DHS expedites process to award two Republican-linked firms part of its
$200 million ad campaign
[March 11, 2025]
By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security skipped a fully competitive
bidding process to give two Republican-linked firms the first part of a
$200 million television ad campaign that lauds President Donald Trump
for his crackdown on illegal immigration.
DHS told news outlets last month that it had undergone a “competitive
procurement process” for the campaign. But in a document posted Friday
on a federal database, the department said Trump’s declaration of a
national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border constitutes “an unusual and
compelling urgency,” a circumstance that allows federal agencies to
bypass the usual competitive process.
The ads feature Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a blue suit
standing with a backdrop of American flags thanking Trump. The ads have
caught some attention as they mix campaign-style images of Trump signing
executive orders and flying on Air Force One with clips of large groups
of migrants crossing the Rio Grande and police cars with sirens blaring.
Noem warns immigrants to leave the U.S. or not to come. “If you are here
illegally, we will find you and deport you. You will never return,” she
says in one of the videos.
One of the winning firms is People Who Think, LLC, which is owned by Jay
Connaughton, a Louisiana-based political consultant who served as media
adviser for Trump’s 2016 campaign. Connaughton appeared to have worked
as recently as October 2023 with former Trump campaign manager Corey
Lewandowski in the campaign of Jeff Landry, for governor of Louisiana.
Lewandowski, a longtime Noem adviser going back to her tenure as South
Dakota governor, mentioned him in a post on X as part of the team that
helped elect Landry.
The other firm selected for the contract was Safe America Media, LLC,
which was incorporated in Delaware a few days before the solicitation
with an address to a property owned by Republican consultant Mike
McElwain. Safe America Media has already been awarded $16 million for
the ad buy.
Connaughton and McElwain did not respond to messages and calls seeking
comment. DHS still called it a “competitive process” in a statement
provided to The Associated Press.
“Following a competitive process with multiple companies competing to
deliver the best service, product, and price for American taxpayers,
Safe America Media and People Who Think both earned a shared contract
for this targeted national and international campaign,” it said.
“Multiple career government officials oversaw this competitive
procurement process.”
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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem walks past journalists at
the White House, Monday, March 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Alex Brandon)
The document posted on a federal contracting database reads in part:
“DHS requires an immediate domestic and international campaign to direct
illegal aliens within the U.S. and its territories to leave immediately,
and to discourage illegal immigration into the country.”
DHS reviewed industry publications and vendors specializing on
hyper-targeted media and advertising services and narrowed its search
down to four companies that were able to work immediately.
“Any delay in providing these critical communications to the public will
increase the spread of misinformation,” the document says.
Noem shared the story behind the ad campaign at the Conservative
Political Action Conference last month. She said she had suggested
conducting more news conferences to keep the public posted on its
immigration actions, but Trump asked for those ads “to make sure the
American people know the truth of what you’re doing.”
“But he said, ‘I want the first ad, I want you to thank me. I want you
to thank me for closing the border.’ I said, ‘Yes, sir. I will thank you
for closing the border.’”
Most of the money spent so far in airing the ads has been on
English-language TV stations with more than $2 million, compared to the
$360,000 spent to air them in Spanish-language stations around the
country, data from ad-tracking firm AdImpact shows.
The data shows it has aired the most in TV stations in Phoenix, Boston,
Los Angeles, New York and Dallas. It has also been tracked running on
Fox News in larger markets, with most airings captured in the Washington
and Philadelphia areas.
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Associated Press writer Byron Tau in Washington contributed to this
report.
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