'Get off our roads Mr Singh': Trump administration's 'self-deport' ad sparks row

An advertisement by the US Department of Homeland Security asking "Mr Singh" to self-deport has sparked controversy, with advocacy groups calling it racist and anti-American. The criticism followed a series of posts by the department on X that used AI-generated imagery and characters from the Transformers franchise.

The posts were part of a DHS campaign against unlicensed commercial drivers and came amid its push for the CBP Home programme, under which eligible undocumented migrants can register their intention to leave the United States voluntarily. One post carried the line, "Get off our roads, you don't know how to drive Mr Singh," while another said, "Self-deport or find out."

The DHS used an AI-generated image of a brown-bearded man in the post aimed at unlicensed commercial drivers. A related short video clip on X showed Megatron, the main antagonist in the Transformers franchise, negotiating the release of "aliens" — a term used by the US administration for foreign nationals.