The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has deleted a post that promoted self-deportation and was stylized to look like a Transformers movie poster featuring the character Optimus Prime following accusations of racism. The image shows Optimus Prime, as well as a Sikh man, the words "Self-deport or find out" and "Get off our roads, you don’t know how to drive Mr. Singh." The man in the image is a depiction of a real man named Harjinder Singh, who was involved in a traffic incident in which three people died.
The post, shared on September 9, quickly prompted backlash and accusations of racism from lawmakers, and was later deleted. In response to a request for comment from Newsweek, a spokesperson for DHS said: "What nonsensical drivel. Perhaps Newsweek should spend the same amount of time researching their stories as they do wringing their hands in faux outrage." "Freedom from illegal alien crime is the right of all Americans," the spokesperson said.
The image shows Optimus Prime, wearing a DHS badge, on the left-hand side, and a man, with the skyline of New York City in the background. In the center of the image is the text "Self-deport or find out." At the bottom of the poster is the text "America for Americans," and underneath that, "Get off our roads, you don’t know how to drive Mr. Singh." Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, wrote on X that DHS' advertising campaign is "hateful, disgraceful and un-American." Meanwhile, the press office for California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote in a post on X: "This is disgusting.
Trump’s government is trafficking in racist propaganda targeting the Sikh community." In response to Schiff’s criticism, the official account for DHS posted on X: "This may be the laziest lie you’ve ever told and that’s saying something." That post was accompanied by an image of Harjinder Singh. On August 12 of 2025, Singh, an Indian-born truck driver, was involved in a traffic incident in Florida where he made a U-turn on the Florida Turnpike, crashed into a minivan and killed three people. The post on X from DHS mentions that incident.
A DHS spokesperson told Newsweek: "Harjinder Singh is an illegal alien from India who should never have been in our country. He made an illegal U-turn on a Florida highway in his tractor-trailer, causing a brutal wreck that killed three people in August 2025. He had been granted a CDL by California." In the image, Singh wears the same clothes as the man in the Transformers style poster featuring Optimus Prime.
After the incident, DHS said that Singh had entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 2018 and obtained a commercial driver’s license in California. Singh later pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide and manslaughter charges and remained in custody after being denied bond. After the crash, Secretary of State Marco Rubio paused the issuance of work visas for foreign individuals seeking to become commercial truck drivers.
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