White House video captured immigrants in Chains, Handcuffs, netizens react

Eric Patrick

The White House expressed concern following the release of a video showing undocumented immigrants in shackles being escorted to a deportation flight.

The video posted on the X account of the White House on Tuesday, with the caption, "ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight," shows the moment the deportation flight was departing from Seattle.

Reacting to the video clip, Elon Reeve Musk, popularly known as Elon Musk, wrote, "Haha wow."

 Elon Musk is a businessman and senior advisor to the U.S. president, Donald Trump, known for his key roles in Tesla, Inc., SpaceX, the Department of Government Efficiency, and his ownership of Twitter. 

The video captured disturbingly close shots of chains and handcuffs on the tarmac and showed detainees walking with their hands and feet bound.

Netizens have, however, reacted to this development, with some asking if the "chains" were necessary.

An X user, #levichukwu2, asked: "This is so bad. Why put them in chains??"

A user, #Markshg, wrote, "Took our ancestors to ur land with chains and returning their defendants with chains. I pray Africa never forgets this easily. We must keep in mind that America owed the world a severe punishment."

Another X user, #specimen1IR, wrote, "We all should learn to live as wanted guests whenever you're out of your territory to avoid situations like this. America is at liberty to treat any illegal immigrant as they like. Na for Naija we dey hype anything that's not black."

#evenson_eli also wrote, "I don't understand the fake outrage about the chains. EVERY criminal within the United States is transported to and from, jails, courts, and prisons under the same conditions and are shown in court on YouTube to millions of people on a daily basis. No outrage over that."

"Yes! They broke the law they are criminals! Now do the same to the employers who hired illegals and to our corrupt government," #CSBrent1 wrote.

About 3,690 Nigerians in the United States are facing deportation, according to a document compiled by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Removal Operations.

The document, titled, ‘Non-citizens on the ICE Non-Detained Docket with Final Orders of Removal by Country of Citizenship,’ shows that Mexico and El Salvador top the list of nations facing the highest number of deportations, with 252,044 and 203,822, respectively.

The United States on Monday, 17 February, commenced deportation proceedings for Nigerian nationals, as 85 individuals arrived in Lagos, while 116 others remain in detention.

The Federal Government, through the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, expressed concerns over the process, calling for a more humane approach.