An AI-generated video of the US embassy in Mexico encouraging migrants to “voluntarily deport” has sparked distrust and anger online.
A video posted on the embassy’s official social media accounts this week shows a group of men wearing black hats and sporting tattoos performing a type of traditional Mexican ballad known as a corrido.
“Return to your roots, the corridors ringing in your hometown,” sings an AI performer. “You don’t have to go far to get ahead. Listen to me. The power of Mexico is within you.”
The social media post also included a link to CBP Home, a website that helps U.S. immigrants return to their home countries.
The video received extensive coverage in the Mexican press and drew condemnation on social media.
“What a pathetic commercial,” said one X user.
“Retirees and digital nomads can spend their money in their home country,” one Instagram user said, noting that Mexico has many Americans living there. “It’s a supremacist message that says ‘go back to your country’ in nice words,” said another.
Carlos Eduardo Espina, a Uruguayan-American influencer with 14.3 million followers on TikTok, posted a reaction clip to the embassy video. “How ridiculous,” Espina said in the video, which has been viewed 70,000 times. “This government is truly full of lunatics.”
This is not the first time a video directed at immigrants by US authorities has caused controversy.
Last year, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem released a series of video ads urging immigrants to leave voluntarily or stay home. The video ad was played on Mexican television.
“If you’re thinking about entering America illegally, don’t even think about it,” she said in one TV spot. “You will be captured and taken away, never to return.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the video was “discriminatory.” She then said she would ask Mexico’s Congress to pass a law banning such ads in the country.
“We are going to amend the law that prohibits foreign governments from carrying out political and ideological propaganda in our country,” Sheinbaum said at a press conference.
