Here's the government's ad campaign asking migrants not to come to the U.S. illegally
With the end of the COVID-19 national emergency last week, U.S. immigration policy has changed and the Department of Homeland Security rolled out a digital ad campaign in anticipation.
Title 42 is a public health law passed in 1944 that was enacted again at the beginning of the pandemic under the Trump administration that slowed entry into the U.S. With its end last week, DHS said the number of migrants seeking to enter the U.S. through Mexico could increase.
The agency’s campaign will run in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, and other Latin American countries, DHS said, and the ads would reach those heading to the U.S. by leveraging “geotargeting along the migratory path and social media platforms popular among migrants.”
The Spanish-language ads use black and yellow caution tape graphics and photos of agents and removal flights with the messages “crossing illegally is a crime,” “there are consequences,” “U.S. immigration laws are tougher,” and “get informed and obey the law.”
The new ads link to this landing page and will run alongside a campaign that began last year warning viewers to “say no to the coyotes,” a slang term for smugglers, who are spreading false information that the U.S.-Mexico border is open, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
At a press availability, Mayorkas said the campaign “adds to our extensive ongoing communications efforts in the region.” It also adds to the increasingly tough stance the Biden administration is taking at the border, an issue he polls poorly on, but his response is dividing Democrats since the end of Title 42.
Is the campaign working? Perhaps. The expected surge at the border hasn’t yet occurred, and a DHS official said Monday that the U.S. has “seen a substantial decrease in unlawful crossings at the border and irregular migration, averaging less than half that many encounters,” than it did before Title 42 ended, according to NBC News.
I’m not sure if you’re aware, but we’re living through a Kehinde Wileyssance
It’s been five years since artist Kehinde Wiley painted the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s portrait of former President Barack Obama, and while he doubts he can eclipse his most famous work, he’s more booked and busy than ever.
Last month Wiley ended his run at Los Angeles’ Roberts Projects with his exhibition Colorful Realm, and he currently has two shows open on opposite coasts — HAVANA at New York’s Sean Kelly gallery through June 17 and Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence at San Francisco’s de Young Museum through Oct. 15. A show of portraits of Black heads of state is scheduled to open in Paris in September.
The themes of his current shows couldn’t be more different. HAVANA is a celebration. The exhibition shows street performers and dancers in front of Obamaesque green floral backgrounds, and it was “informed by Wiley’s focus on the evolution of Black culture globally,” Sean Kelly said.
An Archaeology of Silence is pointed and heavy, meant to draw attention to systemic violence against Black people with statues and paintings de Young calls “interpretations of Black life and death.” Many of the works depict figures in poses inspired by historical religious and mythological art.
The Associated Press described Wiley’s current proliferation as “taking his art everywhere all at once” in a new profile. While no single work he’s done since the Obama portrait has risen to that same level of public awareness, he’s fast building his canon.
“I wonder if I will ever be able to do anything that lives up to the gravity of that moment,” Wiley told the AP of his Obama portrait. “Everybody wants to be seen in a number of different contexts ... but I mean, what a great project to be involved in. So, come on, here’s the world’s smallest violin, playing just for me.”
Paul Ryan’s official House Speaker portrait isn’t as broey as I’d like, but it’s fine
Like high school grads coming back on campus to see their favorite social studies teacher, former House Speaker Paul Ryan and four other current and former speakers were on Capitol Hill Wednesday for the unveiling of Ryan’s latest official portrait.
The portrait was painted by Leslie Bowman, a Minnesota-based artist who’s painted two other portraits of Ryan, one for his time as chair of the Budget Committee, painted in 2018, and another for his time as chair of the Ways and Means Committee, painted in 2021.
Ryan called Bowman’s work “beautiful.” I wish she depicted him holding a dumbbell in a gym instead holding a gavel on Speaker’s rostrum, but that’s just me.
At the unveiling, Speaker McCarthy called Ryan “not only a policy wonk but a selfless leader,” and Ryan also got props from Democratic Minority Leaker Hakeem Jeffries, who called Ryan “the Ayn-Rand-quoting, headphone-wearing 54th Speaker of the House of Representatives,” as well as, “a good man, a family man, a principled man, a thoughtful man, a hardworking man, a Janesville man, and a Green Bay Packers man.”
The House Speaker Portrait collection began informally in 1852 with a portrait of Rep. Henry Clary, and in 1910, the House made it official, mandating oil portraits of all speakers, according to the House Office of Art & Archives.
Have you seen this?
What makes a logo feel “normal”? “Pepsi’s recent logo change was celebrated as a return to normalcy. But are there drawbacks to playing it safe with branding?” [Fast Company]
The gentrification font. The clean, modern typeface has adorned the New Yorker, Shake Shack and even HBO’s Girls — now it might bedeck your last home. How a sleek typeface became a neighborhood omen. [The Guardian]
Like what you see?
Subscribe for more: