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Amid reports of mistreatment of Indian deportees, the White House posted a video titled “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight,” showing shackled immigrants boarding a deportation plane.
White House posts video of immigrants in shackles (Video screengrab)
The White House on Tuesday posted a video showing immigrants in shackles, preparing to board a deportation flight from Seattle in the United States. In the 41-second video posted on X, a man could be seen putting on a set of handcuffs and chains on some immigrants.
It also shows a close-up of a man having his handcuffs linked together, a man’s feet in chains as he walks up a stairway to a plane and a man about to board the aircraft.
The video did not show the faces of any of the men.
White House captioned the video “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight”.
(ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, which typically refers to the “tingly feeling” that travels from the head downward that some experience in response to certain sounds, feelings, or descriptions.)
Before the White House, the video was shared by the Seattle office of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which captioned it “Removal Flight” and wrote, “A group of undocumented aliens are flown from Seattle as part of a process to finalize return to their home countries.”
However, the video shared by the White House opens with a different clip, showing an officer standing behind a shackled migrant, appearing to roll down the collar of the person’s jacket or hooded sweatshirt.
Later, X CEO Elon Musk, whom US President Donald Trump has tasked to lead an initiative to slash the federal workforce, reposted the White House tweet, writing, “Haha Wow.”
The video comes amid an uproar in India after some Indian deportees from the United States claimed their hands and legs were cuffed throughout the journey and that they were unshackled only after landing in Amritsar on February 5.
A former serviceman, a part of the 116 Indians deported by the United States, claimed he had to trim his beard despite being a Sikh and risk life and limb as he dealt with crocodiles and snakes while going without food for days.
Later, multiple other deportees from Punjab shared ordeals similar to the ex-serviceman.
