ICE released an AI-generated holiday ad that uses a Santa Claus character to dramatize deportation efforts while promoting a boosted self-deportation incentive through the CBP Home app.
The ad shows a muscular, uniformed Santa who gears up in a plate carrier labeled ICE and oversees arrests, processing and the loading of people onto a plane marked ICE Air. The imagery is blunt and designed to get attention, mixing seasonal iconography with a law enforcement message that underlines the agency’s new push. The choice to use AI to create the character and the scenario has already drawn reactions for its boldness and theatrical tone.
The clip is part of the Department of Homeland Security’s broader deportation ad campaign and it lands alongside a clear financial incentive for voluntary departures. “AVOID ICE AIR AND SANTA’S NAUGHTY LIST!” the X post reads. “Self-deport today with the CBP Home app, earn $3,000 and spend Christmas at home with loved ones. Holiday incentive is valid through the end of 2025.”
Secretary Kristi Noem announced a significant increase in the voluntary exit payment, tripling the amount from $1,000 to $3,000, and the ad is the public face of that push. Officials say the voluntary route carries perks, including the possibility of legally re-entering the U.S. at a later date, which makes the offer attractive to some. From a budget perspective, voluntary departures are far cheaper than forced removals, which federal estimates put at roughly $17,000 per person.
Noem made the policy case bluntly on social media and did not mince words about enforcement if people decline the option. “This Christmas season, the U.S. taxpayer is generously TRIPLING the incentive for illegal aliens to leave voluntarily. Through the end of the year, illegal aliens who self-deport using the CBP Home App can receive a $3,000 exit bonus,” Noem wrote on X, Monday. “Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will not return.”
Early returns show the self-deportation incentives are driving results at a scale that eclipses forced removals, according to the administration’s figures. More than 1.9 million people have reportedly left using the CBP Home app, while around 600,000 have been removed by ICE through enforcement actions. Those numbers are being used to argue that smart incentives plus targeted enforcement outperform costly mass operations.
There is pushback from critics who call the ad crass and worry about AI-generated depictions of public agencies using cultural symbols for enforcement messaging. Supporters, speaking from a conservative perspective, counter that the government must use every effective tool to deter illegal crossings and to encourage orderly exits. Using humor or seasonal motifs to make a policy point may feel sharp, but proponents say it gets the message through to people who otherwise ignore travel advisories and legal pathways.
The policy stakes are practical and fiscal, not merely rhetorical, and Republicans argue this approach protects taxpayers while restoring control at the border. The campaign ties an emotional seasonal appeal to a concrete, time-limited payment, which officials hope will accelerate voluntary departures before the end of 2025. “Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left’s lies, new legislation wasn’t needed to secure our border, just a new president.”
