ICE Is Offering Voiceover Actors Like Me An Insane Payday — But Look At What They Want Us To Say

The notification hits my inbox in the middle of the afternoon. There it is: an invite — an opportunity — to audition to record voiceovers for a new series of commercials. The budget is huge — much higher than the average rate for radio or TV spots. This one job would be enough to cover my rent for four months, and I might be offered more gigs in the future.

Is this a typo?!? I wonder.

Then I notice the job listing, posted on one of the industry’s most respected voiceover talent websites, is for a political spot. OK, no biggie, I’ve auditioned on these before. I’m no saint. As a voiceover pro, I’ve read plenty of ad campaigns or political messages where I didn’t fully believe in the message or product. After all, did the consumer really need that new age-defying face cream or that limited-time credit card offer?

I open the audition script and literally gasp. It’s a multispot campaign extolling the virtues of joining Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 27: A man seeking asylum from Colombia is detained by federal agents as he attends his court hearing in immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on October 27, 2025 in New York City.

Oh hell, no.

I look closer. It’s worse than I originally thought. These ads are designed to talk police officers into leaving their jobs to join ICE for way more money — and way less supervision.

The script has all the old chestnuts you might expect from this current administration:

Now YOU can protect America.

Help capture the worst of the worst. Drug traffickers. Gang members. Predators.

Hiring bonuses up to fifty thousand and generous benefits.

But worst of all — the most insidious thing — is this:

Attention Law Enforcement. You took an oath to protect and serve. To keep your family, your neighborhood safe. But in too many cities, dangerous illegals walk free ― as police are forced to stand down.

I immediately understand the subtext of this language. As a cop, there’s oversight — body cameras rolling and rules that need to be followed. But this ad appears to be saying that if you join ICE, you can be the bully you’ve always wanted to be, and you won’t have to answer for not adhering to the Constitution or any violence or inappropriate behavior that might occur while doing the job. There is no oversight.

Essentially, the government seems to be saying, “Here’s up to $50,000 just to sign up. Here are health benefits. Here’s a gun. Here’s a baton. Come be the kick-ass man or woman you’ve always wanted to be, with no police department protocol limiting you. Wear a mask! No badge! Open season!”

I’m especially worried that this commercial is not so subtly targeting police officers who may already be bad actors or have issues with authority and following a chain of command.

I find it ridiculous that they want people to hunt for so-called dangerous “predators” while a convicted felon and alleged predator rules the land and is protected by a Supreme Court that has given him the power to do virtually anything he wants. And they want them to do it while white-collar criminals fleece us, and imaginary criminals are sent to El Salvador to keep the for-profit-prison pipeline and its investors happy.

I’m shaken.

Person in a recording studio with headphones, standing near a microphone and a screen in the background — Courtesy of Joe Guay

The author at work in a voiceover studio.

I knew this was happening, but to see it here in front of me in black and white, wedged between audition opportunities for dog food or a meditation app — and the gigantic rate they’re offering to entice voice talent to help them with their “mission” — is downright demoralizing.

Of course they have the money — more money than I’ve seen offered for an ad like this in years — because the “big, beautiful bill,” signed into law earlier this year, created the funding for this moment. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the bill allocates more than $170 billion over four years for border and interior enforcement, with a goal of deporting 1 million immigrants per year — the vast majority of whom are not criminals. These people are hardworking individuals who are paying taxes and contributing to making this country a better place.

Somehow, the United States never has the money to pay our teachers more. We never have the money to fix our crumbling infrastructure or prop up our struggling communities. We never have the money to improve health outcomes or offer better sick leave or child care. But poof! There’s $170 billion available for ICE to round up “criminals and pedophiles” — and to do it however they see fit, whether or not they violate the Constitution.

Person wearing a camo cap and a dark face covering, looking to the side — Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

Pardon me as I side-eye Washington D.C. and its collection of criminals — all of whom I’m sure will be overlooked by the administration because of their money and skin color.

I shake my head. This is, sadly, the Trump administration’s most recent appearance in my life. In March, I published a HuffPost Personal piece about losing a wonderful Canadian voiceover client after they’d had enough of the president’s “we’ll make Canada our 51st state” comments. On principle, they decided to cut ties and cease sending any funds to American contractors, which resulted in a 25% hit to my income.

Last month, I learned a website I’ve provided articles to, NextAvenue.org, will be ramping down due to extreme layoffs after the Trump administration’s major cuts to PBS, the website’s main funding source. That’s another income stream gone. Two friends who produce specials for public television are also seeing funds dry up. And a senior-citizen friend of limited means is losing his Supplemental Security Income (SSI) through Social Security because of potential cuts to Medicaid.

There’s no money for initiatives that help people, but endless money for ICE.

In a capitalistic society, we must weigh every opportunity that comes our way. We have to figure out how we pay our rent, buy our groceries and afford our health care. The money I could earn from this one job would make an enormous difference in my life this year. But I’m going to say no thanks, Department of Homeland Security, I won’t be auditioning on your script.

Of course, someone will take the audition and book these voiceover spots. Someone will rake in these wild payments. They might agree with the message wholeheartedly, or they might simply need the unbelievable money to feed their family or pay off lingering student debt.

These are the kinds of decisions we may all face more and more in the coming days. I never dreamed Congress’s “big, beautiful bill” would touch my work life so quickly, yet here it is. My guard is up, and I remain vigilant, ready to call out ICE for what I see it as: a well-funded intimidation organization designed to stoke fear and silence dissent, which I believe mirrors Germany’s Brownshirts and Mussolini’s Blackshirts.

A woman speaks at a news conference, wearing large hoop earrings and a blazer, with a microphone in front of her — Alex Wong / Getty Images

After all, with no accountability, what’s to stop these thugs from doing whatever they want to any of us? And what’s to stop others from putting on a mask, buying ICE-logoed attire online and driving around to intimidate and kidnap people in “the land of the free?” The more you think about it, the more terrifying the entire operation becomes.

As I sit here writing this, an ad pops up before a YouTube video on my television. Secretary Kristi Noem’s face and voice confront me in a message from Homeland Security with tough images and phrases like, “if you’re here illegally, you’re next” and “if you register … and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.”

I’m chilled to the core. I’m also certain I made the right decision.

Joe Guay is a voiceover actor and writer currently residing in California. His words have been featured here in HuffPost, Katie Couric Media, Next Avenue and YourTango. He provides “Dispatches from the Guay Life” on topics like mental health, growing up gay, nature as church, travel, showbiz and humor on Medium.com, and you can also find him on Substack.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost in October 2025.

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