White House Launches “Aliens.gov” Site Targeting Undocumented Immigrants

On June 3 2026 the White House added a subpage, aliens.gov, to the official whitehouse.gov domain. The page opens with the headline “They walk among us” in luminous green letters against a star-filled background, accompanied by the opening credits of *The X-Files*. The site frames “aliens” as “the millions of ILLEGALS…deport them all,” and repeatedly uses extraterrestrial imagery—e.g., “If you’ve witnessed an Alien abduction, do not be alarmed…We will take care of it and return it safely to its place of origin.” A map labeled “Alien-Arrest Map” displays live ICE arrests across thousands of localities. The site also links to a portal for reporting “suspicious” individuals directly to ICE.

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The word “alien” has been part of American statutes since the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, which authorized the president to detain non-citizens during wartime. California removed the term from its state code in 2021, calling it “outdated and derogatory.” The website’s repurposing of the term merges this legal history with pop-culture references, prompting scholars to label the approach as dehumanizing.

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• President Donald Trump – referenced on the site as the “first to call out the real danger Aliens pose.”

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• White House – hosts the page; an unnamed spokesperson provided an official comment.

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• Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – cited as the source of arrest data displayed on the site.

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• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – provides “encounter” and arrest figures; the Deportation Data Project aggregates ICE records.

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• Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – contributes additional encounter counts.

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• Ernesto Castañeda, Director, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, American University.

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• Shannon McGregor, Associate Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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• Deportation Data Project, a research collective that requests and publishes immigration enforcement data.

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A White House spokesperson said, “The aliens.gov website pulls data directly from DHS arrest reports to communicate just how many illegal aliens are present in our country, and highlight the Trump Administration’s efforts to remove them.” The statement did not address the site’s design, terminology, or data methodology.

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Ernesto Castañeda warned that labeling people “aliens” “instills fear” and may give “license to act violently against people that they may think are aliens, undocumented.” Shannon McGregor described the page as “memefied communication” with “authoritarian undertones,” noting that it frames Trump as the sole savior and ties the language to “white supremacist ideas.” Both scholars argue the presentation could incite hate crimes and profiling.

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The site lists over 3 million “encounters.” ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project shows roughly 1 million encounters from January 2025 to March 2026. CBP records indicate about 200,000 encounters in two separate periods (Jan–May 2025 and Oct 2025–Apr 2026). The “alien arrests” map totals 200,000 arrests nationwide, citing ICE, while the Deportation Data Project reports over 300,000 arrests from a shorter timeframe. The website does not clarify whether its figures combine ICE, CBP, or other sources, leaving the methodology opaque.

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• “Saying ['alien'] instills fear,” — Ernesto Castañeda, Director, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, American University

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• “Sponsor Message The website is yet another example of the Trump administration making light of the toll of immigration enforcement through a” — Shannon McGregor, Associate Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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• “They walk among us” — Headline on aliens.gov

USA White House stages ICE arrests as fight against aliens

• “The cover-up is over. Secure the border. Deport them all,” — Text on aliens.gov

USA White House stages ICE arrests as fight against aliens

• “If you've witnessed an Alien abduction, do not be alarmed,” — Text on aliens.gov

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Observers note that portions of the site’s source code contain comments typical of AI-generated code, suggesting possible use of generative tools. The White House declined to comment on the AI hypothesis or on the rationale for the site’s launch. Advocacy groups and legal scholars are expected to file inquiries about the site’s compliance with anti-discrimination statutes, while media outlets continue to probe the accuracy of the displayed data.

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