The ICE Propaganda Campaign Goes Into Overdrive

[Nevilledog]

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/ice-propaganda-campaign-goes-into-overdrive-portland-chicago-dhs

TWO WEEKS AGO, THE X ACCOUNT for the Department of Homeland Security was being, all things considered, relatively normal.

There was a repost of a video about law enforcement at the Charlie Kirk memorial, a video on how the Secret Service had dismantled a digital network that could have carried out attacks near the United Nations General Assembly, a video of part of Trump’s tone-deaf, chest-beating speech at the U.N., and posts and news updates on the Dallas ICE field office shooting that left two immigrant detainees dead. The account did not shy away from making overtly partisan arguments—they claimed rhetoric from Democrats demonizing ICE agents had contributed to the shooting—but even in this, it was operating within expected parameters.

Then things took a turn.

Over the past week and a half, @DHSgov has amped up the rate, intensity, and belligerence of its content, posting or reposting nearly two dozen highly produced videos in that time. There were videos about the administration’s plans to forcefully impose order on Chicago, then Portland, by putting down violent protests by anarchists. There was also an attention-grabbing propaganda campaign, produced in coordination with MAGA commentators, meant to ensure the administration’s narrative about immigration reached even larger audiences.

The full canon of footage has made evident one of the defining features of the president’s deportation campaign: He wants it publicized far and wide, literally shouted from rooftops, and in ominous tones. It’s not enough to round up and detain those here illegally, video of it must be shot, edited, dramatized, and disseminated. ICE isn’t just doing immigration enforcement, it is now firmly in the content creation business.

Much of this seems geared toward maintaining the narrative that Trump used to justify his planned deportation ramp-up during his campaign last year: that the goal has always been simply to remove the most violent criminal interlopers from the United States.

*snip*