The official White House account on X deemed controversial footage as “ASMR.” In a post on Tuesday morning (Feb. 18), the account shared a video clip of undocumented immigrants being placed in shackles and transferred to a plane for deportation.
While there is no dialogue in the clip, the sound of the metal chains clanking against the ground and the stairs of the aircraft is loud. “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight,” says the post on X that features the video. ASMR as referenced in the social media post, is defined by the Cleveland Clinic as “a relaxing sensory and emotional phenomenon that’s triggered by certain sights, sounds or sensations.”
According to CNBC, the clip was originally uploaded by the Seattle office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) with the caption: “REMOVAL FLIGHT. A group of undocumented aliens are flown from Seattle as part of a process to finalize return to their home countries.” The White House account reposted the X post before sharing its own version.
ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight ? pic.twitter.com/O6L1iYt9b4
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 18, 2025
The Associated Press reported ICE has about 6,000 Enforcement and Removal Operations officers (ERO), like the men shown in the clip. According to AP, this is in contrast with about 1.4 million people who have been given final orders of removal.
President Donald Trump promised to take immediate action with immigration policies, saying, “We will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” in his inauguration speech, per CNN.
U.S. President Donald Trump, joined by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, signs an executive order on reciprocal tariffs in the Oval Office at the White House on February 13, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
According to NPR, more than two dozen religious groups are suing the federal government in response to Trump’s immigration policies which allow ICE to take action at “sensitive locations,” such as churches and places of worship.
“They bring this suit unified on a fundamental belief: Every human being, regardless of birthplace, is a child of God worthy of dignity, care, and love. Welcoming the stranger, or immigrant, is thus a central precept of their faith practices,” detailed the lawsuit.
Representatives of the Mennonite Church, the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the Unitarian Universalist Association claim their congregations have experienced a decline in attendance due to members being in fear.
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