Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The Trump administration has launched a multi-million-dollar advertising campaign warning undocumented migrants that they will be deported if they are in the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security announced the campaign on Monday, unveiling two advertisements, one directed at migrants in the country and the other targeted at those in a foreign nation thinking of attempting to illegally enter the United States.
Both ads, titled "Warning," consist of dramatic music with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem speaking directly to non-U.S. citizens.
In the domestic ad, she warns undocumented migrants to "leave now."
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"If you don't, we will find you and we will deport you," Noem states. "You will never return."
She then adds that if they leave now on their own, they may eventually be allowed back into the country.
"But understand this, under President Trump, America's borders are closed to law breakers," she said. "Follow the law, and you'll find opportunity. Break it, and you'll consequences."
In the ad intended for international markets, Noem warns, "if you are considering entering America illegally, don't even think about it."
"Let me be clear: If you come to our country and you break our laws we will hunt you down," she says into the camera. "Criminals are not welcome in the United States."
The ads are to run on radio, broadcast and digital platforms in multiple countries and dialects, the DHS said in a statement.
President Donald Trump ran on a platform to curb illegal migration and to undertake the largest deporation operation in American history, while using controversial rhetoric to spread often misinformation and false claims about migrants and crime within the country.
Since his inauguration, Trump has signed executive orders to shore up border security and taken other actions to deport migrants. However, deportations under the Trump administration appear to be lower under the Trump administration than under the administration of his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
Trump's so-called border czar Tom Homan has said that 14,000 undocumented migrants have been arrested in the three weeks of the Trump administration.
That number represents a drop from the 21,130 people arrested in November under Biden, according to data from the nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
