The Trump administration posted an anti-immigration Valentine’s Day message to mark the holiday on its official White House social media pages on Friday, making light of President Donald Trump’s pledge to carry out mass deportations across the country.
Against a cheerful pink background appear the floating heads of Trump and Tom Homan, who as border czar is helping lead the administration’s deportation efforts.
The card comes with an ugly message: “Roses are red / Violets are blue / Come here illegally / And we’ll deport you.”
Trump has enabled immigration authorities to fast-track deportations, raising critics’ fears that he is bypassing the due process protections guaranteed by the Constitution. While hundreds of migrants have been deported since he took office in January, Trump is reportedly angry that the figure is not higher.
Dozens of migrants have been moved to Guantanamo Bay, the military detention camp that Trump ordered to be expanded to house 30,000 individuals he calls “the worst criminal aliens.”
The administration’s threats against migrants drew a rebuke this week from Pope Francis; the pontiff said the mass detention or deportation plans constituted a “major crisis” that he was watching closely.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus responded to the White House “valentine” with a sober message: “You may not take your job seriously, but we do.”
“Your deportations are inhumane, they’re killing the American economy and they’re separating our families,” the group wrote on X.
Many top commenters on Instagram reacted with incredulity at the White House post.
Among the most popular responses, with nearly 30,000 likes, was the remark: ”[T]his is an insane thing to post from a government account.”