‘Cartoonish cruelty’: Homeland Security slammed as it shares ‘disgusting’ alligator Alcatraz meme

The bizarre use of social media by US president Donald Trump and his second administration has raised eyebrows on a number of occasions over the past few months – from posting a picture of him as the Pope after the passing of Pope Francis, to the White House releasing a video calling Trump ‘daddy’ earlier this week – and now the Department of Homeland Security has sparked a backlash for sharing an AI image featuring alligators.

To be more specific, the reptiles are sporting black ICE caps (ICE being Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the government agency overseeing deportations) and are depicted outside a prison-like facility with barbed wire fencing.

“Coming soon,” the DHS wrote in a post to Twitter/X.

The use of alligators, in particular, is an apparent reference to the so-called ‘Alligator Alcatraz’, the immigration detention center currently being constructed in the Everglades, in Florida, and scheduled to open next month.

It’s reported to house 5,000 people, and according to The New York Times, is estimated to cost $450 million a year to operate.

In a video released to social media earlier this month, James Uthmeier, the state’s attorney general, said: “You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter; if they can get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons.

“Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.”

The DHS’ decision to make a meme out of such a subject matter has seen the department accused of “cartoonish cruelty”:

One Twitter/X user criticised the Trump administration’s “government by meme” as “an embarrassment” to the US:

Another called for such “crap” to not appear on official government social media accounts:

And Christopher Burgess, a former CIA official, branded the post “disgusting”:

Not long after the meme was posted, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem defended the construction of the facility in her own social media post.

She tweeted: “Alligator Alcatraz, and other facilities like it, will give us the capability to lock up some of the worst scumbags who entered our country under the previous administration.”

Why not read…

• Trump may have just been snubbed by yet another politician
• Could Trump's birthright citizenship policy affect Melania and Barron?

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.