After spending millions of taxpayer dollars on a fleet of new vehicles with Donald Trump-inspired paint jobs, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents reportedly don’t want to drive them.
Last summer, a slick promotional video captured a Ford Raptor pickup truck and GMC Yukon SUV rolling around Washington, D.C., with music from DaBaby playing over close-up images of navy blue paint jobs with red-and-white racing stripes and a gold seal.
The words “defend the homeland” appear on the side, and “President Donald J. Trump” is printed in gold on a rear window.
Homeland Security’s preview of its new fleet — with paint jobs designed to look like the president’s private jet — cost more than $700,000. The government ultimately spent more than $2 million buying up hundreds of new cars with custom wraps, according to contracts reviewed by The Independent.
But officers don’t want them, according to The Washington Examiner.
“ICE has never had marked vehicles,” one person familiar with the purchases told the outlet. “In talking to people, they’re like, ‘We don’t want to use these, we can’t.’”
Another said it’s “ridiculous” to drive marked cars because “you don’t want to advertise what you’re doing.”
“We’re just hiding them in a parking garage somewhere because we don’t want to drive them,” the person reportedly told the outlet. “Who wants to drive the marked vehicles?”
Roughly 25 newly delivered ICE vehicles are sitting at an immigration detention facility in California, unused, according to the Examiner.
ICE has denied any suggestion that its new vehicles aren’t being used.
“Any allegation that these ICE vehicles are not being used is FALSE. ICE is a law enforcement agency, and like all other law enforcement agencies, has a fleet of vehicles that includes those with ICE branding,” a spokesperson wrote to The Independent Monday.
“These specific vehicles are supplementing the existing ICE fleet and support operations across the country,” the person added. “The safety and security of our brave men and women is, and always has been, our priority, and suggestions that law enforcement branded vehicles, no different from police vehicles, will jeopardize that is simply not the case.”
But government contracts for the new fleet explicitly stated that the paint jobs and ICE branding were essential to agents being able to do their jobs.
In government documents reviewed by The Independent last summer, ICE was looking to scoop up 100 vehicles every 60 days, with a no-bid contract calling for a minimum of 1,000 vehicles with the new Trump-inspired livery.
“Without properly marked and equipped vehicles, newly hired staff cannot be deployed to the field, delaying the enforcement surge required to meet statutory and operational demands,” according to the request.
“Such delays create an operational gap that diminishes enforcement, undermines recruitment objectives, and places both public and officer safety at risk,” documents said.
One contract for a pair of high-performance Mustang GT Fastback coupes was “an immediate request by the White House,” according to another federal procurement document reviewed by The Independent.
Another no-bid contract awarded $2.25 million to a company owned by a prolific Republican donor, whose firm supplied 25 Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs. The contract, skirting a competitive bid process, was awarded to the company because of an “unusual and compelling urgency.”
Walter Olsen, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, told The Independent last year that the flashy treatment is largely performative, and in all likelihood, counterproductive.
“The look of most police cars tries to strike a balance between being recognizable as such for safety reasons without being intimidating or coming across as an occupation force,” Olsen said at the time. “The ICE design screams ‘Look at us – we’re big, we’re mean, and we’re here whether you like it or not.’ That’s a message that it sends both to local residents and also to local elected officials.”
The purchases were reportedly directed by now-former ICE deputy director Madison Sheahan, who left the agency to run for a congressional seat in Ohio.
Sheahan was among several top DHS officials to leave the agency in recent months; last week, the president fired Secretary Kristi Noem, who is stepping down March 31, and Noem’s top deputy Tricia McLaughlin left the agency last month.
ICE leadership is now trying to amend open orders for new cars and trucks to leave out the pain jobs, according to the Examiner.
The Independent has requested comment from DHS and ICE.
Congress approved billions of dollars in new funding for ICE as part of Trump’s sprawling domestic spending bill in 2025, including $30 billion to recruit and hire more than 10,000 officers to support the president’s mass deportation efforts.
DHS spending under Noem is under fire after two days of congressional hearings last week scrutinized a $220 million ad campaign that prominently featured the secretary.
Most of that money — $143 million — went to a company that was created days before it was awarded the contract. Last week, hours before Noem’s ousting was announced, Trump said he did not sign off on that spending.
Noem also is facing questions from lawmakers over her testimony on whether her adviser Corey Lewandowski signed off on contracts for the agency, after the secretary testified that he didn’t. Members of Congress have suggested she lied under oath.
Source: independent.co.uk