Snopes Confirms Walmart Heiress Christy Walton Funded Anti-ICE New York Times Ad

Walmart heiress Christy Walton paid for a full-page ad in The New York Times criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and a Snopes fact-check published March 25, 2026, confirmed it. Snopes viewed the anti-ICE advertisement in the newspaper to confirm its authenticity, and a spokesperson for Walton confirmed via email that the billionaire paid for it.

The ad appeared on Page 7 of the International section of the March 22, 2026, Sunday edition of The New York Times. A Reddit thread posted the claim along with a purported image of the advertisement, which spelled out the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, featured an illustration of the Statue of Liberty, and included a list of grievances against ICE. Fine print at the bottom of the advertisement read: "Paid for by Christy Walton. 4honor.integrity@gmail.com. The views represented here are solely those of Christy Walton."

The ad featured its own webpage that linked to a November 2025 study by the Cato Institute, a Libertarian nonprofit organization. According to the study, 73% of ICE detainees had no criminal convictions. The Cato Institute's analysis drew on nonpublic ICE data leaked to the organization: of people booked into ICE custody since October 1, 2025, nearly three in four had no criminal conviction, nearly half had no criminal conviction nor any pending criminal charges, and only 8 percent had a violent or property criminal conviction. The ad's webpage also featured links to the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Walton is a billionaire with a net worth of $23.5 billion, as of March 25, according to Forbes, and is the widow of John T. Walton, the son of Walmart cofounder Sam Walton. According to Forbes, Walton inherited a 1.9% stake in Walmart following the 2005 death of her husband in a plane crash.

In June 2025, Walton purchased a full-page advertisement for the "No Kings" protest against President Donald Trump. The March 2026 anti-ICE ad listed an email that matched the one in the June 2025 ad, which Snopes previously used to contact Walton's communications team and confirm her involvement in the earlier campaign. The shared contact address provided Snopes with a clear chain of confirmation linking both ad purchases to Walton directly.

Walton's spokesperson told Snopes that the March 22 ad also ran in other regional and local newspapers during the week that followed, though Snopes attributed that claim to the spokesperson without independently confirming each placement. Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the anti-ICE ad. In June 2025, regarding the "No Kings" advertisement, the company said via email that Walton's ads were "in no way connected to or endorsed by Walmart."

The "No Kings" campaign drew its own sharp corporate response. A spokesperson for Walton told The Hill that the June 2025 ad "focuses on encouraging people to engage peacefully and civically in next weekend's events" and stressed that her support was not related to protests against ICE in Los Angeles and elsewhere. A spokesperson also told CBS MoneyWatch that Walton "believes while we have the right to protest, we do not have a right to violence. She condemns violence in all forms and her message promotes civic engagement, peaceful dialogue, and the sharing of diverse views and voices."

Although Walton is known for leading a private life in Wyoming, she has more recently emerged as a prolific donor for anti-Trump political causes. The March 2026 ICE ad marks her most targeted intervention yet — moving from broad civic exhortation to a specific constitutional argument over detention practices, backed by leaked federal data.