Trump launches new reality show - but it's bitterly serious

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• Trump's government relies on targeted staging with camera teams and social media for deportations.
• Migrants are shackled, filmed and vilified as "monsters" for publicity purposes.
• Criticism comes from human rights groups and lawyers - particularly because of legally questionable measures such as the use of the Alien Enemies Act.

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Shortly after the landing, things get loud. Heavily armed and masked soldiers storm into the blue plane, grab the occupants and drag them outside. Besieged by photo and TV cameras, 238 men are dragged into heavily armored vehicles, they are tied up and their heads are forced down.

Then the men are driven to a prison. Accompanied by blue-light vehicles, they arrive in the middle of the night at the "Center for Terrorism", a mega-prison in the middle of nowhere in El Salvador. Their heads are shaved, then they are taken to huge cells - accompanied by cameras and dramatic music.

Since Donald Trump's return to the White House, the US government has not only stepped up deportations, but also staged them. High-profile raids, social media and even celebrity guest appearances characterize the Immigration Enforcement "show".

"Getting scumbags off the streets"

Unlike previous administrations, which carried out raids more discreetly, Trump ensures that operations are accompanied and publicized live. Department representatives post real-time updates on social media: Trump's new Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem tweeted during a raid in the Bronx district of New York City: "Live this AM from NYC. I'm on it", followed by videos and pictures of the operation.

Hours later, she proudly declared the success of the mission in a video: "We are getting the dirtbags off the streets."

Official social media channels such as the White House's X account (Twitter) published photos of arrested migrants and celebrated deportation flights with slogans such as "Promises made. Promises kept." Particularly questionable: some of the deportation videos are also accompanied by songs. "You can't stay here", says one song, for example.

In one clip, shackled deportees were shown boarding a military plane - an unusually dramatic depiction, as deportations are normally carried out by charter flight.

Some pro-government media were given exclusive access: the conservative channel Fox News, for example, was allowed to accompany an ICE operation in Boston and advertised this as "exclusive access".

Suddenly TV stars are on the move

Trump's team is marketing the deportations almost like reality TV. CNN analyst Brian Stelter coined the term "deportation TV" and stated: Trump "is producing deportation TV - making sure people around the world can see his immigration policies in action"

An example of targeted staging: During an operation in Chicago, Trump and his "Border Czar" Tom Homan let the TV psychologist Dr. Phil (Phil McGraw) run with them. The well-known talk show host - a Trump supporter from 2024 - "embedded" himself with ICE agents and interviewed detainees on camera.

Critics such as Democratic MP Chuy García strongly condemned this reality show tactic: "The government is trying to turn these operations into a reality show... This is optics, not public safety. It's calculated cruelty to harden the public."

This also ties in with the glossy prison video from El Salvador: the president in office there, Nayib Bukele, plays an important role in Trump's deportation PR. The three-minute video is intended to demonstrate toughness - a state of emergency has been in place in El Salvador for some time in order to tackle gang crime.

However, this has also led to criticism. Human rights organizations complain that people have been arrested arbitrarily. Behind bars, they often have hardly any rights and are not allowed to speak to lawyers, for example. Numerous innocent people are in prison.

This is no obstacle for the government of El Salvador, which earns around 6 million dollars from the 250 or so "new arrivals". The White House in Washington reinforced the message with press spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt calling the deportees "heinous monsters" and members of "one of the most violent terrorist gangs on the planet".

White House ignores court ruling

As a legal "heavyweight" for mass deportations, Trump is resorting to laws that are centuries old in some cases. The recourse to the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an emergency law dating back to the French wars, is particularly sensational.

This law allows the president to intern or deport "enemy aliens" in times of war. Trump activated the law by declaring members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to be "invasive enemy aliens" and deporting them to El Salvador.

However, legal experts doubt its admissibility: the Alien Enemies Act actually refers to hostile nations, not criminal gangs - a federal judge immediately ordered a halt to deportations under this law.

However, the White House ignored the court order and allowed the planes to land anyway - Bukele gloatingly tweeted "Oopsie... Too late" when they had already arrived in El Salvador.

The plan to deport up to 30,000 migrants to the Guantánamo Bay detention camp (Cuba) is also extremely controversial. Flights were due to take off there at the end of March. Human rights organizations such as IRAP warned that this would be tantamount to indefinite detention without charge and would be highly dubious in legal terms as long as no regular trial takes place

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