The Trump administration has lined the White House driveway with about 100 large posters showing mugshots of migrants, part of a bold display meant to spotlight the president’s immigration crackdown. A White House official said the posters highlight “some of the worst illegal immigrants and criminals” arrested since Trump returned to power.
About 100 large posters were set up along the north side of the White House where TV crews usually film their live shots. Each one shows a mugshot of a migrant who was arrested, with the word “ARRESTED” printed above their face and the crime they’re accused of listed underneath. Instead of names, the posters all read “illegal alien.”
“The idea is to get them in the background of the live broadcasts,” a White House official told Axios.
The posters aren’t subtle. Crimes like “rape,” “sexual offense against child,” “murder,” and “distribution of fentanyl” are printed in bold under the faces. An official described them as showing “some of the worst illegal immigrants and criminals the Trump administration has arrested since taking office.”
The display rolled out just before Tom Homan, Trump’s so-called “border czar,” gave a press briefing Monday morning.
This stunt comes at a time when Trump is struggling in the polls. A New York Times/Siena College poll shows just 47% of Americans support his handling of immigration — one of his better issues right now. Overall, his approval rating is down to 42%. According to ABC and other outlets, he’s polling as low as 39%, the worst 100-day rating for any president since World War II.
The aggressive messaging also follows backlash from immigration cases that have raised serious legal and ethical questions. Just last month, ICE deported a group of Venezuelan men to El Salvador under a wartime law Trump invoked. According to court filings, “many” of them had no criminal record at all.
Over the weekend, a two-year-old American citizen was reportedly deported by mistake to Honduras, along with her mother and sister. A federal judge blasted the move, calling it a deportation with “no meaningful process.”
Despite the outrage, Trump’s team is doubling down. Homeland Security says that in Trump’s first 50 days back in office, ICE has arrested nearly 33,000 immigrants — nearly half of them with past convictions.
That includes a Honduran man convicted of sexual conduct with a minor, and a Mexican man convicted of drug trafficking. Those are the kinds of faces now lining the White House driveway — with cameras rolling.
