The video was pinned to Border Patrol’s Instagram Reels.
A U.S. Border Patrol video featuring antisemitic lyrics went viral on X on Tuesday after far-right users discovered it had been posted to Facebook and Instagram. The video, which included the lyrics “Jew me” and “kike me,” was deleted from the platforms on Wednesday morning, though it’s not clear whether the offensive content was taken down by Border Patrol or Meta.
The 13-second video appears to have been posted to Instagram in August, but was pinned in the Reels section of the official Border Patrol page, making it more visible to a wider audience. The video only gained widespread attention late Tuesday on X, where far-right extremists celebrated a signal that was clearly intended for them. The Instagram video had 3.4 million views when Gizmodo viewed it Tuesday night.
The audio used in the clip comes from Michael Jackson’s controversial 1996 song “They Don’t Care About Us.” The song includes the lyrics “Jew me, sue me, everybody do me/ Kick me, kike me, don’t you black or white me.”
The lyrics were criticized at the time for being antisemitic, though Jackson defended his words, insisting he didn’t intend for them to be offensive. The singer, who died in 2009, issued an apology and later released an edited version of the song.The antisemitic Border Patrol video
The video starts with footage of someone adjusting a bodycam before viewers see Border Patrol agents walking around with guns. Another shot shows a truck hauling Border Patrol dune buggies, and then a shot in the desert where a dune buggy kicks up dust behind it.
Gizmodo saved a copy of the Border Patrol video before it was taken down from Instagram and Facebook.
The video is very short, making it clear that the choice of lyrics was the intentional focus. Viewers are obviously meant to hear the antisemitic aspects, since it’s more or less the only audio in the 13 seconds being presented. DHS didn’t respond to questions from Gizmodo on Wednesday morning.
Comments on Instagram included people who clearly understood the message of the video as antisemitic. One commenter replied, “based song choice,” which was liked by the Border Patrol account. Another commenter wrote, “if you know, you know.”
Comments from the far-right on X were even more explicit, including “This deserves 6 million likes and shares,” a reference to the number of Jews who died in the Holocaust.
