President Donald Trump and his allies have unabashedly targeted illegal immigrants over the past month with a near-daily barrage of public service announcement-type posts on social media that threaten to “hunt” down those who refuse to self-deport.
The Trump administration has waged a public relations campaign that features not-so-subtle, point-blank warnings for immigrants illegally in the country to get out and ridicules those who have been caught and are in the process of being removed from the United States.
Critics have said the videos and announcements dehumanize immigrants and are creating fear in many minority communities nationwide.
However, the extent to which the ads have prompted immigrants to self-deport remains unclear.
The English-only ads that federal agencies have run on X, Facebook, and Instagram are not likely to be understood by Spanish-speaking immigrants, but immigration experts largely agree that the “public fear” campaign is reaching that community and pushing them to leave.
‘We will hunt you down’
Senior members of the Trump administration, including the president himself, have pushed out the ads. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also appeared in numerous videos in which she is often surrounded by heavily armed police and almost appears to be leading the troops into battle, accompanying federal agents and officers as they make arrests under the cover of darkness nationwide.
“If you come to this country and break our laws, we will hunt you down,” Noem wrote in a post to X, accompanied by a video in which she is surrounded by geared-up law enforcement officers.
We will not be deterred by leaks. If you come to this country and break our laws, we will hunt you down.
Successful enforcement operation this morning—getting MS-13 members, 18th Street gang members and perpetrators of sexual crimes off our streets. pic.twitter.com/67iqcFJw6x
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) March 4, 2025
The White House social media accounts publicly made fun of illegal immigrant Virginia Basora-Gonzalez when she was arrested by federal police as a previously deported immigrant who was convicted of fentanyl trafficking.
“She wept when taken into custody (picture attached),” the White House account posted, showing an example of what would happen to illegal immigrants who do not leave the country.
Virginia Basora-Gonzalez, a previously deported alien felon convicted of fentanyl trafficking, was arrested by @ICEgov in Philadelphia after illegally reentering the U.S.
She wept when taken into custody (picture attached). pic.twitter.com/qwTpCgTRu9
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 18, 2025
Even Trump chimed in with a personal warning that illegal immigrants could have it the “easy way” or the “hard way.”
ILLEGAL ALIENS: Download the CBP Home App – Now Available on All App Stores
Do it the easy way, or get deported the hard way. pic.twitter.com/Kb3GgAl7it
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 18, 2025
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) blitzed X with a warning to criminal illegal immigrants who want to avoid El Salvador’s mega prison, where Trump has sent alleged Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members recently.
“Criminal illegal aliens who want to avoid El Salvador’s prisons should self-deport immediately,” Cotton wrote in a statement.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that arrests and deports illegal immigrants, began posting mug shots and details of many of the arrestees picked up in ICE’s immigration enforcement operations in January.
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) March 22, 2025
Beyond the social media posts, Trump has been very vocal about sending illegal immigrants captured by ICE to the detention camp at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. His administration very publicly lit up social media with videos and photos of illegal immigrants as they were handcuffed and prepared to board a plane to Guantanamo Bay as Semisonic’s song “Closing Time” played over the video.
The White House account has since deleted the video after the band issued a statement that it had not given permission to use its song in association with that message.
It is now 5PM.
Did you just get off work?
Here is a soothing video of the Trump administration cuffing and deporting criminal aliens to the song “Closing Time.” pic.twitter.com/3gFPkeYyXl
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 17, 2025
Is English-language messaging reaching non-English-speaking immigrants?
Immigration lawyers and analysts were divided on the impact of the White House’s messages, given that they have only been posted on social media in English.
Rosanna Berardi, managing partner of Berardi Immigration Law, said the messaging has managed to get picked up globally, and while she has not had any clients approach her office for help self-deporting, Trump’s communication strategy has “created substantial anxiety among undocumented individuals.”
“The messaging is being covered worldwide and in multiple languages, including Spanish,” Berardi wrote in an email. “U.S. immigration agencies and global partners are sharing the information through various platforms to ensure the message reaches its intended audience, regardless of language or location.”
One leader in the immigrant rights community, who is based in New York City and requested to remain anonymous to speak freely about what the immigrant community is seeing, said the messaging has prompted some people in her region to self-deport.
“Regarding the language, there is so much that gets shared and reshared on other social media platforms that are in other languages besides English that the messaging, I feel, is still getting across,” she said.
David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, suggested that the immigration policies, not the social media posts themselves, would have a greater impact on immigrants.
“I don’t think there’s much additional fear generated from these English-language posts and videos, which many immigrants won’t see or read,” Bier wrote in an email. “Immigrants are on edge enough from the policies being enacted. Most immigrants are going to wait and see if the policies affect anyone they know. They know plenty of people who made it through the first term.”
White House “border czar” Tom Homan told the Washington Examiner during a Tuesday gaggle outside the White House that the administration is “working on” doing more to reach Spanish speakers, given that historically, immigrants arrested at the southern border and released into the country have been from Spanish-speaking countries.
“You’re going to see more Spanish-language posts,” Homan said.
The Trump administration has also debuted a $200 million domestic and international ad campaign, “Stay Out and Leave Now,” though details on it have not been publicized.
Administration’s intent is to send ‘clear’ message
Trump administration officials were not concerned that the messages have gone too far, with Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks saying the goal is to clearly communicate options to illegal immigrants: either sign up on the government’s CBP Home app and make plans to self-deport or face a more unpleasant means of removal by being arrested and removed when the government decides.
“There’s zero intent to create public fear,” Banks told the Washington Examiner in an interview in mid-March. “The intent is to send a clear message to anyone who wants to come to the country illegally, ‘Do not come.’ If you come to this country illegally, you’re going to be apprehended, you’re going to be prosecuted, and you’re going to be removed. That’s the message we’re sending out.”
White House spokesman Kush Desai said the administration’s intention was also to convey its immigration policy.
“President Trump was elected with a resounding mandate to secure our borders and mass deport criminal illegal migrants,” Desai wrote in an email. “The Trump administration is committed to delivering on this mandate and sending a clear message while doing so: our immigration laws will be enforced and respected.”
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Andrew R. Arthur, a former immigration judge who is now a resident fellow in law and policy at the immigration restrictionist nonprofit Center for Immigration Studies, said the messaging is completely in line with what Trump promised and even a proactive warning.
“Convincing these aliens to voluntarily leave the United States in lieu of being deported is the purpose for what Trump, Noem, and Homan are doing,” Arthur wrote in an email.
