2026年5月12日，美国东部时间下午1:45 / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
作者：迈克尔·威廉姆斯、普里西拉·阿尔瓦雷斯
更新于2026年5月12日，美国东部时间下午3:33
2026年2月4日，明尼苏达州明尼阿波利斯，移民海关执法局探员离开主教亨利·惠普尔联邦大楼。
约翰·摩尔/盖蒂图片社
唐纳德·特朗普总统已在社交媒体和采访中明确表示，他认为移民海关执法局（ICE）需要更名——更具体地说，是换个新名字：国家移民海关执法局，简称NICE。
这项改革是会以行政命令的形式推进，还是仅仅会成为一个网络梗，已经成为白宫和国土安全部内部争论的焦点。
更名移民海关执法局这一想法——这需要国会通过法案，而非仅凭一道行政命令就能实现——似乎起源于社交媒体。4月底，总统在其Truth Social账号上转发了一张X平台上的建议截图，提议将机构更名“这样媒体就不得不整天播报NICE探员”。
“绝妙的主意！！！马上执行，”总统在Truth Social上写道。
自那以后，白宫以及监管移民海关执法局的内阁机构国土安全部都在其社交媒体账号上分享了支持更名的梗图。据一位知情人士透露，随着这些梗图走红，移民海关执法局的官员们处于待命状态，以防白宫推进更名工作，并开始测算相关成本——从更换信笺到背心标识等方方面面。
特朗普表示，他感受到了基层探员以及白宫边境事务专员汤姆·霍曼的反对，他们对此并不热衷。
“但我不确定那些家伙是否喜欢这个提议，因为……我认为他们喜欢自己强硬执法的形象，而且他们的工作表现非常出色，”他在周二接受WABC电台《西德尼与朋友们早间节目》采访时说道。
国土安全部发言人在一份声明中表示：“移民海关执法局的男女探员们始终冒着生命危险，在美国各地逮捕并遣返刑事非法外籍人士。”
一位白宫官员否认更名曾被认真考虑过。
“这一直都只是用来嘲讽左派的趣味梗——而且确实奏效了！”该官员说道。“归根结底，特朗普总统始终希望做那些最符合保家卫国的公职人员利益的事。”
相关互动报道 CNN 国土安全部加速推进移民执法攻势，这场战斗正分三条战线展开
在特朗普的第二任期内，移民海关执法局或许是受到审查最严厉、最受公众关注的联邦机构，其探员在全国范围内开展有时颇具争议的移民逮捕行动。
今年1月，一名移民海关执法局警员在明尼阿波利斯枪杀美国公民蕾妮·古德后，民意调查显示，略多于一半的美国人认为该机构正在让美国城市变得更不安全。
意识到这些批评，今年3月上任的国土安全部部长马克韦恩·马林多次表示，他希望在保持强硬执法姿态的同时，采取“低调”的移民执法方式。
“毫无疑问，我们始终紧盯所有非法移民，”马林上周在接受《纽smax》采访时说道。“我们刻意尝试更加低调……但这并不意味着我们的执法力度有丝毫放缓。”
移民海关执法局是根据2002年《国土安全法案》设立的，这一9·11事件后通过的国会法案同时创立了国土安全部。由于该机构由国会设立，更名需要国会采取行动。
但过去，这类技术细节并未阻止本届政府在权限之外更改机构名称。
去年9月，总统签署行政命令，将国防部更名为战争部——将这个内阁机构的名称恢复到美国独立战争结束至第二次世界大战结束期间使用的旧称。
美国国会预算办公室今年早些时候估计，国防部更名的成本可能高达1.25亿美元。目前尚不清楚移民海关执法局更名需要多少成本；国防部的规模远大于移民海关执法局。但如果这个移民执法机构真的启动更名工作，将需要对官方信笺、电子邮件地址、建筑外立面、徽章臂章以及车辆贴纸等所有相关物品进行大规模更换。
特朗普政府官员和盟友还在推动将总统的名字加入约翰·肯尼迪表演艺术中心和美国和平研究所，尽管有人质疑他们是否无需国会批准就能做到这一点。
白宫曾表现出强烈意愿，打击那些不使用总统偏好称谓的机构。
特朗普第二次就职后不久，他签署行政命令，要求内政部将墨西哥湾重新命名为美国湾。在美联社拒绝在稿件中使用政府偏好的新名称后，白宫试图禁止美联社报道总统的部分活动。
美联社就这些限制提起诉讼，目前该诉讼仍在审理中。
本文已更新补充最新进展。
CNN的亚历杭德拉·哈拉米略和阿莱娜·特里恩为本报道撰稿。
Trump wants to rebrand ICE as NICE. Not everyone agrees
May 12, 2026, 1:45 PM ET / CNN
By Michael Williams, Priscilla Alvarez
Updated May 12, 2026, 3:33 PM ET
ICE agents depart the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building on February 4, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
John Moore/Getty Images
President Donald Trump has made clear on social media and in interviews that he thinks Immigration and Customs Enforcement needs a rebrand — more specifically, a new name: National Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or NICE.
Whether that change will move forward, in the form of an executive order, or whether it will just be a meme, has been the topic of internal debate at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security.
The idea to change the name of ICE — which would require an act of Congress, not simply an executive order — appears to have originated on social media. In late April, the president shared to his Truth Social account a screenshot of a suggestion made on X that the name be changed “so the media has to say NICE agents all day.”
“GREAT IDEA!!! DO IT,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Since then, both the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, the Cabinet agency that oversees ICE, have shared memes to their social media accounts endorsing the name change. As the memes took off, officials at ICE remained on standby in case the White House chose to move forward with a name change and crunched numbers on what that would look like, from changing stationary to vests, per a source familiar.
Trump said he’s felt pushback from rank-and-file officers, along with the White House’s border czar, Tom Homan, who were not as enthusiastic.
“But I’m not sure that the guys liked it, because … I think they like their image of being strong, and they’ve done a great job,” he said during a Tuesday interview on WABC’s “Sid and Friends in the Morning.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that “the NICE men and women of ICE continue to risk their lives to arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from American communities.”
A White House official denied that a name change was ever seriously being considered.
“This has always just been a fun meme to troll the libs – and it’s worked!” the official said. “Ultimately, President Trump always wants to do what’s in the best interest of the men and women who keep Americans safe.”
Related interactive CNN There’s a battle on three fronts as DHS turbocharges its immigration offensive
ICE has been perhaps the most heavily and publicly scrutinized federal agency in Trump’s second term, as its agents have deployed nationwide to conduct at-times controversial immigration arrests.
Following the shooting of US citizen Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis in January, public opinion polling found that slightly more than half of Americans believed the agency was making US cities less safe.
Aware of that criticism, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has frequently said he wants to take a “quiet” approach to immigration enforcement while maintaining an aggressive posture.
“We’re staying focused on all illegals, without question,” Mullin, who took over DHS in March, told Newsmax last week. “We’re purposefully trying to be a little more quiet. … That doesn’t mean we’re slowing down even a little bit.”
ICE was created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the post-9/11 law enacted by Congress that also created the Department of Homeland Security. Because the agency was created by Congress, changing its name would require congressional action.
But such technicalities have not prevented the administration from acting outside of its authority to change agencies’ names in the past.
In September, the president signed an executive order renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War — reverting the Cabinet agency’s moniker to one was used from the end of the American Revolution to the end of World War II.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated earlier this year that the Department of Defense rebrand could cost up to $125 million. It’s not clear how much the ICE rebrand could cost; the Department of Defense is a much larger entity than ICE. But if the immigration agency commits to a rebrand, it would require extensive changes to everything from official letterhead and email addresses to building facades, badges and patches, and vehicle decals.
Trump officials and allies have also moved to add the president’s name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the US Institute of Peace, despite questions about whether they could do so without congressional approval.
The White House has shown a willingness to lash out at those who do not use the president’s preferred nomenclature.
Shortly after Trump was inaugurated for the second time, he signed an executive order directing the Department of the Interior to redesignate the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. After the Associated Press declined to use the administration’s preferred name in its written copy, the White House sought to ban the AP from covering some events with the president.
The AP sued over those restrictions, and that litigation is ongoing.
This article has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo and Alayna Treene contributed to this report.