The Department of Homeland Security Says Trump's Immigration Enforcers Are on a Mission From God
A DHS video lionizing Customs and Border Protection quotes the Bible and includes a song promising that "God's gonna cut you down."

This week the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a controversial video that lionizes the work of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which it suggests is aimed at delivering divine justice to evildoers. The video quotes Isaiah 6:8, which describes the prophet's acceptance of a mission from God, and includes an excerpt from the folk song "God's Gonna Cut You Down."
Critics of the video charged DHS with blasphemy for invoking the Bible and God's will to sanctify CBP and, by implication, the Trump administration's immigration policies. But the puzzles posed by the department's propaganda go beyond its dubious claim of divine authority, especially when you consider the details of Isaiah's mission.
Although no one would mistake President Donald Trump for a religious man, the video is consistent with his grandiose self-image. "I believe that my life was saved that day in Butler for a very good reason," Trump said in his March 4 address to Congress, referring to the attempted assassination in Pennsylvania last July. "I was saved by God to make America great again. I believe that."
Among other things, Trump thinks that divine mission entails "the largest deportation operation in the history of our country." But as he concedes, that project includes "pretty vicious" treatment of peaceful, productive people who have lived and worked in this country for many years. That reality explains why Trump has repeatedly tried to soften the edges of his crackdown on unauthorized residents by promising lenience for certain groups—in particular, employees in the farm and hospitality industries.
As Trump tells it, that impulse is driven not just by the economic concerns of business owners (including Republicans who are otherwise inclined to support his agenda) but also by compassion for hardworking individuals who are trying to make an honest living, albeit without the government's permission. "These people…work so hard," he noted at a July 3 rally in Des Moines, Iowa, referring to undocumented farm employees. "They bend over all day. We don't have too many people [who] can do that."
Trump added that "some of the farmers…cry when they see [immigration raids] happen." He alluded to "cases where…people have worked for a farmer on a farm for 14, 15 years" and "then they get thrown out, pretty viciously." His conclusion: "We can't do it. We've got to work with the farmers and people that have hotels and leisure properties."
Such soft-heartedness appalls immigration hardliners, who understand that mass deportation necessarily involves detaining and expelling people who pose no threat to public safety, people with strong, longstanding ties to the United States who have built lives and families here. But Trump's professed compassion jibes with the avowed attitude of most Americans, who tell pollsters they favor a legal process that would allow such people to remain in the United States.
The DHS video seems designed to gloss over the cruel reality of Trump's immigration crackdown. It focuses on CBP, which is charged with guarding U.S. borders, rather than Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS agency responsible for the workplace raids that intermittently trouble Trump. But the general message is consistent with the Trump administration's portrayal of ICE agents as brave and infallible guardians of public safety.
When a reporter dared to ask White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt how we can be confident that alleged gang members summarily shipped off to a notorious prison in El Salvador are in fact gang members, she was outraged by the question. "You are questioning the credibility of these agents who are putting their life on the line to protect your life and the life of everybody in this group and everybody across the country," she said. "They finally have a president who is allowing them to do their jobs, and God bless them for doing it."
The DHS video likewise presents CBP agents, whose job includes waging the disastrous war on drugs as well as frustrating the plans of unauthorized immigrants looking for a better life, as God-blessed heroes who are beyond reproach. "You can run on for a long time," says the song accompanying images of CBP in action, but "sooner or later, God'll cut you down." According to the rest of the lyrics, "you" includes "that long-tongue liar," "that midnight rider," "the rambler," "the gambler," and the "back biter."
The song does not mention asylum seekers or immigrants desperate to escape violence or poverty. But we can surmise that God aims to cut them down too, and CBP is eager to help.
The video features an audio clip from the World War II movie Fury. "There's a Bible verse I think about sometimes—many times," says Shia LaBeouf's character, a tank gunner. "It goes, 'Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me.'"
Like Isaiah, the video suggests, CBP is on a mission from God—the implication that provoked hostile responses on X. "Since you like Isaiah, here's chapter 16:3-5," said one commenter. That passage says, in part: "Hide the outcasts; betray not the wanderer. Let my outcasts, the outcasts of Moab, live with you; be a refuge to them from the face of the plunderer; for the extortioner is at an end, the plunderer ceases, the oppressers are consumed out of the land."
There is no shortage of Bible verses that might appeal to critics of Trump's immigration policies. Leviticus 19:33–34, for instance, says: "If a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the and of Egypt."
So, yeah, the DHS may have opened a can of worms here, since it is not hard to find biblical passages to support any given political agenda. But the use of Isaiah 6:8 is even more questionable when you consider the verse's context.
What is the mission that God wants Isaiah to execute? "Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes," God says, "lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return, and be healed."
God tells Isaiah to distract the people from the need to repent "until the cities are destroyed without inhabitants, and the houses without man, and the land is completely desolate, and the Lord has moved men far away, and there is a great forsaking in the midst of the land." Only then will "the holy seed" that remains sprout into a renewed society dedicated to God's will.
"Such destruction did occur within Isaiah's lifetime," notes Marvin Sweeney, a Hebrew Bible professor at the Claremont School of Theology in Salem, Oregon. "The Northern Kingdom of Israel was taken by Assyria in multiple campaign, ending with its destruction in 722 B.C.E. Sennacherib's invasion of Judah in 701 B.C.E., and his destruction of every city but Jerusalem, would have resulted in a very high casualty rate."
Why would God enlist Isaiah to help bring about that result? "Because if the people save themselves from destruction, the overall plan of the book of Isaiah to reveal [God's] divine glory to the entire world would not be realized," Sweeney writes. "By removing the possibility of repentance, God consigns the people of Isaiah's time to death and punishment."
Presumably that is not what Trump meant when he said he was "saved by God to make America great again." But Americans who do not share Trump's understanding of that mission might see the details of Isaiah's assignment as a bad omen of what can happen when politicians claim to be doing God's will.
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This is important.
This justifies ignoring the left shooting at DHS in ambushes.
This justifies yet another strawman attempt at diverting attention from thy god Trump apologizing to Epstein's ghost.
Strawman indeed.
And justifies TDS-addled steaming piles of shit spouting bullshit, TDS addled steaming pile of shit.
He cant decide if he is full sarc or 70% sarc.
Did I miss Reason covering that? Or have they been silent on it like most other facts that are inconvenient to their narrative?
Didn't miss. Also didnt miss the coverage for Mackey.
My god they played Johnny Cash those monsters!
Inversely Johnny Cash also did lots of speed, Mexican speed at that. Don't think he should be their poster boy.
Whaddyathink; I'm 50/50 on whether, if they'd used Ride of The Valkyries, Sullum and his critics would have found that to have been a blasphemous invokation of Odin?
That's too sophisticated. They'd denounce White Supremacy in the huffiest of tones.
Lol. Other 50%, would no doubt be that he is militarizing them with Appocalypse Now being the proof. And that Wagner was Hitler's fav and therefore Orange Hitler.
Good God Sullum is a TDS deranged idiot. I sincerely doubt that ICE/DHS really think that they are on a mission from God and instead are just using a cool sounding song and cool quotes from a movie. Something that a lot of people do ( including sports teams on up). Hell you see this in movies and pro wrestling a lot but Sullum's TDS has to kick in and make a big deal about it.
Go ahead, tell me they should be in charge of kicking people off of Social Media platforms like Good Samaritans you dumb fuck.
Lol. Sullum always has an article that makes him look worse than sarc.
Sullum:
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Fuck off and die, Sullum. You are a slimy pile of lying TDS-addled shit.
JS;dr
Give guns and absolute immunity to a bunch of thugs and tell them they're on a mission from God. What could possibly go wrong?
Executing the law as written?
Wait... aren't you in the TikTok thread also castigating Trump for not following the law there? Weird.
Critics of the video charged DHS with blasphemy for invoking the Bible and God's will to sanctify CBP and, by implication, the Trump administration's immigration policies.
Still more of the non-believers dictating to the faithful what they think their beliefs mean or should be.
The ad literally starts off with "Here's a Bible verse I think about sometimes." spoken by someone who clearly isn't Trump. It's not an invocation of God's will. It's a clearly personal inspiration or call to action.
Moreover, it's rather self evident that you would still take issue even if the ad were "Life is like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable because all you get back is another box of chocolates. So you're stuck with this undefinable whipped mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there's nothing else left to eat.
Sure, once in a while there's a peanut butter cup or an English toffee. But they're gone too fast and the taste is... fleeting. So, you end up with nothing but broken bits filled with hardened jelly and teeth-shattering nuts. And if you're desperate enough to eat those, all you got left is an empty box filled with useless brown paper wrappers."
I could understand how even secularists and atheists would be ashamed to be associated with such a dishonest, intentional, and manipulative misinterpretation.
The only thing worse than hearing what an atheist anarcho-Marxist thinks about religion is hearing what they think a religious person thinks about race. The most vile racist remarks I have ever see written came from people claiming it is what someone else believes.
I could understand how even secularists and atheists would be ashamed to be associated with such a dishonest, intentional, and manipulative misinterpretation.
They would be the most likely to create a dishonest misinterpretation of something religious. In their mind, ain't no penalty if God starts smoting for blasphemy.
Are you posting drunk, JewFree? I thought that was your buddy's thing.
Found one.
Critics of the video charged DHS with blasphemy
They could have Kristi Noem excommunicated.
Could we release Kristi Noem to take care of the bitches doing the criticizing the video?
OMG! (oops)
Hey Reason, would it make you feel any better if DHS quoted the Koran and told staff their actions are approved by Allah?
Deglobalize the infitada!
Why is a book of fables relevant to real life laws and execution of those laws ? They could have just as easily quoted "The Cat in the Hat" for all the good it would have done. In fact, that would have at least been more contemporary.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
I'm not religious at all, but I can see the connection of Isaiah 6:8 to any voluntary mission that is perceived as difficult. Horton Hears a Who! just doesn't have the same metal.
Now I want an ai video of Horton listening for a who on the southern border....
Holman hears a Who?
Sold.
Today Rabbi Donald has signed a New Executive Order creating 2 classes of Citizens: The Winners and Losers. And as intellectuals in Quebec have presented the Province and lts Government as the following duality: Government is your Mommy and Police is you Papa; the EO explains that Mommy will take care of Winners and Police will take care of Losers.
In this new Republican Theocratic context, the King of the Banana Republic of the United States of Israel salutes the self imposed limitations of the Supreme Courts objectives which will become mostly to support the Monarchy of the Lands North of the American Sea.
The EO takes opportunity to rename SCOTUS His Majesty's Chantage Court, an onomatopoeia of the Chancery. The DHS will have obligation to form sharp shooting elites specialised in the pediatric art of extermination...
Isaiah 13:16-18
New Living Translation
16 Their little children will be dashed to death before their eyes.
Their homes will be sacked, and their wives will be raped.
17 “Look, I will stir up the Medes against Babylon.
They cannot be tempted by silver or bribed with gold.
18 The attacking armies will shoot down the young men with arrows.
They will have no mercy on helpless babies
and will show no compassion for children.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2013:16-18&version=NLT
Ah, so you're one of the retards that thinks there is nothing of value in the past and so repeatedly has to reinvent the wheel for every issue under the sun.
Nah... science, art, logic, math, etc is all from the past; built upon solid foundation and proof.
However, you can keep your voodoo sticks, contradictory storybooks of every flavor & denomination, dowsing rods, astrology signs, and goat entrails for the nonsense that it is.
How is art built on proofs....
You mean things like ethics, morality, and finding meaning in life? Yeah that tracks for you not having any familiarity.
And knowing you, you don't mean science but "the science" of whatever lies support the current Leftist narrative. And don't even get me started on your girlmath.
Found another one.
This is like attacking the Pope over a CCD teacher. Nobody buys it. Not saying it's good so don't take that approach. I am saying who did it did it and they are responsible. Your implicit claim is just that : whoever did it is to blame, and that's that.
LOL! Its like Jacob doesn't know that most illegals are religious and superstitious as fuck. The producers of the video are counting on dipshits like Sullum to promote this video and spread the message for them.
Bravo, dipshits! Well done.
Leviticus 19:34
Matthew 25:40
The Bible doesn't work by single misunderstood verses.
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Mario
@PawlowskiMario
·
Jul 6
Hey MAGA biblicals, can you interpret this?
DataRepublican (small r)
@DataRepublican
Easy. “Foreigners” here doesn’t mean in the modern sense of people immigrating from one nation to another. Leviticus 19 was delivered by Moses in the Sinai wilderness. “Foreigners” here meant anyone who willingly submitted to Israel covenant law without being of Israel lineage. It does not imply anything about illegal immigration because there were no borders involved and certainly no government structure or benefits.
Leviticus also had quite harsh punishments for people who did not submit to God’s word, including allowing parents to execute a rebellious child. So being a “foreigner” who stayed would have required complete assimilation, surrender to Yahweh, and pulling all their weight.
The rest of the Old Testament talks about what happens when non-culturally-aligned foreigners take up residence inside a sovereign nation, and it’s not pretty.
Romans 13 unambiguously commands all Christians to submit to the law and says that all government authority is God-granted.
3:18 PM · Jul 6, 2025
But glad to see your sources are reddit and bluesky.
And it is just flat out stupid to quote Leviticus when you could quote Exodus 22:21:
There is not a lot to misinterpret in that one. It clearly applies to immigrants. But the Exodus quote can't be misinterpreted to justify the illegal border crossing because the Israelites were invited to Egypt. Right.
It says "a stranger". Not "20 million strangers".
Asking someone to follow the culture and laws of a land is not mistreating them dumdum. Taking from your own citizens to fund strangers is.
The Bible isnt exactly big on being selfish and taking from others.
"The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these."
I want zero minimum wage, no hand outs, and the same minimalist tax burden... because it has to be taken from someone... for them as I do for myself and fellow citizens.
I may be my brother's keeper, but I'm not to blame for other people's "And then, for lack of people quoting Leviticus 19:34 and Exodus 22:21, the German people elected Adolph Hitler." maliciously stupid interpretation of history.
Lol here comes JesseBot to repeat what his cult leaders have told him. You are pathetic trash.
“JesseBot”
Very clever Lying Jeffy.
I'm pretty sure that by your own stupid, acontextual citation, we're all obligated to stone you to death.
It’s always a laugh observing the left’s “gotcha!” moments, based on their limited understanding of ideas or values outside their own circle jerks. Nothing could be less sincere, and of course it always backfires.
There should be a website where the DNC pays knobs like this writer 50 cents not to stump for them.
clutch pearls harder!
At least Sullum wasn't offering 'legal analysts' about how this violate the separation of church and state;)
JS;dr
Federal agencies should not be used for political propaganda.
LOL why did it take so long, since at least 2016, for you to finally say this?
We have never seen anything as blatant as this.
How is enforcing immigration laws propaganda?
But I guess if you like your doctor you can keep them wasn't propaganda. Hmm... or throwing grandma off a cliff hmm... or Trump Russia hmmm... or the J6 committee hiring a news director to edit and push videos hmmm...
Pathetic lying slimy piles of lefty shit like you should fuck off and die.
Throughout this article it seems the point of it is really to change the language.
Illegal immigrants are now "unauthorized residents" and of course they are all "peaceful, productive people who have lived and worked in this country for many years."
They are, according to the article, "hardworking individuals who are trying to make an honest living, albeit without the government's permission."
"Mass deportation necessarily involves detaining and expelling people who pose no threat to public safety, people with strong, longstanding ties to the United States who have built lives and families here."
So why is it that the illegals being rounded up and deported have and do pose a threat to public safety? Is the author living in some alternate universe where the bad are good and the good are bad?
Actual Jesus: treat strangers as you would like to be treated.
Republican Jesus: The only people who matter are the ones who look like you. Everyone else will go to hell.
Found one.
Now do Democrat Jesus.
Lying Jeffy lies. It’s what he does.
JS;dr
If I had a dollar for every time LGBT Pedo bastardized Scripture in order to rationalize their sinful lifestyle choice, I'd pay off the national debt and buy every legal American a new Lambo.
Don't recall any hand-wringing over that overt blasphemy.
The fact that anyone is even complaining about this is ludicrous. America - especially those entrusted with its governance - SHOULD take a cue from God's Word as they pray for the wisdom and clarity to best serve her People. America is a Christian nation. The fact that we don't see this kind of thing coming from our government more often should bother you, not the one time you do see it.
Again, Section 230 specifically invokes a Christian parable, from Christ, about followers of the Samaritan religion in defense of Congress passing legislation legally shielding the blocking and screening of offensive speech on the internet.
It prima facie and directly violates the letter and spirit of every last word of the 1A. And Reason repeatedly deigns it "The 1A of The Internet".
Reason doesn't want separation of Church and State, they don't want free speech, free press or peaceable assembly (How can people possibly assemble violently online?), they don't want a right to petition your government for redress of grievances. They want their own bastardized, (self-)victimizing morality as *the* religion, no matter how whimsical or oppressively byzantine. They want a captured press. They want a government that can hide behind "MUH PRIVUT KORPORASHUNZ!" and "MUH PRIVUT KORPORASHUNZ" that can hide behind the law (Did I mention that the morality would be byzantine?). And they need outsiders to see them trying to erect this order in the shambled pieces of the greater order that came before them in the hope that greater numbers of less cohesive, enlightened, diverse people can magically achieve more than what came before them.
Wonder where Sullums articles were about ...
- Biden won the election because of his Poopy-Hole Lord to save the Poopy-Hole obsessed from being denied a Poopy-Hole obsession Gov Status Symbol?
- Or Biden won the election because of his Sun-God Savior who'll save the earth from melting! /s
All 3 are stupid and but a symptom of a government gone [Na]tional So[zi]alist ... [WE] Identify-as gangster battle style but if you're going to poke fingers at least poke them at all religions.
Rabbi Donald is answering, in this morning sermon, to your numerous Lamentations, you poor animals: " The Road to Theocracy is filled with AM'BUSH-ES..."
Looking forward to the religious libertarians here defending Abdullah Hammoud when he starts citing the Koran as he enforces Deerborn city ordinances.
Perhaps the New Testament, rather than the Old, ought be considered? The former is "christian," the latter is not.