Editor’s note: Nicole is taking some much-deserved time off around her birthday this week, so other TPM staffers will be filling in on Where Things Stand. She’ll be back on Tuesday Oct. 13.
‘So That No One Will Escape’
So-called “challenge coins” have become particularly popular souvenirs in the Trump era. Some have been distributed at the highest levels of government and inside facilities playing a key role in the deportation surge. Others are novelty items popular among both fans and foes of the current administration. And one being sold online as a token of an ICE division in Arizona features a particularly dark comment about “hunting” people.
The coin in question was listed for sale on eBay and is branded “U.S. ERO Yuma ICE.” Along with a snarling wolf-like creature, the coin, which is in the shape of a police badge, features two twisted mottoes.
“There is no hunting like the hunting of man,” it says.
On the other side, the coin has a small emblem with a horse’s head emblazoned over crossed swords and the phrase “NE QUIS EFFUGIAT,” which is Latin for “So that no one will escape.” That second ominous slogan also popped up in court documents that alleged a federal agent who used a prohibited chokehold on an immigrant in Massachusetts during a traffic stop was wearing a hat emblazoned with the motto.
While it is not clear that the “hunting of man” coin is an official government product, ERO is the abbreviation for “Enforcement Removal Operations,” which is an ICE division that, per the agency’s website, “manages all aspects of the immigration enforcement process, including the identification, arrest, detention and removal” of people who are in the country illegally. As a result, it has played a key role in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
The eBay seller who listed the coin described it as being from Yuma, Arizona, where ICE has had an ERO presence. While the seller did not respond to a request for comment from TPM, their eBay store page indicates they are a manufacturer based in China. Their other offerings include challenge coins associated with military units, local sheriff’s departments, and other federal law enforcement agencies.
Along with the other slogans and the snarling animal, the coin features desert imagery, a watchtower, and the words “SILENT,” “PATIENT,” and “RELENTLESS.”
Challenge coins have long been a tradition at various government agencies, particularly among military and law enforcement. During Trump’s second term, several top administration officials have apparently crafted and distributed their own challenge coins including former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel, who had an especially elaborate custom piece featuring the Punisher logo, and the president himself.
Within the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, challenge coins have been created and handed out by officials; private, not-for-profit employee associations within the agency; and more unofficial sources like unions, outside political groups, and merchandisers. The coins have become popular with collectors in addition to members of the government.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TPM about the source of the Yuma coin. Back in April, we reported on a challenge coin that was distributed to staff inside of a federal building in Minnesota that served as a hub for the controversial “Metro Surge” operation that led to a surge of deportations and detentions around Minneapolis. At the time, a DHS spokesperson provided a statement indicating the department and its component agencies had processes for reviewing “branded merchandise” and for addressing “coins or patches that may not have been properly approved.”
Since doing that story, we have kept an eye on the robust online marketplace for ICE-themed challenge coins. New items consistently pop up. Like other law enforcement challenge coins, they often feature violent and offensive imagery. For example, one recent eBay listing for a coin branded “NYC ERO” was decorated with a depiction of the Statue of Liberty as a menacing skeleton. DHS similarly did not reply to a request for comment about that coin. However, the eBay seller offering it for sale indicated it had been crafted for federal agents. In a message to TPM, the seller said their coins “are either sourced directly from other agencies or directly from the manufacturer who has been charged with the distribution of the coins on behalf of the agency or a particular unit within the agency.”
“This one came directly from the manufacturer,” they added.
Whether these twisted tokens are coming from inside ICE or simply from the agency’s fans, they are a telling symbol of our current moment. They are evidence that, for some people in this country, the promise of Lady Liberty welcoming the huddled masses yearning to breathe free has been replaced with a vision of hunting down humans and a far more disturbing motto: No one will escape.
Read This From TPM
In today’s Backchannel, Josh Marshall takes a trip in the wayback machine to recall the life of the late, disgraced Denny Hastert. Josh recounts his time as an early-career reporter chronicling Hastert’s surprise rise as House Speaker, and covering his catastrophic fall from grace amid revelations that he was a chronic child sex abuser.
Yesterday’s Top Story
The Bizarre AI Ad Trying to Make an Extremist Candidate Look Like Jesus
What I’m Reading
Some Democrats don’t expect to fill a Supreme Court vacancy under Trump
What’s there to say? Abolish ICE now.
I believe the technical term is “what the actual f–k?”
We can abolish ICE.
What we cannot abolish or rid ourselves in any way, shape or form is:
The people who see that motto and think:
The place the nation is edging toward where:
“There is no hunting like the hunting of man.” - there are people who nod and don’t flinch from this. It’s a cultural shift that we’re all watching from here and not knowing exactly where it will end.
We remember when immigration enforcement was bureaucratic, not theatrical.
Procedural, not performative.
Serious, not sadistic.
And now we’re watching a segment of the population cheer for the darkest version of it.
When did all of this become ‘normal’ and/or accepted?
There is no bottom. Disgusting
They are mentally, intellectually, morally and ethically challenged.