In early August 2025, days after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched a campaign to recruit 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, a claim (archived) circulated online that the former "Superman" actor Dean Cain announced he had joined ICE.
Cain played Clark Kent (and Superman) in "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," which ran from 1993-1997.
One X user posted a video of Cain allegedly making the announcement with the caption "BREAKING: American actor and icon Dean Cain announces he's joined ICE — and is calling on fellow Americans to do the same. Now this is what I call patriotism."
The claim and Cain's video also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), Reddit (archived), Bluesky (archived) and TikTok (archived). Snopes readers also searched our site asking if the claim was true.
Cain did post a video (archived) on his X account on Aug. 5 encouraging people to join ICE. While many social media users shared this video as proof Cain had already joined, Cain said (archived) in a comment posted six hours later that he "never said" he had joined ICE.
However, on Aug. 6, Cain appeared on the Fox News show "Jesse Watters Primetime" and said he had "spoken with some officials over at ICE" and would be "sworn in as an ICE agent ASAP." Cain also replied to an X post claiming he hadn't joined ICE, writing (archived): "And now I have..."
Therefore, while the video circulating alongside the claim was not proof in itself that Cain had joined ICE, Cain himself later told Watters and social media users that he had. Ultimately, Cain did announce he had joined ICE so we rate this claim as true.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement on Aug. 7, 2025, that Cain would be sworn in "in the coming month."
Though he may have wanted to, Cain could not have joined ICE by the time he posted his Aug. 5 recruitment video because ICE enforced age limits on applicants before Aug. 6. Before this date, applicants had to be 21 to 40 years old, depending on the role. Cain was born in July 1966 according to IMBD.com, making him 59 years old in August 2025.
However, on Aug. 6, the day after Cain released his video, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that ICE would waive age limits for applicants. Noem reportedly told Fox and Friends that applicants could be as young as 18 years old.
Noem's Aug. 6 announcement made it possible for Cain to join ICE, as he said he had done on that same day.
Cain has prior experience working in law enforcement. The Pocatello Police Department in Idaho posted (archived) about "Reserve Officer Dean Cain" in June 2020. A news report from 2022 said Cain had served as a volunteer deputy with the Frederick County Sheriff's Office in Virginia for a year at that time.
According to the DHS, which launched its nationwide recruitment campaign on July 29, more than 80,000 people had applied to join ICE by Aug. 6.
Snopes previously looked into claims about ICE's 2025 recruitment campaign, including reported benefits like student loan repayment and sign-on bonuses.