ICE uses Ferrell/Walker hit "American Dreaming" in propaganda video, draws immediate rebuke from Ferrell
This is a developing story and will be updated as details become available.
12 November, 2026
A social media account operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) posted an apparent recruitment video this evening which includes audio from the hit song "American Dreaming". Written by Sierra Ferrel and Melody Walker, both prominent critics of ICE, the award-winning song features lyrics comparing an emotionally tumultuous road trip with the loss of the American Dream, and has become a social and political anthem for fans.
Video subject matter
The video, apparently attempting to leverage the song's topic, stiches together home movies, at least some of which are from a stock video clearninghouse, of road trips through the American Southwest, prominently showing Lariat Lodge on East Highway 66 in Gallup, New Mexico and Deluxe Motel at Big Rock Candy Mountain along U.S. Highway 89 in Sevier Canyon, Utah. It also includes footage of cars crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, and a brief shot of the disputed territory of the Black Hills, which the United States Supreme Court ruled belonged to the Lakota people in 1980.
The video carries the facil caption, "The way it was. The way it can be again."
Pickipedia reached out to Ferrell and Walker for comment. Ferrell responded immediately, saying "ice out!" but added that she was not ready to make a full statement, pending discussions with her team. Walker is featured tonight at Berklee School of Music's Roots Music Program and has not yet seen the message.
Previous Interactions Between ICE and 'Dreaming'
Walker and ICE have butted heads before, as Walker was the first Grammy-winning musician to call for an investigation into the murder of ALex Pretti, within hours of his death at the hands of ICE and other agents. Walker has also encouraged her fans to continually video-record ICE.
American Dreaming in particular has been a subject of conflict between Walker and ICE: on July 4, 2025, Walker revealed a previously unreleased verse to the song, referring to ICE as "trading humanity for a false sense of security" and making a call to "abolish borders and patrols".
Ferrell has also been more politically outspoken lately, in October calling into question the authoritarian response to the COVID-19 pandemic and calling for release of the Epstein files.