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Under Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has gone on an explicitly fascist zag as it seeks to recruit 10,000 additional U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Robert Reich and others have detailed in recent weeks how ICE is now actively seeking to recruit extremist young men from gun shows, Ultimate Fight Club venues, rodeos, martial arts centers, and other haunts for men who tend to have a far right political vision.

ICE is actively employing recruiters who use right-wing social media and influencer operations to get at potential recruits. And it is explicitly targeting young men who listen to “patriotic” (in other words, hard-right) podcasts. Part of ICE’s “wartime recruitment” schtick now involves asking potential applicants if they want to repel “foreign invaders” — and then offering them $50,000 sign-up bonuses if they decide to join.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has, over the past year, researched the increasingly extreme language and imagery used in these recruitment campaigns. They include a “Your Country Needs You” poster of Uncle Sam, from August of last year, in which Uncle Sam asks “Which way, American Man?” One arrow points to “Invasion,” another to “Cultural Decline,” while a third points toward Uncle Sam and reads “Homeland.”

ICE is now actively seeking to recruit extremist young men from gun shows.

Another shows a father-son combo, both with features that the Nazis would have deemed acceptably “Aryan,” clad in body armor and holding assault rifles, with the caption “No Age Cap. Join ICE Now.”

Still another Uncle Sam recruitment poster from the summer reads, “America has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need YOU to get them out.” Other recruitment posters include a photo of a spacious family van, alongside the words “Want to deport illegals with your absolute boys? Think about how many criminal illegal aliens you could fit in this bad boy!”

A recent poster, shot from above, shows knights in armor, swords in both hands, in a circle, sword tips pointing inward, and a decal “THE ENEMIES ARE AT THE GATE. JOIN.ICE.GOV.” The agency is also using memes from popular video games to further their recruitment........

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