U.S. Department of Homeland Security uses Halo in ICE recruitment ad

Today, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted an image on social media from the video game series Halo to encourage people to join the ranks of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as ICE. This comes a day after the official White House social media account replied to GameStop’s declaration of the console wars being over with an image of the President as Master Chief, holding an Energy Sword. This declaration followed the announcement that Halo: Campaign Evolved would arrive on PlayStation in 2026, which is what inspired all the Halo-related imagery. Fortunately, fans of the long-running Microsoft series were quick to point out the hypocrisy of this government making these references.

The Department of Homeland Security uses Halo in an ICE recruitment ad

The image posted by Homeland Security shows Master Chief driving the iconic Warthog from the Halo series, with a soldier manning the turret. The text across the center of the image reads “Destroy the Flood,” a reference to an alien threat from the Halo series that parasitizes living or dead hosts and quickly spreads across entire planets. Then, smaller text below gives a URL to join ICE. Homeland Security also added the iconic Halo marketing phrase to the post, writing: “Finish the fight.”

U.S. Department of Homeland Security shares this image on social media.Source: Homeland Security on X/Twitter

There are many reasons to be concerned about this. Remember that ICE is an organization perhaps best known for suddenly abducting people, including at least 170 U.S. citizens (via ProPublica), off the street in unmarked cars while agents hide their identity through masks. The phrase “Finish the Fight,” along with the use of this image, implies that the department is comparing ICE's work to an intergalactic war.

This is without even getting into the fact that last month, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr., announced that the agency would be investigating violent video games as a potential source of gun violence in the U.S. At least on some level, it sends mixed messages. Are violent video games a cause for alarm, or are they a great marketing opportunity for further violence? Are people who play violent video games the target audience for law enforcement officers? If you’re a fan of the Halo series, you may have even put together the in-game hypocrisy of this post already.

In a response on social media, one user wrote: “The flood was defeated thanks to a coalition with aliens…” In Halo 3, Master Chief is able to defeat the Flood by allying with a faction of the Covenant led by the Arbiter, a literal group of alien beings from another planet. The use of the word “alien” is significant in this context. Promoting ICE, a group whose goal is to find and deport illegal aliens from the US, with a video game like Halo, completely misses the point. The story of fighting the Flood in Halo is all about two alien factions putting aside their differences, even when the two factions are at war, to face a common existential threat.

GameStop "declares" the console wars over, and The White House responds.Source: GameStop and The White House on X/Twitter

GameStop continues sharing memes.Source: GameStop on X/Twitter

Thanks to GameStop and the U.S. Government, there are plenty more ridiculous memes spreading online, including the top image above of President Donald Trump with an Energy Sword, an iconic Covenant weapon in the games, and the bottom image that appears to feature Vice President JD Vance as Cortana. With such a mix of supposedly comedic images alongside the seemingly serious ones from Homeland Security, the confusion only deepens. Was this some kind of official marketing partnership with Microsoft or Xbox? In many ways, Halo coming to the PS5 could have been a cathartic experience for those who lived through the worst of the console wars, and instead, Halo is being upgraded to promote division on a national level.

Halo: Campaign Evolved

2026

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