An AI-generated image of an alligator in an ICE hat. A line of handcuffed immigrants being boarded onto a deportation flight, backed by the “Jet2 Holiday” audio. A still from the movie E.T., encouraging immigrants to “go home.”
The Trump administration’s use of social media jokes to promote the president’s harsh and unpopular immigration policies is raising concerns among extremism experts that it dehumanizes immigrants by normalizing violence against them.
The memes, along with artwork that alludes to nativist ideals and music that resonates with young people, are the latest move by the administration to promote its controversial policy of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. Approximately 56,000 people have already been deported.
The memes make light of aggressive ICE raids, some of which have turned violent. In one instance, a car was rammed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while a baby, toddler, and woman were sitting in the backseat.
In July, DHS’s official X page posted a meme tapping into the viral TikTok “Jet2 Holiday” trend, which typically uses the ad’s theme song to show a funny or awkward moment on vacation. DHS used it to show handcuffed immigrants lined up to board a deportation flight.
In another post, the DHS communications team posted an AI-generated image of alligators wearing ICE hats, making light of the recently-opened detention facility called “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida. Detainees have alleged there is maggot-infested food, limited water to bathe, and overcrowding at the facility.
DHS’s Instagram account uses popular music in montages of gun-wielding officers conducting practice raids. One video, with more than five million views, uses the words “epic takedown” to describe ICE agents storming what appears to be a day laborer pickup spot and throwing people to the ground.
The DHS account also used an audio compilation of Trump saying “bye-bye” to flash mugshots of immigrants on screen – bragging about the number of people detained.
Experts in social media and extremism told WIRED that the messaging is meant to target young people, and also downplays the real-life impact of immigration raids.
“I don’t think that this messaging is bad because it’s mean, or because it’s sloppy, or because it’s unbecoming of the Office of the President, although all these things I do believe are true,” Kurt Braddock, an assistant professor at American University who studies persuasive strategies used by violent extremist groups, told WIRED.
“My biggest problem with it is that it normalizes aggression. With the normalization of aggression and the normalization of the dehumanization of others, immigrants or otherwise, it’s not much of a jump to actual violence,” Braddock added.
Trump has called immigrants “criminals,” “illegal monsters,” and a “threat.” His language is echoed by senior immigration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who has referred to immigrants as “dirtbags.”
However approximately 70 percent of those in detention centers do not have a criminal record, according to TRAC Reports, a nonprofit data-gathering organization at Syracuse University. It found that most of those convicted of crimes have committed minor offenses, such as traffic violations.
Joan Donovan, an assistant professor at Boston University and co-author of a book about memes in politics, told WIRED that DHS, “in particular,” is using its social media to recruit and promote ideals toward “young men in their teenage years or twenties.”
Government agencies are trying to appear relatable to Gen Z with memes and other social media tactics. Recent documents from ICE shows that the agency specifically wants to target “Gen Z and early-career professionals,” to fill more than 14,000 immigration job posts. The strategy is to target the groups through ads on Hulu, HBO Max, and Amazon Prime in addition to making social media posts, according to the documents.
Most recently, DHS’s Instagram page has used nostalgic audio and visuals to appeal to young people to join ICE. In one video, with more than 1.5 million views, a group of immigrants board a deportation flight while Frank Sinatra’s Come Fly With Me plays.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin has defended the use of memes in the past, telling NBC News that she was not concerned about the content being divisive because the administration was using social media to “straighten out the facts.”
In a statement to WIRED, McLaughlin said: “What’s ‘cruel’ is the media continuing to ignore victims of murder, rape, human trafficking, and gang violence as you continue to do the bidding of violent criminal illegal aliens.”
Abigail Jackson, White House spokesperson, said: “The White House social media account often highlights the deportations of heinous criminal illegal aliens who have terrorized American communities.”
Jackson referred to an earlier statement issued to WIRED which slammed the magazine and “so-called ‘experts, that they refused to provide additional information on, should cover what’s actually cruel—criminal illegal aliens murdering, raping, and assaulting innocent American citizens as a direct result of Joe Biden’s open border and Democrat sanctuary city policies. And while WIRED runs cover for criminal illegal aliens, we won’t apologize for posting banger memes.”
Lately, DHS and ICE’s Instagram and X pages have posted American artwork that espouses nativist ideals.
That includes “American Progress,” a 1872 painting by John Gast, of an ethereal Lady Liberty floating above a Western landscape as white settlers advance across the frame with stage coaches and rail lines while Native Americans and buffalo run to the margins. In July, DHS posted the image with the caption: “A Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Defending.”
A separate X post, captioned “Remember your Homeland’s Heritage”, features the contemporary painting “A Prayer for a New Life” by Morgan Weistling, a close-up of a white pioneer couple clutching a baby in the back of a covered wagon.
Brian Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, told WIRED that “short bursts of imagery and music appeal emotionally in ways that facts and data often don’t.”
He added, “It functions as an emotionally familiar and comforting gift-wrap that here revolves around protection, preservation, fear, and tribalism.”
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