As the Trump administration continues to transform U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement into a seemingly omnipresent occupying force in American cities, the agency is seeking to add another 1,000 customized SUVs wrapped in “ICE specific artwork,” according to a draft RFP obtained by The Independent.
“The contractor shall provide full upfit and graphic application and continually ship 100 vehicles to the government every sixty (60) calendar days after the receipt of the award,” states the request for proposals. “At a minimum the multiple IDIQ contractors shall provide up to one thousand (1,000) vehicle upfits and graphic applications.”
At that rate, it will take 20 months to fulfill the order. Interested vendors must submit capability statements by Tuesday afternoon.
The solicitation is for the modifications only; the vehicles – a combination of Ford Police Interceptor Utility SUVs, Dodge Durango Pursuit SUVs and Chevy Tahoe Police Pursuit Vehicle SUVs, model year “2025 or later” – will be purchased separately and shipped from the dealership to the vendors selected to adapt them for ICE.
Although the RFP does not specify a budget, 1,000 brand-new SUVs modified for law enforcement use, with, among other things, lights, sirens, PA systems, window tints, and lockable weapons vaults, as well as add-ons such as “tactical seat covers,” plus full graphics packages, could cost taxpayers some $100 million, using past acquisitions as a guide.
The government will provide the winning bidders with “ICE specific artwork that will be used for the design, production, sizing, measurement, and application of vehicle wraps on all ICE owned vehicles,” according to the RFP. It says the feds will also transport the vehicles from the dealerships to the contractors’ facilities to be altered.
An ICE spokesperson did not respond on Monday to a request for comment.
ICE recently laid out roughly $1 million for a group of customized SUVs, pickups, and a pair of Ford Mustangs to help lure new recruits. The trucks cost more than $500,000, and wrapping them ran nearly $230,000. The two Mustangs set taxpayers back more than $120,000, according to government solicitation documents. The immigration enforcement agency subsequently issued a tender for 25 tricked-out Chevy Tahoes, at a cost of $2.4 million.
The recently-purchased vehicles all feature a graphic treatment that mimics the look of Donald Trump’s private 757. They feature the words “President Donald J. Trump” printed in gold on the rear windows, and have the phrase “Defend the homeland” emblazoned on the sides.
Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a nonprofit Washington, D.C., government watchdog, sees the latest expenditure as highly imprudent, especially at a time when the White House and GOP-led Congress have decimated public health programs, eliminated free meals for needy kids, and practically zeroed out budgets supporting lifesaving scientific research, all in the name of “fiscal responsibility.”
“Taxpayers buying another 1,000 new ramped-up SUVs for ICE is not only an extravagant waste of taxpayer dollars, it is a dangerous expenditure that heightens the risk to civil liberties,” Holman told The Independent. “ICE is evolving into a special paramilitary organization to enforce the laws as President Trump sees fit. The scope of this organization has grown far beyond its original mandate of border enforcement and is now even operating in the nation’s capital arresting any persons of interest and hauling them off to who-knows-where. These so-called enforcement actions are all being done by unknown agents, undercover and with little oversight by the courts.”
Walter Olsen, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, believes the flashy treatment ICE is giving the vehicles is largely performative, and in all likelihood, counterproductive.
“The look of most police cars tries to strike a balance between being recognizable as such for safety reasons without being intimidating or coming across as an occupation force,” Olsen told The Independent. “The ICE design screams ‘Look at us – we’re big, we’re mean, and we’re here whether you like it or not.’ That’s a message that it sends both to local residents and also to local elected officials.”
Olsen pointed out that ICE has attacked local elected officials for warning constituents that agents would be carrying out immigration enforcement operations in their communities, and advising them on their rights in case of an encounter. This, according to “Border Czar” Tom Homan and various Republican lawmakers, purportedly puts ICE personnel in danger, and undermines their work.
“So why wrap cars in conspicuous plumage that might be visible from blocks away and is likely to get neighborhoods talking?” Olsen continued. “ICE is planning to spend a lot of taxpayer money here to send some sort of message, at the expense of what you’d think would be good policing practice.”
The first ICE SUVs to be wrapped in the Trump-centric design were featured in a video posted by the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, which showed the vehicles cruising through Washington, D.C., set to music by rapper DaBaby.
ICE is in the midst of a massive hiring spree, for which Republicans in Congress have set aside $30 billion, with the hope of adding 14,000 new immigration agents to support Trump’s mass deportation agenda. In all, Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful” domestic policy bill earmarks more than $170 billion for immigration enforcement over the next decade. The law enforcement agency is now one of the most well-resourced police forces in the world, exceeding most foreign military budgets.
To expand the pool of available recruits, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem lowered the minimum age for new ICE agents to 18 and eliminated the maximum age, targeting “Gen Z and early-career professionals,” as well as former law enforcement officers, military veterans and people from the legal field, according to a request for information. ICE is also offering $50,000 signing bonuses and student loan forgiveness for recruits.
In recent months, morale among ICE agents has reportedly dropped to all-time lows.
