Fact or fiction? Ads about ICE bombard US computers, TVs and phones

While advocacy groups have used ads to challenge public policy or spotlight social ills, these spots mark a new take by focusing on a federal agency.

The television portrayals couldn't be more different.

One recent TV ad that aired on MSNOW and CNN featured images from the January 2026 killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers in Minneapolis, along with news footage of people being violently confronted on city streets. The montage is punctuated by a snippet of podcaster Joe Rogan asking, “Are we really going to be the Gestapo? ‘…. Is that what we’ve come to?”

Another high-profile ad broadcast in select TV markets struck an opposite perspective, portraying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as everyday community folks with a difficult job to do. It concludes with cinematic images of unmasked agents calmly escorting detained persons to police vehicles.

They’re at-odds depictions designed to shape public opinion about the controversial agency whose aggressive tactics have sparked shock and outrage nationwide, with polls indicating nearly two-thirds of Americans now think ICE has gone too far. While advocacy groups have long used such outreach to challenge public policy or spotlight social ills, the mostly critical ICE-focused spots represent a new twist on the strategy by focusing directly on a federal agency and its agents.

“I’m struggling to think of any precedent,” said Travis Ridout, a professor of government and public policy at Washington State University in Pullman and an expert in political advertising. “This seems to be something new.”