A recent Homeland Security social media post was a little too on the nose for one IndyCar driver.
Touting plans for an immigration detention center in Indiana dubbed the ‘Speedway Slammer,’ the department posted an AI image of an open-wheel race car speeding alongside a detention center in an apparent nod to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The race car features the abbreviation for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ‘ICE,’ and one other key detail: the No. 5.
IndyCar, the racing league that takes its name the state’s famed Indianapolis 500, currently has only one Mexican-born driver, Pato O’Ward, who also happens to drive the No. 5 car.
O’Ward has since shared his shock with reporters.
‘It caught a lot of people off guard. Definitely caught me off guard,’ O’Ward said Wednesday in Arlington, Texas, where he was throwing out the first pitch at a Rangers game. ‘I was just a little bit shocked at the coincidences of that and, you know, of what it means. … I don’t think it made a lot of people proud, to say the least.’
IndyCar, the racing league that takes its name the state’s famed Indianapolis 500, currently has only one Mexican-born driver, Pato O’Ward, who also happens to drive the No. 5 car
Touting plans for an immigration detention center in Indiana dubbed the ‘Speedway Slammer,’ the department posted an AI image of an open-wheel race car with Pato O’Ward’s number
O’Ward, a US citizen who grew up in Texas, said he didn’t see the post until a friend texted him about it.
‘I haven’t really read into it too much because I don’t think I want to,’ he said.
An IndyCar spokesperson also responded to the controversy on Wednesday.
‘We were unaware of plans to incorporate our imagery as part of yesterday’s announcement,’ IndyCar said in a statement. ‘Consistent with our approach to public policy and political issues, we are communicating our preference that our IP not be utilized moving forward in relation to this matter.’
DHS officials were undeterred by the pushback, saying Wednesday they would continue promoting the plan with the name.
‘An AI generated image of a car with ‘ICE’ on the side does not violate anyone’s intellectual property rights,’ DHS said in a statement. ‘Any suggestion to the contrary is absurd.’
The 26-year-old O’Ward, who was born in Monterrey, Mexico, is second in points, though Alex Palou can clinch the IndyCar season title as early as this weekend in Portland.
O’Ward was in Texas to promote next year’s inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington.
That race on March 15 will be on a 2.7-mile layout that goes around the home stadiums of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and MLB’s Texas Rangers.
O’Ward’s No. 5 car is seen during the Monterey Grand Prix in California last month
O’Ward, seen here at a recent Rangers game, grew up in Texas and is a US citizen
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem trumpeted the deal late Tuesday, saying Indiana would add 1,000 detention beds for immigrants facing deportation under a revived federal program.
‘If you are in America illegally, you could find yourself in Indiana’s Speedway Slammer,’ Noem said, likening it to the controversial facility built in the Florida Everglades. She added the new partnership will ‘help remove the worst of the worst out of our country.’
President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan distanced himself from that name Wednesday, saying the idea wasn’t his.
‘But I’ll say this, the work of ICE, the men and women of ICE, are trying to do their job with integrity and honor,’ he told reporters at the White House. ‘I don’t want these names to detract from that.’
The nation’s newest immigration court opened in Indianapolis earlier this year as a way to address the backlog and divert cases from the busy courthouse in Chicago.
Federal and state leaders are also working on plans to use a central Indiana military base, Camp Atterbury, to temporarily house detainees.