Homeland Security Compares ICE Raids to Bagging Pokemon in Social Media Post: 'Gotta Catch 'Em All'

The Department of Homeland Security on Monday posted a video that likened immigration raids to catching Pokémon, using imagery and music from the popular Japanese franchise.

The video, shared Monday on X, spliced clips of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids with the Pokémon theme song and anime-style visuals. It ended with mocked-up trading cards featuring men DHS described as "worst of the worst," with alleged crimes like homicide and child molestation printed on them. Each card listed "weaknesses" as the ice emoji and "retreat" as an airplane.

The post was captioned, "Gotta Catch 'Em All."

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) joined the thread with a gif of Pikachu dancing, writing that the character was "Border Patrol's newest recruit."

The stunt drew immediate criticism from immigration advocates and legal experts. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, pointed out that one of the raids highlighted in the video had already sparked controversy

"The door DHS shows being blown in, a few seconds into this video, was at a home where multiple U.S. citizens lived," he wrote on X. "They were never shown a warrant and were handcuffed and led out the shattered door into the light of the fleet of cameras Kristi Noem brought to the raid for PR."

Scottish novelist Ewan Morrison called the video "a new example of the political aesthetic we know as Cute Authoritarianism" while attorney Robert Freund criticized the Pokémon card theme itself, writing:

"I don't get the Pokemon theme here.The government is collecting and training sex offenders and making them stronger? Why?"

Dozens of users tagged Nintendo, which co-owns the Pokémon franchise, to ask if the company had authorized the use of its intellectual property, as The Daily Beast reports. Neither Nintendo nor the Pokémon Company has publicly commented.

It is not the first time DHS has leaned on pop culture for a social media post. In July, the agency posted an image mimicking the iconic moonlit bicycle scene from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, urging migrants to use the CBP Home app to return to their countries. That campaign also drew criticism from immigrants and advocates who said the app was riddled with barriers and delays: