The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) thought it had found a clever hook for its latest immigration crackdown campaign. But what it unleashed instead was a public relations disaster.
On Monday, DHS posted to X a slickly edited video featuring real-life footage of ICE raids spliced with animations mimicking the beloved Japanese franchise Pokémon. Set to the unmistakable “Gotta Catch ’Em All” theme, the clip depicted armed officers battering down doors and hauling away suspects as Pokémon graphics flashed across the screen.
The post didn’t stop there. DHS also unveiled a set of mocked-up Pokémon-style “trading cards,” each featuring the mugshot of a man deported in recent months. The cards listed alleged crimes — child molestation, homicide — as “stats,” with “weakness” described by an ice emoji and “retreat” as an airplane. The tagline: “Gotta Catch ’Em All.”
The reaction was swift. Within hours, social media erupted in fury. Parents, gamers, and immigration advocates denounced the campaign as tasteless, manipulative, and potentially illegal. “Please tell me my tax dollars aren’t going to graphic designers to make Pokémon-themed ICE propaganda,” one user wrote. Others directly tagged Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, asking if the corporations had authorized the use of their intellectual property to market deportations.
Nintendo, which co-owns the Pokémon brand alongside Game Freak and Creatures Inc., has not yet issued a public statement. But given the company’s history of fiercely defending its brand from unlicensed use, many expect a legal response.
Kristi Noem’s Handprints All Over
The video’s release also re-ignited scrutiny of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, already under fire for her theatrics in staging immigration raids for the cameras.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council noted that one of the raid clips featured in the Pokémon montage showed agents blowing in the door of a house where multiple U.S. citizens lived — an incident that has embroiled Noem in legal challenges. “They were never shown a warrant and were handcuffed and paraded in front of Kristi Noem’s cameras,” he posted.
Critics accuse Noem of turning immigration enforcement into a personal brand-building exercise. The former South Dakota governor, nicknamed “ICE Barbie,” has leaned heavily on choreographed photo-ops — from posing in tactical gear to riding four-wheelers at the border wall. Monday’s Pokémon stunt, they say, crossed a new line.
A Pattern of IP Theft
This is hardly the first time DHS and the Trump administration have been caught using copyrighted material for propaganda. In 2019, Warner Bros. forced the White House to pull down a campaign video set to the Dark Knight Rises score. The Rolling Stones, Adele, and Tom Petty’s estate have all warned Trump over unauthorized use of their songs at rallies.
Just this past summer, the voice actress from Jet2’s viral holiday commercial accused the White House of stealing her audio for a deportation meme. Pop singer Jess Glynne said her song being co-opted by DHS to score an ICE ad made her “sick.”
But Monday’s video, critics argue, is uniquely grotesque because of its target audience: children. By co-opting one of the most recognizable kids’ franchises in the world to brand ICE raids, DHS risks normalizing fear, violence, and deportation as entertainment.
Political Strategy or PR Backfire?
The Pokémon video is part of a broader DHS media push reportedly orchestrated by Corey Lewandowski, Trump ally and rumored confidant of Noem. According to internal documents obtained by The Daily Beast last month, the Trump administration has earmarked between $20 million and $50 million for a DHS-run propaganda blitz designed to “shore up” Noem after weeks of damaging headlines.
The Pokémon stunt may have been intended as a viral coup — a cheeky, meme-friendly way of packaging ICE’s mission for a digital audience. Instead, it has provoked bipartisan condemnation and renewed calls for Congress to rein in DHS’s messaging budget.
The Fallout
For immigrant rights activists, the video is more than just bad taste. It is evidence, they argue, of an administration trivializing human suffering for political gain.
“People’s families are being torn apart,” said Erika Andiola of RAICES. “And DHS thinks it’s funny to slap a Pikachu gif on it? It’s beyond disgusting.”
Meanwhile, parents’ groups and media watchdogs have begun mobilizing to pressure Nintendo to act. If the gaming giant decides to take legal action, DHS could be forced not only to pull the video but to publicly account for how taxpayer money was spent producing it.
For now, the Pokémon stunt stands as a bizarre new chapter in the Trump administration’s fusion of pop culture and politics — one that may ultimately do more to damage DHS’s credibility than to bolster it.
