The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched a Christmas advertising campaign that provoked a strong reaction by associating the figure of Santa Claus with the repression against undocumented immigrants.
With typical holiday aesthetics but intimidating language, the video encourages immediate self-deportation, offering money, free airfare and the explicit alternative between leaving the country voluntarily or being arrested and forcibly removed.
The piece shows a man characterized as Santa Claus, initially smiling, who then puts on a bulletproof vest, wields a gun and starts acting as an ICE agent, participating in street stops, processing immigrants in government facilities and conducting deportations to aircraft.
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The core message is to avoid “Santa’s list” through self-deportation registered in the CBP Home app.
In the ad’s caption, the government states that, in addition to free transportation to the country of origin. According to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the value of the incentive was tripled specifically for the Christmas period.
“Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport. If they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
The campaign relies on the expanded use of the CBP Home app, relaunched in March by President Donald Trump’s administration. The tool, which in the previous administration was used to facilitate legal entry, began to be presented as a channel to formalize the voluntary departure of immigrants without legal status.
Since January, the Trump administration has already deported around 622,000 people in 2025, below the goal of one million announced during the campaign, but with a relevant portion of voluntary departures. Even so, members of the government say that migration policy should become tougher in 2026, with the expansion of operations and the budget allocated to repression.
In July, Congress approved a spending package that guarantees around $170 billion for ICE and the Border Patrol until September 2029, a significant jump compared to current annual budgets.
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The resources should finance the hiring of thousands of agents, the opening of new detention centers and partnerships with private companies to locate undocumented immigrants.
According to Tom Homan, the so-called “border czar”, arrests are expected to “explode” next year, including more frequent actions in workplaces.
