DHS has risked the fury of its agents by branding thousands of its cars with garish, giant yellow “ICE” lettering and the motto “Defend the Homeland,” The Daily Beast has learned.
The Department for Homeland Security (DHS) has not publicly disclosed how many vehicles it plans to deploy in total, but the Beast has been told that the initial number that have been wrapped in dark blue is around 2,500.
It is understood to have paid an external organization to do the work—although it is not known which company, or the total cost to the taxpayer.
In an initiative first reported by the New York Post, the initial wave is hitting Washington D.C., ahead of a nationwide rollout.
But agents say the makeover risks their safety at a time of surging hostility—with attacks on ICE agents having spiked by up to 1,000%, according to the DHS.
“DHS repeatedly states how worried they are about assaults on officers, but what do they think is going to happen when they are driving moving targets,” one DHS source told The Beast.
“It’s like having a bullseye,” another told the Post.
A third said: “All it is going to do is make people flee, and harder to catch.”
The visibility push is linked to a rapid scale-up of manpower.
DHS last month launched a “Defend the Homeland” recruitment blitz to hire 10,000 additional ICE officers, scrapping the age cap and touting bonuses and loan-forgiveness to supercharge applications.
Officials and friendly media say interest has been massive—topping 100,000 applicants in less than two weeks—but ICE’s historic hiring bottlenecks raise questions about whether the agency can vet and onboard that many agents at speed.
The agency’s growing street presence has already inflamed protests—from Los Angeles to D.C.—and prompted political skirmishes over tactics.
A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general has urged Congress to ban masked federal immigration arrests in public spaces after ICE teams began operating in street clothes with face coverings to avoid doxing and harassment.
But one angry DHS source told the Beast: “ICE seems to be giving in to the narrative from the Left that they are unmarked officers.”
The Post reported the car-makeover initiative at the Kristi Noem-run department was green-lit amid President Trump’s order to flood D.C. with federal law enforcement this week, at which ICE checkpoints drew crowds of demonstrators.
Branding is becoming a message as much as a marking. DHS has made a point of its messaging to “Defend the Homeland” in its imagery—moves that have drawn blowback.
That included IndyCar after the series said it never agreed to be associated with an AI-generated ICE-branded racecar concept that appeared online.
DHS has not immediately responded to request for comment.
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