CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — As the Trump administration proclaims that it has “saved Christmas,” The Rutherford Institute is warning that the federal government is doing the opposite—weaponizing the holiday as a propaganda tool to promote fear, punishment, and mass deportation, in direct contradiction to the core values Christmas is meant to represent.
In recent weeks, Department of Homeland Security agencies—including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—have flooded official government social media accounts with Christmas-themed memes and imagery promoting immigration enforcement and deportation operations. These posts incorporate holiday graphics, festive slogans, and seasonal wordplay alongside messages celebrating arrests, removals, and enforcement “successes.” In some cases, Christmas-themed visuals and captions have been paired with references to deportation flights and warnings aimed at undocumented immigrants—transforming a holiday traditionally associated with peace and goodwill into a vehicle for intimidation and state messaging.
