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The Department of Homeland Security has named recent immigration enforcement operations and detention facilities with punchy, sometimes mocking titles, drawing both praise and backlash from U.S. lawmakers and others who are split over what the branding signals. The names have included “Operation Dirtbag” in Florida, “Operation Catahoula Crunch,” also known as Swamp Sweep, in Louisiana, and “Operation Catch of the Day” in Maine, according to the Associated Press report.
Democratic critics said the language goes beyond tone and reflects how the administration views the people targeted by enforcement. Congressman Jimmy Gomez, a California Democrat, told The Associated Press that the names send a message that immigrants in the U.S. are “sub-human.” Gomez added, “That is why they have those disgusting names,” and he said administration officials “don’t even use that kind of language when they conduct operations across the globe dealing with some of the worst terrorists imaginable.”
Republicans who support the administration’s immigration actions argued the names are not evidence of insensitivity, but instead show that President Donald Trump is not loosening enforcement. Congressman Brandon Gill, a Texas Republican, said the naming demonstrates seriousness about border security and deportation efforts. “I think all he’s doing is letting them know we continue to be serious about that,” Gill said. “We’re serious about keeping the border secure. We’re serious about deporting illegal aliens.”
The backlash has also extended to how state officials described the impact on daily life in communities where operations are carried out. In Maine, Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree criticized “the branding” as “racist and degrading” to Mainers and to the state’s immigrant communities, and she said “It’s a sick joke” in a social media post. Maine Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows called the operation “the grotesquely named operation” and warned the administration’s actions and messaging have chilled business and civic life. “When ICE agents are patrolling the streets and arresting and imprisoning people, wrongly, then people are afraid to go out,” Bellows told AP.
State Democratic Sen. Joe Baldacci added that the situation involved people’s lives rather than branding. “This isn’t a special on a restaurant menu. This is people’s lives,” Baldacci said. An immigration attorney in Miami, Hector Diaz, also criticized the branding after it drew criticism and became part of internet memes and merchandise, saying it “seems like they’re just trying to market their detention centers in a trolling type of way.”
Some supporters of the administration said the naming reflects a political message about enforcement rather than a joke. The AP report described a view from outside politics on how operations get named, noting that in war time, operation titles were historically benign and intended not to draw suspicion if overheard or seen on paper. Michael O’Hanlon, director of research in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, said examples from World War II included Operation Market Garden and Operation Torch.
In the modern era, O’Hanlon said operation code names can project an image of how a mission is going and can be used as “a chance for an administration to project an image of how a mission is going.” He also described how an administration may use naming to create a “victory dance.” O’Hanlon cited the Trump administration’s 2025 bombing campaign on Iran, which he said was named “Operation Midnight Hammer,” and he contrasted that with more generic naming when prospects are uncertain.
For the current immigration raids, O’Hanlon said the names are more than a label: they communicate “their motivation, their purpose, and therefore, their justification.” The AP report also said the administration has used similar naming for detention facilities, including “Speedy Slammer” in Indiana, “Cornhusker Clink” in Nebraska, and “Alligator Alcatraz” and “Deportation Depot” in Florida.
The naming drew additional cultural controversy in November, when the Trump administration played on the children’s book “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White while launching an immigration sweep in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the same title. The report said Martha White, the author’s granddaughter, said her grandfather would have hated the reference and that he “believed in the rule of law and due process.”
The AP report described how the names have persisted even as Trump officials suggested after fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota that federal agents’ conduct could be restrained, and amid allegations of other misconduct by federal immigration officers. Supporters of the administration dismissed criticism of rhetoric as distraction from the substance of immigration enforcement. Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, said in an email that “to whine about the name of the operation is an absurd distraction from the absolute disaster these same Democrats have allowed to occur across Maine.”
Separately, congressional Democrats have promised investigations into the conduct of, and potential abuses by, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers. The AP report also said Democrats have vowed to investigate the agency’s rhetoric and social media posts if they win control of either chamber this year.
Debu Gandhi, senior director of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, said the operation names are adding to the damage from what she described as the administration’s “unconstitutional racial profiling and reckless, unaccountable enforcement tactics.” Gandhi said, “America can have a secure border and effective immigration enforcement without the type of lawless cruelty and chaos we’ve seen from Trump.”