Political group's new Charlotte TV ad targets ICE agent 'shame' from arrests

Mary Ramsey, The Charlotte Observer on Nov 25, 2025

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An advertisement encouraging federal immigration officials to rethink their jobs is hitting Charlotte airwaves days after U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested hundreds across the city.

The 60-second television ad is directed at Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “who may be grappling with guilt, burnout, or moral conflict over their work,” Women’s March WIN, the political action committee behind the spot, said in a news release.

The commercial, already on YouTube, will air through Saturday on CNN and MS Now, formerly known as MSNBC.

The campaign is meant to counter ICE’s ongoing recruitment push, according to the PAC’s news release. The agency has spent millions on television advertising in more than a dozen cities as part of a $30 billion plan to hire 10,000 deportation officers by the end of 2025, PBS News reported. The ads encourage recruits to “help us catch the worst of the worst.” ICE is offering benefits that include signing bonuses and tuition reimbursement.

“ICE is trying to fill its ranks en masse without fixing what’s broken,” Women’s March and Women’s March WIN executive director Rachel O’Leary Carmona said. “We want the public to see what unchecked recruitment and failing morale really mean for communities across America. We want to shed light on the ramifications of a federal agency pursuing volume over vetting in order to appease the Trump administration. And we want to let ICE agents know that they can choose conscience over complicity.”

The ad slated to run in Charlotte opens with a young girl coloring in a living room. The child’s father then enters the house in an ICE uniform looking forlorn. The words “What will you say when she asks about your day?” flash on the screen as the girl greets the man.

The ad then cuts to a shot of the father breaking a car window and a mash-up of news clips of immigration raids.

“A mask can’t hide you from your neighbors, from your children, from God. They’ll know,” a male voice says in a voiceover. “You can walk away before the shame follows you home.”

The commercial ends with the father from the beginning tugging down a face mask while in the field, hearing the voice of his daughter say “Daddy, how was your day?” as the words “What will you say” flash on the screen again.

The PAC’s campaign will also include “targeted digital ads in cities with heavy ICE presence,” according to the group’s news release.

The advertising push in Charlotte follows Border Patrol’s “Operation Charlotte’s Web.” Border Patrol, a separate agency from ICE, said it arrested more than 370 people in the Charlotte area during its November stint in the city, which triggered protests, a surge in school absences and shuttered businesses in targeted communities.

Local leaders including Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden and Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said Thursday that Border Patrol was leaving the city but ICE would continue to operate here.

Before Border Patrol’s operation, a Charlotte Observer investigation found ICE had arrested about three times the number of people in the first half of 2025 in Mecklenburg County compared to the same time in 2024.