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

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.