ICE Just Put George R.R. Martin’s Favorite Fantasy Series on Ice
From Middle-earth to federal hiring: The Department of Homeland Security invoked Lord of the Rings on X to recruit for ICE, declaring The board is set, the pieces are moving.
Well, this is a curveball: the Department of Homeland Security is now using The Lord of the Rings to recruit for ICE. Yes, the fantasy epic with orcs and ents. Your tax dollars at work, memeing Middle-earth.
What happened
- Date: October 29, 2025
- Platform: X (formerly Twitter), on the official @DHSgov account
- The post: an image from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King paired with a line delivered by Gandalf: 'The board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last, the great battle of our time.'
- The pitch: join Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Why they are doing this
Under the current Trump administration, immigration enforcement has been tightened, and federal agencies have been pushing recruitment hard. DHS has decided the best way to get eyeballs is to speak fluent meme, grabbing scenes and imagery from movies and games to promote their message.
The messaging vs. the movie
Fans will clock this immediately: that Gandalf quote in Return of the King is about an existential war in Middle-earth, not a comment on real-world immigration policy. The way DHS framed it reads like an America-as-the-Shire metaphor that needs defending from outsiders. Whether you agree with that framing or not, it is a pretty literal lift that does not exactly match Tolkien's themes.
About those rights and permissions
It is unclear whether the rights holders for the film or the Tolkien estate approved this use. Reports say DHS has not been seeking permission to use various movie and video game images for recruitment content. Despite pushback from some companies and plenty of online blowback, DHS says it is not stopping.
'We will reach people where they are with content they can relate to and understand, whether that be Halo, Pokemon, Lord of the Rings, or any other medium. DHS remains laser-focused on bringing awareness to the flood of crime that criminal illegal aliens have inflicted on our country. We aren't slowing down.'
Translation: expect more of this
If they are name-checking Halo and Pokemon alongside LOTR, DHS is clearly planning more pop-culture riffs in its feeds. Whether that actually helps them recruit or just sparks more controversy is the part they seem comfortable testing in public.
Where do you land on federal agencies turning movie and game moments into recruitment ads? Smart outreach, off-putting, or both?