The Department of Homeland Security was caught using a meme created by an antisemitic white nationalist activist to promote their mass deportation efforts, journalist Zaid Jilani reported for The American Saga — and when confronted over it, a senior DHS official was completely unapologetic.
This is emerging on the same day that Trump's DHS faces a firestorm of controversy for having Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) tackled and handcuffed when he tried to ask DHS Secretary Kristi Noem about the administration's military occupation of Los Angeles during a news conference.
"On Wednesday, the DHS Twitter account posted an image of an Uncle Sam figure alongside the text 'REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS,'" wrote Jilani.
The problem, he noted, is that immigration policy expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick identified the origin of that meme, and it came from an account known as “mrrobertwp.”
"'Mrrobertwp' aka Mr. Robert is a white nationalist Twitter account," wrote Jilani. "He accuses Members of Congress of being 'Jew owned' and he’s a big fan of anti-black racial slurs, defending their use. He believes that Trump is the 'Great White Hope,' and one of his favorite slogans is 'Wake Up White Man,' which he posted repeatedly." Mr. Robert gloated about being able to get the cabinet department overseeing immigration and border security to post his meme, writing, “It's far reaching fellas. We really hit it out of the park with this one.”
However, when Jilani reached out to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin asking why they posted the meme and whether they plan to take it down now that they know its origin, McLaughlin lashed out.
"These assertions are fundamentally unserious and reflect the completely juvenile state of mainstream journalism. These reporters should get off social media and start focusing on the very real victims of illegal alien crime," she said in a statement. "Every American citizen should support federal law enforcement in their just effort to deport criminal illegal alien invaders from our country. During the Biden Administration our borders were opened to an invasion by the very worst from around the world. Now President Trump and Secretary Noem are reversing the destruction of our nation and sending these thugs back."
All of this comes as the Trump administration has sought to ramp up mass deportation efforts around the country, often in ways that subvert due process and have been rebuked by federal courts.