US govt faces backlash over ‘get off our roads, Mr Singh’ poster

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) faced criticism after posting AI-generated posters on its official X account, asking "Mr Singh" to "get off our roads." The images, titled "Transformers: Age of Deportations," were based on the Transformers movie franchise and featured Optimus Prime confronting a brown, bearded man wearing a head covering.

The poster read, "America for Americans. Get off our roads; you don’t know how to drive, Mr Singh," along with the slogan "Self-deport or find out." The DHS launched the campaign as part of its intensified immigration enforcement efforts. The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) accused the post of being "racist, un-American, anti-Indian profiling" and demanded an investigation, targeting Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K Dhillon and FBI Director Kash Patel.

Meanwhile, the Sikh Coalition criticized the posters, stating that twenty-five years after 9/11, Sikhs are still being targeted and profiled for how they look. They emphasized that millions of Sikhs in the US carry the surname Singh and remain steadfast in identifying as Sikh, despite the government portraying them as enemies.