The Department of Homeland Security circulated a be-on-the-lookout alert for Nashville-based standup comedian and prankster Ben Palmer in February, targeting him over a parody anti-immigration tip website that had been drawing attention online. The bulletin, later shared by Illinois State Police to a distribution list of state and local agencies, identified Palmer and his satire project as online immigration impersonation.
The alert matters because Palmer was not a fringe figure. His YouTube channel had 807,000 subscribers when the document was captured, and his videos of calls with members of the public who thought they were reporting immigrants to ICE had already gone viral. The DHS Nashville field office included screenshots from his spoof tip site, two screenshots from his YouTube channel and his photograph in the bulletin obtained by Injustice Watch through a public records request tied to an unrelated matter.
Palmer's site is built to look official. It uses phrases such as official report form and says reports are submitted through official federal channels, while the privacy policy says the site is for parody. The alert said Palmer runs a satirical website impersonating a submission form that acts as a mechanism for reporting suspected illegal aliens. It also acknowledged there appears to be no direct threat to life or infrastructure, language that set the document apart from a criminal case or a public safety emergency.
A DHS spokesperson said there is no investigation into Palmer and described the document as an internal memo shared for awareness purposes only. The spokesperson also said law enforcement and civilians should be aware of potential websites and individuals impersonating federal law enforcement. That distinction is central to the story: the government says it was warning agencies about impersonation, not opening a case against a comedian whose work depends on getting people to reveal themselves on camera.
Palmer said he did not know about the bulletin until an Injustice Watch reporter told him. He said being singled out by the government for his comedy was a badge of honor. “To be honest, for me, it’s the best of both worlds. I don’t get arrested but I still get to say that the Department of Homeland Security created a document about me, which is … in my line of work I always look at these things as more like certificates, badges of honor,” he said. He added, “The government wastes a lot of time in tax dollars, for sure, but when you have your own little section on that, it’s kind of like, I feel honored.”
But Palmer also said the attention carried a darker edge, warning that government monitoring of his material could escalate into something more serious, including being arrested. The timing sharpened that concern. The BOLO was issued about a week before The Washington Post profiled Palmer after a kindergarten teacher reported one of her student’s parents to his supposed-tip page on spurious grounds. In the end, the document shows how far satire about immigration enforcement has traveled — and how quickly a parody page can become something federal officers decide to flag nationwide.
