Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reportedly warehousing thousands of newly branded vehicles that agents say are too conspicuous for routine field work, a controversy that is drawing fresh scrutiny to a fleet order placed when Madison Sheahan served as the agency's deputy director to former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, according to a rew report.
According to reporting published Monday by the Washington Examiner, many of the vehicles are being kept in garages or detention facilities because officers do not want to use clearly marked ICE cars during day-to-day enforcement operations.
The Examiner also reported that ICE personnel said the agency had "never had marked vehicles" before this rollout and that the newly wrapped pickups and SUVs, bearing the ICE logo and the slogan "Defend the Homeland," made little practical sense for the type of work agents usually do.
One source told the Examiner that the vehicles were "ridiculous because you don't want to advertise what you're doing. We're just hiding them in a parking garage somewhere because we don't want to drive them. Who wants to drive the marked vehicles?"
The report says career ICE leaders were not meaningfully consulted before the purchase and would have opposed it if they had been asked, arguing that identifiable vehicles run counter to long-standing operational practice. The Examiner also reported that in at least one California city, about 25 of the wrapped vehicles were delivered and then redirected to a nearby immigrant detention center, where they are now being stored.
The vehicles first appeared publicly in August 2025, when Homeland Security and White House social media accounts posted images of the dark navy SUVs and trucks. The Washington Examiner said it was the first time since ICE's creation in 2003 that the agency had acquired marked vehicles on this scale. At the time, DHS defended the move, saying concerns that branded law enforcement vehicles could jeopardize officer safety were misplaced.
Iced out. 🥶 pic.twitter.com/xhexqgmbzS
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 14, 2025
The new reporting suggests that the defense did not settle the issue inside the agency. The Daily Beast wrote that the warnings from agents appear to have been borne out, with vehicles now sitting idle across the country because officers say they cannot use them to pursue targets without immediately drawing attention. The outlet also reported that ICE is trying to amend the outstanding portion of the order so the remaining undelivered vehicles arrive without agency branding.
Neither ICE nor Sheahan appears to have publicly provided a full accounting of the total cost of the fleet order. The Washington Examiner said ICE did not respond to requests for comment on the number of vehicles purchased, the cost, or whether Sheahan consulted agency personnel before placing the order. The Daily Beast likewise reported that the agency had not answered questions about the full price tag.
Still, pieces of the spending are already public. The Washington Examiner reported that ICE said it would spend $2.25 million on 25 Chevrolet Tahoes for recruitment purposes. The report also said three companies received between $174,000 and $230,000 to wrap vehicles in the new markings. Sheahan left ICE in January to run for Congress in Ohio's 9th District. Her rapid rise inside the agency had already drawn attention because of her political ties to Noem and her limited traditional law enforcement background.
