ICE has acquired thousands of branded vehicles that are now just sitting in parking garages after Kristi Noem’s 28-year-old deputy ordered them without verifying they could be used.
The Daily Beast reported last August that ICE was rolling out around 2,500 dark navy pickup trucks and SUVs bearing the agency’s name, logo, and “Defend the Homeland” motto—over the angry objections of agents who warned the conspicuous vehicles would turn them into targets.
The warnings appear to have been well-founded, as the cars are sitting idle because federal agents say they cannot drive them while hunting for specific individuals without tipping off everyone in the vicinity, the Washington Examiner reports.
“ICE has never had marked vehicles,” one person familiar with the purchases told the Examiner. “In talking to people, they’re like, ‘We don’t want to use these, we can’t.’”
The bulk order was placed in the second half of 2025 by Madison Sheahan, 28. The then-deputy director was one of the closest allies of Noem—who was nicknamed ICE Barbie for her love of cosplaying on ICE raids—inside the agency.
Sources have told the Daily Beast that Sheahan was the principal conduit for Noem and her senior aide and rumored lover Corey Lewandowski’s most contentious directives. “The power ran through her,” one ICE insider said. “She did all their bidding.”
Staff were said to have been relieved when she departed the agency in January to launch a congressional campaign in Ohio.
The vehicles—navy blue with a red horizontal stripe and gold ICE lettering along the sides—are now in storage across the country. In one California city, around 25 branded cars were delivered and promptly redirected to a nearby detention center, where they remain parked.
A second source told the Examiner the marked vehicles can only be deployed for custodial pickups—collecting individuals already held by a jail or state prison—making them useless for the street-level enforcement that defines ICE’s core work.
“It’s ridiculous because you don’t want to advertise what you’re doing,” the first source said. “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?”
Career ICE officers were not consulted before Sheahan placed the order, the Examiner reported. “If leadership would have been consulted—leadership being the executive assistant directors, do you need marked vehicles, the people that have done this job would have said, ‘We don’t need marked vehicles, because you’re not going to use them,’” one source told the outlet.
Sheahan, a native of Curtice, Ohio, attended Ohio State University before Noem installed her to oversee the 20,000-strong agency and its $9 billion budget. Her résumé before ICE included stints as Noem’s political director in South Dakota, a spell leading the state Republican Party, and a year as Louisiana’s Wildlife and Fisheries secretary under Noem ally, Gov. Jeff Landry.
As the Beast reported in January, some ICE veterans were infuriated that someone with her limited law-enforcement experience was suddenly in command.
The marked-vehicle order was not her only controversial decision. NBC News reported that Sheahan threatened the job of an ICE employee who proposed awarding a $100 million recruitment advertising contract to a cheaper rival than the firm Noem had already chosen. Sheahan told the employee the decision was “a decision made by the secretary,” then called him into her office and berated him until he backed down, three administration officials told NBC.
That $100 million campaign—like the fleet order—was awarded without competitive bidding. It went to People Who Think and Safe America Media, the same contractors behind the $220 million self-deportation ad blitz that became a flashpoint at Noem’s Senate testimony and a key factor in her dismissal.
She is scheduled to be replaced by Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who was nominated to be the next Homeland Security Secretary by President Donald Trump, 79, last Thursday.
The vehicle purchase added to the tab. A $2.25 million contract to outfit 25 Chevrolet Tahoes for recruitment purposes was awarded without competitive bidding to Rick Hendrick—owner of Hendrick Motorsports in North Carolina and a prominent Republican donor. Three additional companies were handed between $174,000 and $230,000 to wrap vehicles in the new markings.
Rep. Lucy McBath, 65, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, had proposed an amendment last year that would have directed a portion of ICE funding toward congressional oversight of its spending. It was voted down. “Taxpayers expect to see how their hard-earned money is being spent,” she said.
ICE is now working to alter the outstanding portion of the fleet order so that the remaining deliveries arrive without agency branding. ICE did not respond to the Examiner’s requests for comment on the total number of vehicles purchased, the full cost of the order, or whether Sheahan consulted career officers before placing the order. Sheahan also did not respond.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS and Sheahan for comment.
