The White House has launched a new website called Aliens.gov — but the extraterrestrial-themed page isn’t for disclosures on unidentified flying objects. Instead, it’s an immigration enforcement website mapping out arrests across the United States.
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The site uses dark visuals and sci-fi-style green font to warn of aliens who “walk among us.” The White House teased the site Thursday night with a 10-second video posted on X.
“For 60 years, the U.S. government has kept a closely guarded secret,” the website reads. “Aliens have been walking among us, living in our neighborhoods, and interacting with us in our daily lives. They’ve shopped in the same stores, attended the same classes as our children, and lived seemingly normal human existences. With one exception — they do not belong here.”
The controversial website includes a ticker purporting to show the number of so-called “encounters,” with the figure standing at over 3.1 million and counting as of Friday morning. It is unclear exactly what the White House site means by “encounters,” but the Department of Homeland Security defines the term to include “apprehensions,” encounters at U.S. ports of entry and those processed for deportations. The site doesn’t provide any information on a timeline for when the “encounters” occurred.
The site also features a searchable live map for tracking arrests of undocumented immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and encourages citizens to “report suspicious aliens” through an ICE tip line.
“If you’ve witnessed an Alien abduction, do not be alarmed,” a message reads. “The Alien is in good hands… and will be returned safely to its place of origin.”
In March, the White House sparked intrigued when it quietly registered the domain name Alien.gov. At the time, many suspected it was related to directive from President Donald Trump to release previously classified files related to UFOs.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, responded to the post on X, writing: “Still looking for intelligent life in the White House.”
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The White House did not immediately respond to NBC’s request for comment, but defended the site in a statement to Fox News: “This is a first-of-its-kind effort to draw eyeballs to the fact that the previous administration’s porous border didn’t just put families in border states at risk, many across the country were in harm’s way.”
Immigration has long been Trump’s signature issue and a top reason he won a second term in 2024. His first year back in the White House saw sweeping changes in enforcement and an infusion of billions of dollars to the agencies tasked with carrying out his agenda. ICE has loosen restrictions placed on those who could be arrested and removed, leading to a surge of arrests in large-scale sweeps, mostly in Democratic-led cities. The crackdown sparked clashes between protesters and enforcement officers and led to the shooting deaths in Minneapolis of two U.S. citizens.
Since then, the president’s hard-line anti-immigration agenda has lost popularity with voters and there have been no new high-profile city-based operations launched, raising questions about the administration’s strategy.
But in a sign of its continued determination, ICE in budget documents says it plans to remove 1 million people this fiscal year and the next compared with roughly 442,000 people last year. The agency also has plenty of money to carry out its mission, with Congress granting the Department of Homeland Security more than $170 billion for Trump’s immigration agenda last year.
The administration aims to have enough space to detain roughly 100,000 people this fiscal year, which would more than double the average daily number held in ICE detention last year. The administration has already expanded its detention capacity with the purchase of 11 warehouses across the country.
The Trump administration has also targeted legal pathways to immigration, including stripping away protections for migrants with temporary legal status to remain in the U.S. while their cases are being adjudicated. Another example is the decline in the number of green cards approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which dropped by half over the course of a year under the Trump administration, according to an analysis by the Cato Institute, which supports immigration into the U.S. Humanitarian visas for refugees or people who qualified for asylum saw the biggest declines. USCIS also announced this week that foreigners in the U.S. who want a green card will need to leave and apply in their home country.
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