US Homeland Security removes controversial AI image…

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed an AI-generated advertisement from the social media platform X following intense backlash from Indian-American and Sikh advocacy groups. The graphic, which targeted the Sikh American community, was part of a broader DHS social-media campaign focused on commercial drivers accused of involvement in fatal crashes.

What happened

The controversial AI-generated advertisement featured a Transformers-themed cartoon of a brown-bearded man. It included the tagline: “Get off our roads, you don’t know how to drive Mr. Singh.” The post explicitly urged “Mr. Singh” to self-deport. Critics, including Democratic lawmakers and civil-rights advocates, condemned the graphic as racist and discriminatory, arguing that it unfairly targeted Sikh Americans and cast suspicion on millions of people sharing the surname Singh. Senator Adam Schiff described the campaign as “obvious bigotry,” while California Governor Gavin Newsom labeled the imagery “disgusting” and accused the administration of trafficking in racist propaganda.

The deleted graphic was one element of a larger DHS campaign highlighting cases of undocumented immigrants involved in fatal collisions. The department has utilized these individual criminal cases to criticize California’s commercial driver’s license (CDL) policies and the state’s approach to immigration. Other posts from the department urged the public to report alleged CDL fraud through an ICE tip line and highlighted specific incidents involving Indian nationals, including cases in Florida, Oregon, and Indiana. Despite the criticism and the subsequent removal of the AI-generated image, DHS did not immediately provide an explanation for its decision to delete the post.