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Trump Uses 90s Song to Deport Migrants

BBG News

 1990s band Semisonic has responded to the Trump administration using their hit song in a controversial deportation video posted onto social media.

Earlier today the White House and Border Patrol official Instagram accounts posted a video of agents searching illegal immigrants before deportation set to the tune of the 1998 smash hit Closing time.

The video was captioned featuring lyrics to the tune as it read: ‘[music note emoji] You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here [music note emoji]  @borderpatrol’

Now the Minneapolis based band has responded to the use of their song in an statement to DailyMail.com which read: ‘We did not authorize or condone the White House’s use of our song in any way. And no, they didn’t ask. 

‘The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely.’

The track has always been assumed to be about the last call at a bar.

A post shared by The White House (@whitehouse)

In another account, the lead singer Dan Wilson, who penned the popular tune, earlier shared with Billboard that the song’s creation was influenced partly by the arrival of his daughter, Coco.

He said in 2018: ‘The guys wanted a new song to close our sets with. I thought “Closing Time” would be a good title. We had spent seven years of our lives at that point, four nights a week entertaining people. That was our life. 

‘Some bouncers yelling things, closing time coming, all that imagery, literally, that’s how the song started and then when I was halfway done, I started realizing the whole thing was a pun about being born, so I just made sure that the rest of the thing could ride with that double meaning, but nobody got the joke and I didn’t bother to explain. I thought everyone would get it.’

At age 63, Wilson has maintained a flourishing career in songwriting and was even part of writing the Grammy Award-winning Adele track “Someone Like You” from 2011.

In the latter part of the 1990s, this tune became an international sensation, climbing to the first spot on the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and breaking into the top 50 charts in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK.

Meanwhile, the US-Mexico border has become drastically more secure under the Trump administration compared to Biden’s, data from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed earlier this month.  

The number of southwest land border encounters in February 2025 are the ‘lowest in history,’ according to the White House. 

Last February, there were 189,913 reported interactions between US patrol agents and non-citizens at the border while Joe Biden was president. 

In February 2022 and 2023, those numbers were 166,010 and 156,630 respectively. 

But after less then two months in office, Donald Trump’s stern immigration policies have made those figures plummet, with just 8,326 incidents reported this February.

Trump posted on Truth Social that during the last month, the number of immigrants attempting to enter the country was at its all-time low under his administration.

He declared that the ‘invasion’ of the United States is over and the border is now ‘closed to all illegal immigrants’ after mass ICE arrests.

Trump said the more than 8,000 who were apprehended ‘were quickly ejected from our Nation or, when necessary prosecuted for crimes against the United States of America.’

https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/22000180/embed

The leader announced, “Few individuals attended, which indicates that the Incursion into our Nation has concluded.

‘In comparison, under Joe Biden, there were 300,000 Illegals crossing in one month, and virtually ALL of them were released into our Country.

‘Thanks to the Trump Administration Policies, the Border is CLOSED to all Illegal Immigrants.

People attempting unlawful entry into the United States can expect to encounter severe legal consequences, including potential imprisonment and immediate removal from the country.

The news emerged following Secretary Kirsti Noem’s declaration that over 20,000 undocumented immigrants were apprehended by the administration within a single month.

That was a 627 percent increase in monthly arrests compared to Biden, Noem claimed.

She said: ‘President Trump and this Administration are saving lives every day because of the actions we are taking to secure the border and deport illegal migrant criminals.

‘Many unlawful individuals entered our nation without permission. We plan to send them back to their homeland, and they will not be allowed to come back again.’

The president has pledged to purge the US of its ‘most dangerous’ unlawful immigrants through a sweeping deportation strategy that would result in the ‘largest deportation effort’ ever carried out. 

Over 50,000 individuals, found to be in the U.S. illegally and including some who have flouted laws by evading arrest, have been expelled from the country as per a previous disclosure made to DailyMail.com by an official from the Department of Homeland Security.

Among those deported were Ivan Oramas and Santos Maradiaga-Villalta, who were first ordered to be removed from the country while George W. Bush was president. 

The news about their arrest became known towards the end of February through a confidential internal memo within the immigration department, detailing recent actions taken by the Trump administration.

Oramas, 61, is a citizen of Cuba with a rap sheet including convictions for sexual battery and aggravated assault.

His sexual battery case caused serious injury, according to his charges in the file. ICE Houston nabbed Oramas this week, enforcing a deportation order first handed down in October 2003.

Maradiaga-Villalta, a 40-year-old from Honduras, has convictions for smuggling people into the US. 

He was arrested by ICE in Phoenix. His first deportation order dates back to January 2006, a 19-year lapse in action.

The Trump administration revealed intentions to revive an immigrant family detention facility, which had been closed down under the previous presidency.

Biden closed down the South Texas Family Residential Center, aiming to cease the confinement of children.

But the facility is set to reopen in Dilley with the capacity to fit 2,400 people.  

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2025-03-17 22:41

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