The $240 Million Ad Campaign That Helped Get Kristi Noem Fired

13:28Eric Fan:So what kind of impact did this pricey DHS ad campaign have? That's next.

13:39Irene Casado Sanchez:I'm Anna Navarro, and on my new podcast, Bleep with Anna Navarro, I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world. Because I know deep down inside right now, we are all cursing and asking, what the bleep is going on? I'm talking to people like Julie K. Brown, who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018. These victims have been let down time and time again for decades and decades and decades by local law enforcement, by federal law enforcement, by administration, after administration. The Justice Department, through I think we counted four presidential administrations, failed these victims.

14:24Irene Casado Sanchez:Listen to Bleep with Ana Navarro as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

14:39Irene Casado Sanchez:I'm June Grosso, inviting you to join me for the Bloomberg Law Podcast. Every weekday, we help you make sense of the legal stories that shape the nation and the world. Listen for complete analysis of the biggest court cases, the latest actions from Congress and regulators, and the legal moves driving the markets. From corporate law to constitutional law, and from state courts to the Supreme Court. At Bloomberg Law, we go beyond the day's headlines. We speak with top attorneys, judges, scholars, and policy experts to break down what the rulings really mean. We do this every weekday, then bring you the best conversations in our daily podcast.

15:19Irene Casado Sanchez:Search for Bloomberg Law on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen. On the East Coast, listen as you start your day. And on the West Coast, catch up in the evening. That's the Bloomberg Law Podcast with me, June Grosso. Subscribe today wherever you get your podcasts.

15:43Eric Fan:Irana, Eric, in addition to looking at which companies were being paid to make and place these ads for the Department of Homeland Security, you also looked at where these ads were running and who might have been seeing them. So, Eric, what data did you look at to figure this out?

16:00Sarah Holder:So to figure out where the ads are running, how they're being targeted at different populations and audiences, we used Ad Impact Data, which is an ad tracking company. In total, we found over 92 ,000 ads across the country in all 50 states, over 1 ,000 TV stations. And this is only broadcast. There are also digital TV. There's cable TV. There are other formats. And these ads are absolutely everywhere. And the deportation ads, they are mostly targeted at the border states in the south and sanctuary cities in the north. And what we found was the targeting was not always consistent. For example, Georgia has a lot more undocumented immigrants compared to Nevada and Arizona.

16:58Sarah Holder:This is according to the DHS own estimates. However, the two Western states were bombarded by deportation ads where Georgia was largely ignored.

17:11Irene Casado Sanchez:I think what those numbers show is like there is a disconnection between where those ads were are and where DHS own estimates said that they're more illegal or undocumented immigrants, right?

17:29Sarah Holder:If you look at the media market that they target the recruitment versus deportation, Georgia is a prime example. That they are under-targeted by deportation ads, but over-targeted by ICE recruitment commercials. One commercial that specifically called out Atlanta police officers ran over a thousand times between September 29 and October 13, proclaiming, quote, you took an oath to protect and serve, but in sanctuary cities, your order to stand down where dangerous illegals walk free. And it's worth noting that there is a Georgia law that mandates local police officers to cooperate with ICE. And in fact, Trump's own Justice Department removed Atlanta from their list of sanctuary cities.

18:21Sarah Holder:So it's unclear to us why this ad that's super targeted at recruiting Atlanta police officers still said Atlanta was a sanctuary city, even after the administration's own Justice Department had removed the city from the list.

18:40Eric Fan:What does your analysis say about how effective they've been according to the metrics that the administration laid out? Let's start by talking about the ICE recruitment ads.

18:49Irene Casado Sanchez:So in order to better understand what was the impact of this campaign that is specifically targeting local police officers, we asked every police department at the top of our list. And what we heard from Miami, for instance, like they haven't been affected. Denver said the same to us, like we are not losing officers that are living to join ICE. And then the three other police agencies didn't respond. Or they said, we don't know if our officers that are actually leaving are leaving to join ICE forces. So it's unclear how effective is this campaign that is trying to convince local officers to join ICE.

19:37Sarah Holder:The department does put out a press release saying that the recruitment campaign went above expectation. They doubled the ICE officers' workforce, that it's been wildly successful. They did not respond to our question how much of that success can be attributed to the ICE campaign. What's interesting about the ICE recruitment ads is it seems to have avoided all the Spanish-speaking TV stations. And what former police chiefs and other experts have told us was historically, both ICE and CBP had made intentional efforts to recruit Spanish-speaking officers, given their work and the need to interact with undocumented immigrants, along whom speak Spanish.

20:25Eric Fan:I want to talk about the self-deportation ads as well. What impact have these ads had on immigrants who might be considering leaving the country and on their communities who are seeing these ads?

20:38Sarah Holder:The DHS claims over 2 million quote-unquote illegal aliens had left the country last year. But experts said that that number is likely a misinterpretation of survey data, that the real figures likely sit between 200 ,000 to 400 ,000. So we're talking about undocumented immigrants who are leaving as a result of this marketing campaign. And it's actually very hard to estimate the precise number. What the experts are saying is there are two factors at work here. It is possible that a lot of immigrants get scared and they hear this message and they are persuaded to leave. It's equally likely that a lot of them are persuaded to stay because they figure it will be harder to return once they leave under the current environment.

21:34Sarah Holder:What the experts told us was the vast majority of reduction in immigration that took place last year was the result of reduced inflow, meaning that much fewer people received visas to come in or cross the border because they were discouraged under the administration policies.

21:57Irene Casado Sanchez:We have done a lot of reporting, talking with immigration counselors, organizations, but also immigrants, both like documented and undocumented. And what we have here is like this campaign has created a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety. They have been feeling targeted. They thought that this is racist, the way that, you know, this is framed. And what we have heard is that this is especially problematic for kids that have been exposed to this kind of content. And they ask their parents, are you illegal? Are you a criminal? We have heard also about instances where children have been harassed because of this campaign.

22:47Irene Casado Sanchez:So we know that it's creating fear, anxiety, not sure, you know, if many people are combined to live. But what we know is like at least they're really suffering from the content of this campaign.

23:04Eric Fan:So in that way, these ads could have had a profound impact on some families. When did these ads get on the radar of lawmakers? And in what context did this issue come up in the congressional hearings? Back in March 2025, Benny Thompson, ranking member on the House Committee on Homeland Security, asked Christine Noem's office to provide all documentation and exchanges

23:35Irene Casado Sanchez:about this campaign. DHS never replied to Benny Thompson who sent another request back in November asking for the same documents any kind of communication related to the campaign DHS didn't reply in November also we saw a couple of letters from senators we have like a set of different congress people lawmakers asking about the campaign multiple times And DHS never responded to their questions about how this campaign started, how DHS picked the companies, how effective it was, and what was the involvement of some of Trump administration officials on picking the companies running those campaigns.

24:25Irene Casado Sanchez:We know that for the last couple of days, she was really being the center of attention during those hearings. I think her leadership was being questioned. I think she didn't provide the answers that confines, you know, even Trump. Especially Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana, that exchange where he singled this ad campaign out. How do you square that concern for waste, which I share, with the fact that you have spent$220 million

25:07Sarah Holder:running television advertisements that feature you prominently? Sir, the president tasked me with getting the message out to the country and to other countries where we were seeing the invasion come from, with putting commercials out that told them... He quibbled that the campaign was effective in promoting your own image. Chrissy Noam personally, she was heavily featured. All the deportation ads were narrated by Noam herself. She was very prominent. She was in front of camera most of the ad. At Mount Rushmore. One of them at Mount Rushmore. She was on a horse. And in almost all the deportation ads, she thanked Trump or complimented the president's immigration policy.

25:57Sarah Holder:And so you have Christine Noem personally very prominent in them. You have TV footage of aggressive ice tactics on the street. And you have President Trump signing bills, walking to meetings, saluting to officers, with Noam complimenting and thanking the president for his leadership.

26:20Eric Fan:So, Eric, what you're saying is, you know, these ads were not only effective in raising Kristi Noam's profile, but perhaps they were effective in raising Trump's as well.

26:29Sarah Holder:Yes, I mean, that was Noam's argument at the hearing. She said the president wanted me to do these ads and thank him in these ads. And that's exactly what she did. She thanked the president in pretty much every one of the deportation ads.

26:47Eric Fan:What do we know about how the president reacted to her claim that he had signed off?

26:53Irene Casado Sanchez:What we know is apparently he denied, or at least he didn't recall that happening in the same way that Kristi Noem described it.

27:02Sarah Holder:You know, allegedly Senator Kennedy had this conversation with the president, after which he said Noem is dead as a fried chicken.

27:14Eric Fan:This is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. The show is hosted by me, David Gurra, and Wan Ha. The show is made by Aaron Edwards, David Fox, Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Patty Hirsch, Rachel Lewis-Kriske, Naomi Ng, Julia Press, Tracy Samuelson, Naomi Shaven, Alex Sugiura, Julia Weaver, Yang Yang, and Taka Yasuzawa. To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access to all of Bloomberg.com, subscribe today at Bloomberg.com slash podcast offer. Thanks for listening. We'll be back on Monday.

28:01Irene Casado Sanchez:I'm Anna Navarro, and on my new podcast, Bleep with Anna Navarro, I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world. Because I know deep down inside right now, we are all cursing and asking what the bleep is going on. Every week, I'm breaking down the biggest issues happening in our communities and around the world. I'm talking to people like Julie K. Brown, who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018. The Justice Department, through we counted four presidential administrations, failed these victims. Listen to Bleep with Adam Navarro on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

28:43Sarah Holder:April 29th and 30th, Bloomberg House arrives in Miami at the Formula One Grand Prix.

28:49Irene Casado Sanchez:Set against one of the world's most electrifying sporting events, Bloomberg House brings business, investment, and culture together, powered by Bloomberg journalism, real-time data, and forward-looking conversations. From onstage discussions to exclusive networking with global leaders, this is where ideas connect. Bloomberg House Miami. Learn more at BloombergLive.com slash Bloomberg House Miami.