As the Trump administration battled with a federal judge over the use of wartime powers to deport alleged gang members to El Salvador, the White House X account on Monday posted a video of migrants being handcuffed and sent away, to the soundtrack of the 1998 Semisonic hit “Closing Time,” a song that’s often associated with the end of a party.
“You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here @CBP,” the White House posted, with musical note emojis — a reference to the song lyrics. The video was also posted on Team Trump’s TikTok and reposted by the official account for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, with the caption: “It’s closing time. We are making America safe again.”
…
… immigration experts… described the use of humor as dehumanizing by minimizing the impact and repercussions of the government’s aggressive actions. They added that images of migrants in shackles boarding deportation flights contribute to Trump’s broad portrayal of undocumented immigrants as criminals, even though there’s little evidence that they commit crimes at a higher rate than U.S. citizens.
Archived at https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/03/19/deportations-videos-joking-trump-administration/
I can’t think of a more “American” thing than enlisting immigrants to make your fledgling country “great,” only to turn around and villainize them in an effort to make it great “again.”
