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By Billal Rahman and Dan Gooding
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The White House is facing backlash after sharing a video on social media captioned as an ASMR clip, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents chaining undocumented migrants before a deportation flight.
The clip, shared Tuesday, prompted a mixed response from social media users, lawmakers and those advocating for immigration reform, with many saying that while they supported efforts to remove illegal immigrants, the issue was not a joke and immigrants should not be dehumanized.
"Putting people in chains and making memes out of this cruel treatment is particularly inhumane and imposes additional psychological trauma," Amy Fischer, director of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Program at Amnesty International USA, told Newsweek.
Read More on Politics
Newsweek contacted the White House and ICE for comment via email Wednesday morning.
Why It Matters
Immigration was a key component of President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign. While Americans largely support his mass deportation plans, they disagree about how the policies should be carried out.
Critics have raised concerns about the treatment of migrants being detained and deported.
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What To Know
In a post originally shared on X, formerly Twitter, by ICE Seattle, illegal immigrants were seen being put on an aircraft as part of the process to return them to their home countries. The post did not specify their destination.
The video opened with ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) agents standing on the airport tarmac while others retrieve chains and handcuffs from a plastic crate, slowly placing them on the ground with the clear sound of metal hitting asphalt.
Footage, edited for the White House post, showed several undocumented immigrants being chained together and handcuffed before boarding a plane.
The White House post simply read: "ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight", likening the video to the trend that is short for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. Content creators on YouTube and TikTok make videos designed to give audiences a tingling feeling as they hear sounds like tapping, light scratching, crinkling paper or soft whispering.
The framing of the post appeared to cause some discomfort, even among those supportive of the Trump administration's mass deportation efforts, with replies accusing the White House of dehumanizing immigrants, being "cruel" and "petty," and lacking class in its publicity of immigration enforcement.
Others, however, said they loved the sounds in the clip, as they were signs the administration was delivering on its promises to remove illegal immigrants.
Seeing deportees in chains was also new to some, but this has been common practice for some time, according to Amnesty International.
The Trump administration has been heavily documenting on social media its deportation efforts since the January 20 inauguration in a way not seen under former President Joe Biden.
Emphasis has been placed on arresting and removing known violent criminals, with Department of Homeland Security data showing that ICE made 11,791 interior arrests from January 20 to February 8, an increase from 4,969 during the same period in 2024.
What People Are Saying
Amy Fischer, director of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Program at Amnesty International USA, told Newsweek: "Amnesty International has documented this practice by CBP and ICE extensively and in 2022 found that the use of restraints on Haitians in this way amounts to race and migrant-related torture under international human rights law.
"President Trump is purposefully ordering that people seeking safety be paraded in shackles—synonymous with slavery and criminality—and dehumanizing people for the sake of social media engagement. It was then and always will be a harsh and evil practice."
Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, on X: "This is not a joke. Unconscionable."
X user PJ, in a reply to the White House: "Yeah this ain't it. I voted for us to clamp down on illegal immigration and do what was necessary, but I also don't get off on other people's misfortune. Have some class and do better."
What Happens Next
It is expected more deportation flights will take off as Trump looks to fulfill his pledge to carry out the "largest deportation program in U.S. history."
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