

The congressional intervention raises significant questions about corporate responsibility in platform advertising. Both lawmakers pressed the technology companies to explain how advertisements containing extremist messaging passed their content moderation and advertising standards in the first place. The letters demand transparency regarding the full scope of agreements between these tech platforms and DHS.

This confrontation occurs against the backdrop of intensifying national debate over immigration enforcement practices and the ethical responsibilities of technology companies in political advertising. Immigration advocates have long criticized aggressive enforcement tactics, while tech platforms face mounting pressure to prevent their services from being used to spread divisive or extremist content.

The representatives have called on Meta and Google to terminate their digital advertising partnerships with DHS in response to these concerns. Their intervention highlights the growing intersection between immigration policy, digital advertising, and corporate responsibility in political messaging.

Neither Meta nor Google have publicly responded to the congressional letters as of press time. The outcome of this challenge could potentially influence how government agencies promote controversial policies on major technology platforms and set precedents for advertising standards related to sensitive political issues.