An advertisement posted by the US Department of Homeland Security urging "Mr Singh" to self-deport has triggered a political and social media storm, with advocacy groups and Indian-American political figures calling the campaign racist and discriminatory.
The DHS used AI-generated imagery on X to promote its campaign against unlicensed commercial drivers, sharing a poster featuring a brown-bearded man in a bandana facing off against Optimus Prime, the protagonist of the Transformers franchise, alongside the tagline "Get off our roads, you don't know how to drive Mr Singh."
The poster, styled as a mock movie cover titled "Transformers: America For Americans," carried the message "Self-Deport Or Find Out."
A related video posted by the department featured Megatron, the franchise's chief antagonist, referring to undocumented migrants as "aliens" while naming several truck drivers, including Harjinder Singh and Rajinder Kumar, described as being involved in road accidents and other offences.
"If you approach this nation with hostile intent, know this. We will defend ourselves. We will defend Americanism. We will defend our home," the DHS said in its post.
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The campaign, which appears linked to public debate following a fatal Florida Turnpike crash involving a Sikh truck driver named Harjinder Singh last month, drew sharp criticism from Sikh and Hindu advocacy groups.
The Sikh Coalition said on X that "twenty-five years after 9/11, Sikhs are still being targeted and profiled for how we look." The Hindu American Foundation called the post "racist, un-American, anti-Indian profiling," and said it welcomed an investigation into the matter.
Indian-American political figures also reacted strongly.
Michigan Democratic leader Ranjeev Singh Puri said the post amounted to "xenophobia dressed up as public policy."
While Fox affiliate reporter Alec Nolan said his own family's Sikh surname made the post "racist and demeaning."
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In India, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra also criticised the advertisement on X, calling it a "racist ad" targeting Indian Punjabis.
The DHS had not issued any further statement clarifying or defending the campaign at the time of publication. The department's self-deportation initiative has been part of the Trump administration's broader immigration enforcement push.
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