“Absolutely Abhorrent”: Halo Developers Slam Game-Themed ICE Recruitment Advert
Developers for the video game series Halo have slammed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for referencing the game in a recruitment post.
The ICE account on X used slogans from the military-style sci-fi series and an image of the game’s Master Chief—a cybernetically enhanced super-soldier—driving a Warthog vehicle.
The Monday post was captioned “finishing this fight,” which is a reference to a slogan from the popular game.
Highlights
- Halo developers condemned ICE's use of the game's imagery and slogans in a recruitment post, calling it 'absolutely abhorrent' and offensive to fans.
- ICE used 'finishing this fight' and 'destroy the Flood' phrases from Halo, linking them to immigration enforcement in their controversial ad.
- Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto and designer Jaime Griesemer rejected the use of the game's themes to target people, emphasizing that the Flood are fictional enemies.
- The White House posted an AI image of Donald Trump as Master Chief, sparking a playful response from GameStop with similar AI-generated imagery.
Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto described the ICE recruitment drive as abhorrent
Written over the image of Master Chief was the phrase “destroy the Flood” and a message urging people to join ICE, with a recruitment link posted underneath.
“Destroy the Flood” refers to destroying an evil alien parasite that players fight in the game.
Halo’s co-creator, Marcus Lehto, described the post as “absolutely abhorrent” and told Game File, “It really makes me sick seeing Halo co-opted like this.”
Former Halo designer Jaime Griesemer had similar feelings about the game’s imagery being used to drive ICE recruitment.
Image credits: Marcus Lehto
“Using Halo imagery in a call to ‘destroy’ people because of their immigration status goes way too far, and ought to offend every Halo fan, regardless of political orientation. I personally find it despicable,” Griesemer said, according to Game File.
“The Flood are evil space zombie parasites and are not an allegory to any group of people.”
Shortly before ICE shared the post, the White House made an AI-generated image of President Donald Trump as Master Chief standing next to the American flag and captioned it “power to the players.”
That post was in response to retailer GameStop declaring that the “console wars are over” because Halo will officially be available for PlayStation in 2026 with cross-platform play.
The game was released as an Xbox exclusive in the early 2000s.
In response to the White House sharing its post and making a mockup image of Trump, GameStop responded with its own AI image of Trump as Master Chief, alongside an AI image of JD Vance as the character Cortana.
The White House responded by saying, ‘only one leader is fully committed to giving power to the players, and that leader is Donald J. Trump’
Image credits: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
Despite some seeing GameStop’s interaction with the White House as an endorsement of Trump’s presidency, the retailer did not appear concerned.
“If Master Chief is running for office, we’ll let you know,” it said in a statement to TheGamer.
When asked by journalist Alyssa Mercante why the White House had used Halo imagery, Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai responded, “Yet another war ended under President Trump’s watch—only one leader is fully committed to giving power to the players, and that leader is Donald J. Trump.”
Image credits: GameStop
“That’s why he’s hugely popular with the American people and American Gamers.”
Microsoft, the publisher of Halo, did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by media outlets.