'You cannot make this stuff up': Latest ICE recruitment pitch buried on MSNBC
Reacting to increasing efforts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to recruit as agents as fast as possible now that the agency is flush with cash, MSNBC's Ali Velshi was both stunned by the overt racist appeal in one ad and amused by a celebrity endorsement that has been widely mocked.
On Saturday morning, Velshi told his viewers, "I want to show you some recent recruitment ads from the Department of Homeland Security, specifically ICE," before singling out one and adding, "Take a look at this ad which reads: 'Serve your country. Defend your culture. No undergraduate degree required."
"How totally fun!" he added sarcastically. "Defend your culture and no undergraduate degree required."
"The immigration agency is lowering the bar when it comes to hiring requirements, too," he suggested. "This week, the Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, announced that the agency would be eliminating the age cap for new hires, allowing people older than 40 and as young as 18 to join the ranks of ICE."
Joking, "The recruitment push is working," he noted the use of former television star Dean Cain –– who starred as Superman almost 30 years ago –– in new ads.
"He [Cain] shared on social media that he plans to become an ICE officer, to quote, 'Save America.,'" Velshi stated before dryly pointing out, "Superman, a literal undocumented alien, like an actual alien from outer space from the planet Krypton, is now going to be an ICE agent. You cannot make this stuff up."
"Jokes aside, this drive to hire more personnel seems to be ideologically driven," he suggested. "ICE used to require employees to have an undergraduate degree, not anymore. You don't really need any experience in law enforcement either. Apparently, you don't even need a uniform, because so many of the arrests that we're witnessing are being carried out by masked plainclothes officers."
"Covid is on the rise, so maybe they're on to something," he joked.
''It seems like the Trump administration is building up ICE to be an alternative force that's bigger, more politically loyal, unencumbered by standards and largely shielded from democratic accountability," he accused.
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