The Department of Homeland Security has sparked a Pokémon backlash after using the kids’ game to promote ICE deportation raids.
The DHS social media team posted a video to X on Monday of dramatic immigration raids—including one that was bungled yet still posted online by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—spliced with animé imagery from the popular Japanese cartoon and collectibles game, which is part owned by Nintendo.
Set to the official Pokémon theme tune, it was a clear imitation of the show’s opening sequence.
DHS also shared five mocked-up Pokémon “cards” featuring some of the men the department has arrested and deported, which it describes as the “worst of the worst,” with their alleged crimes—including child molestation and homicide—emblazoned across them.
The post was captioned “Gotta Catch ’Em All.”
All the cards listed the men’s “weaknesses” as the “ice” emoji, and said their “retreat” was an airplane, in another riff on the Pokémon card game.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) also got involved, replying with a gif of Pokémon character Pikachu dancing, joking it was “Border Patrol’s newest recruit.”
It is not known if DHS got permission from the companies to use Pokémon IP in its latest campaign. Multiple social media accounts tagged Nintendo to ask whether the company was aware of the stunt.
One X user wrote: “Yo you guys cool with them using your IP for this?” Another wrote: “Please tell me my tax dollars aren’t going to graphic designers to make Pokémon themed ICE propaganda."
The Pokémon franchise is controlled by the Pokémon Company, a joint venture set up in 1998 by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures Inc. Nintendo is a major co-owner and platform holder.
The Daily Beast has contacted Nintendo and the Pokémon Company for comment.
A spokesperson for DHS told the Daily Beast, “To arrest them is our real test. To deport them is our cause.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, pointed out that one of the clips was from a raid over which Noem has found herself in legal hot water.
He wrote on X: “The door DHS shows being blown in, a few seconds into this video, was at a home where multiple U.S. citizens lived. They were never shown a warrant and were handcuffed and led out the shattered door into the light of the fleet of cameras Kristi Noem brought to the raid for PR.”
The ramping-up of ICE ads move comes after the Daily Beast reported in August that Trump’s team was preparing to drop between $20 million and $50 million on a fresh DHS-run media offensive to shore up Noem—nicknamed “ICE Barbie”—after weeks of mockery and damaging headlines.
The buy extended the “Stronger Border, Stronger America” push through March and was slated to be handled by People Who Think LLC, a GOP-linked shop tied to Corey Lewandowski, who serves as Noem’s influential outside adviser and is rumored to be her lover. (DHS has described this claim as “salacious, baseless gossip.”)
It would not be the first time that DHS and the wider Trump administration have been in trouble for using unlicensed IP for its own ends.
In July, British actress Zoë Lister—the voice of Jet2’s viral “Nothing beats a Jet2Holiday!” ad—slammed the White House for lifting her audio to score a deportation meme, calling it a “nasty agenda,” while singer Jess Glynne, whose track “Hold My Hand” is part of the trend, said the post made her “sick.”
In April 2019, Warner Bros. had a Trump video yanked after the White House pushed out a swaggering montage cut to the Dark Knight Rises score without permission.
The following year, the Rolling Stones warned Trump that using “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” at rallies violated their rights and could trigger legal action.
