ICE recruitment ads air on UFC, WWE programming
Chilling ICE recruitment ads are seeping into sports and entertainment programming, including the UFC, WWE, WNBA and NFL programming depending on the viewer's location.
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Grainy footage. Handcuffed immigrants under harsh light. Faces blurred, eyes averted. Agents move in slow motion, their steps deliberate, their faces unreadable. A low, ominous voice warns of an invasion that must be stopped at all costs. The words repeat, steady and relentless: “The worst of the worst.”
“Fulfill your mission,” the ad concludes.
These spots have been running across broadcast stations in the United States over the past couple of weeks as part of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s 30 billion initiative to hire 10,000 more deportation officers by the end of the year to maximize deportations. The campaign is airing in more than a dozen cities, including Chicago, Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia and Atlanta.
The ads have also seeped into sports and entertainment programming, appearing during Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bouts and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) shows alike.
WWE fans reported ICE recruitment ads during Friday night’s Smackdown broadcast. The next day, UFC 320 also featured variations of the ICE recruitment ads.
Screenshots from the ads that appeared on the UFC and WWE broadcasts show ICE is offering a range of incentives, including signing bonuses of up to $50,000, student loan repayment programs, and other financial perks aimed at drawing new applicants.
In September 2023, Hollywood powerhouse Endeavor, the parent company of UFC, acquired the WWE and merged the two entities to form TKO Group Holdings. Ari Emanuel, the Endeavor CEO and infamous Hollywood powerbroker, also serves as the CEO of TKO Group Holdings and oversees the public company’s operations. Emanuel was Trump’s agent during his The Apprentice reality television era, and has maintained a friendly relationship ever since. He was among the first to visit Trump after his 2017 inauguration, and continues to play a behind-the-scenes role in aligning UFC’s public image more closely with MAGA politics.
The WWE has also undergone a rightward shift since coming under Emanuel’s ownership, though it is also worth noting that U.S President Donald Trump has a long association with the WWE. He hosted two consecutive WrestleManias in the late 1980s and took part in the “Battle of the Billionaires” at WrestleMania XXIII in 2007.
Shortly after taking office in January 2025, Trump nominated former WWE CEO Linda McMahon as his Secretary of Education despite her limited educational background and experience. WWE chief content officer and former professional wrestler Paul “Triple H” Levesque also attended the signing of an executive order reviving the Presidential Fitness Test and the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition.
While the UFC and WWE’s Trump-friendly leadership and young, predominantly male audiences make them ideal targets for ICE recruitment ads, the spots have been airing indiscriminately across the sports landscape depending on where the viewer resides in the U.S.. Some fans have reported seeing the ads during the NFL countdown show on ESPN, Mets games, and even during WBNA games in select cities.
The ads even aired during the Oct. 1 episode of pro wrestling show AEW Dynamite, contrasting with the show’s typically progressive viewers. The organization’s champion “Hangman” Adam Page, even took to social media to urge fans to take action against ICE.
“F**k ice airing commercials during dynamite, let em know,” Page wrote on Bluesky.
In select metro areas across the country, the ads are aimed at law enforcement officers.
“You took an oath to protect and serve, to keep your family, your city, safe,” the narrator says, as images ICE agents arresting people flash across the screen. “But in sanctuary cities, you’re ordered to stand down while dangerous illegals walk free.”
ICE has emerged as one of the most visceral symbols of Trump’s administration and his pledge to enact “the largest mass deportation in history.” ICE the made roughly three times as many arrests from May through July compared with the same period last year, according to government figures obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request by the Deportation Data Project. As of July 2025, roughly half of the 61,000 people currently held in immigration detention in the U.S. had neither a criminal record nor faced a criminal charge, belying ICE’s own claim in its ad that the agency deals with the “worst of the worst.”
Nevertheless, the ads and incentives may still be working. Last month, the Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem claimed the campaign has drawn more than 150,000 applications from across the country, with over 18,000 candidates receiving tentative job offers. However, the campaign failed to draw police officers in regions like Denver, where the Denver Police Department’s pay scale outpaces ICE’s top signing bonuses. Denver officials have also vehemently opposed the ads, as the city was already clashing with ICE over “sanctuary” policies.
“Per our knowledge, we have not lost any officers to ICE as part of their new signing and retention bonus program,” a Denver police department spokesperson told CBS News Colorado. Police departments in Sacramento and Miami also stated that they have not noticed any of their officers leaving to join ICE.
It remains unclear whether ICE’s ad placements during major sporting events will boost recruitment. What is clear is that the agency’s raids are already rippling through fan communities. In Los Angeles, some Dodgers fans have voiced frustration over the team’s silence amid the crackdowns — a silence that stings in a fanbase that’s more than 40% Latino.
Under mounting pressure from activists, the Dodgers responded with a $1 million donation to support migrant families.
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