US Department of Homeland Security Faces Backlash Over AI-Generated Poster Targeting 'Mr Singh'
2 sources · India
Who reported this
- Scroll.in
- The Indian Express
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
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Every source for this story reports from India.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has drawn widespread criticism after posting an AI-generated image on X that critics describe as racist and anti-Indian. The poster, styled as a parody of the Transformers franchise titled 'Transformers: Age of Deportations,' depicts the character Optimus Prime confronting a brown-skinned, bearded man wearing a head covering. The text on the image reads, 'America for Americans. Get off our roads; you don’t know how to drive, Mr Singh,' and includes the slogan 'Self-deport or find out' while urging the public to report illegal aliens on American roads.
The post is part of a Trump administration immigration enforcement drive encouraging undocumented immigrants to leave the country voluntarily. DHS has linked the messaging to concerns over commercial drivers and recent fatal crashes involving Indian-origin truck drivers. One source noted the man in the image resembles an Indian-origin driver arrested in Florida in August 2025 following a crash that killed three people.
Advocacy groups and politicians have condemned the post for targeting the Sikh and Punjabi communities, who make up a significant portion of the US trucking industry. The Hindu American Foundation called the post 'racist, un-American, anti-Indian profiling/trolling,' while the Sikh Coalition and the Coalition of Hindus of North America argued that singling out a common surname endangers thousands of Americans. Ranjeev Puri, the Democratic leader in the Michigan House of Representatives, described the post as 'xenophobia dressed up as public policy.' In India, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the matter with President Donald Trump.
While both reports cover the same event, they differ in framing. The center-leaning source frames the incident as a 'racism row' stemming from racial stereotyping. The left-leaning source frames the event as an act of 'xenophobia' and includes broader political commentary regarding Indian domestic politics and the treatment of foreign nationals.
How each side framed it
- Left
- The source frames the event as an instance of state-sponsored xenophobia and connects it to broader political tensions between India and the US.
- Centre
- The source frames the event as a controversy over racial stereotyping and the resulting backlash from advocacy groups.
Sources
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