The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has responded to criticism over its social media campaign, which included Bible verses in immigration enforcement videos.
As part of a revamped social media strategy, DHS shared two overtly Christian-themed videos on its channels this summer, drawing the ire of some interfaith leaders who say the campaign ignores the Bible’s calls for mercy and compassion.
The first video from July featured a montage of military-style officers preparing to embark on a mission as they load their weapons and equipment over a pulsing electronic soundtrack.
The post included a caption reading, “TO EVERY CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIEN IN AMERICA: Darkness is no longer your ally. You represent an existential threat to the citizens of the United States, and US Border Patrol’s Special Operations Group will stop at nothing to hunt you down.”
TO EVERY CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIEN IN AMERICA:
Darkness is no longer your ally. You represent an existential threat to the citizens of the United States, and US Border Patrol’s Special Operations Group will stop at nothing to hunt you down. pic.twitter.com/Ts4Cnjp70n
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 28, 2025
Over the footage, the text of Proverbs 28:1 fades in: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion.”
A second clip released earlier this month of tactical agents in helicopters with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem includes an audio segment from the 2014 movie “Fury,” in which Shia LaBeouf’s character, Boyd “Bible” Swan, quotes from the book of Isaiah. Spoken in the character’s Southern drawl, LaBeouf says, “Here’s a Bible verse I think about sometimes. Many times.”
The character then quotes from Isaiah 6:8: “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Here am I. Send me.”
After receiving both praise and backlash for the campaign, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released a statement on Tuesday, accusing the media of spending “more time covering DHS social media posts of paintings and art than covering the stories of the American victims whose lives have been destroyed by criminal illegal aliens.”
“This gutter state of ‘journalism’ does a disservice to the American people,” McLaughlin said. “Every single day Americans are killed by illegal aliens who should have never been in this country. And nearly every single day the media ignore these victims.”
McLaughlin cited several recent cases, such as the sentencing of an illegal immigrant from El Salvador in the murder of Rachel Morin, a Maryland mother of five who was raped and killed in August 2023. Authorities say Victor Martinez-Hernandez entered the U.S. illegally and was released in 2023 under the Biden administration.
“Where is the media’s obsession with our social media posts on Rachel Morin’s killer being sentenced to life in prison?” McLaughlin asked.
While DHS claims its social media strategy, reaching over 40 million Americans weekly, is a direct line to the public, bypassing what it calls media efforts to “throttle the truth,” critics such as progressive Christian activist and speaker Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, vice president of programs at Interfaith Alliance, accuse the agency of “blasphemously” exploiting Scripture for political purposes.
In an MSNBC opinion piece dated Aug. 4, Graves-Fitzsimmons wrote, “Ostentatious religiosity is often an attempt to overcompensate for some decidedly less-divine behavior.”
“The Trump administration’s draconian deportation regime’s defending such evil with Bible verses is a recent example of this timeless tradition,” Graves-Fitzsimmons, a senior fellow at the George Soros-funded liberal think tank Center for American Progress, wrote.
DHS’s use of Scripture, including a post featuring the “American Progress” painting tied to Manifest Destiny, Graves-Fitzsimmons says, is a “confession of moral bankruptcy” and misaligns with biblical values of compassion for immigrants. He cited 92 Old Testament references to the Hebrew word for immigrant.
The DHS campaign appears to be timed to coincide with the agency’s stated goal of hiring 10,000 additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, authorized by a July 4 megabill signed into law. According to Fox News, DHS said it had received over 80,000 applicants as of early August.
Coalition groups, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the American Baptist Churches USA, the Alliance of Baptists, and others, have taken legal action to challenge the Trump administration’s policy of allowing federal agents to conduct immigration enforcement operations on the properties of churches.
A lawsuit filed last month alleges that the Trump administration’s use of church properties during enforcement operations in a bid to deport immigrants who entered the country illegally has negatively impacted congregations, which “have seen both attendance and financial giving plummet.”
