White House site Aliens.gov claims ICE arrested nearly half a million people, including US citizens
A space-themed website launched by the White House uses fake counters and unauthorised audio to present arrest data that contradicts official records and flags hundreds of domestic-born individuals.
The White House has launched Aliens.gov, a space-themed website that utilises a sci-fi aesthetic to mock immigrants and compare them to extraterrestrials. The site claims that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested nearly half a million people across approximately 12,000 US locations. It identifies 715 locations where at least one arrestee was born in the United States, and 83 locations where all listed arrestees are reported as American citizens.
The website features a prominent counter labeled “encounters” that displays a figure of 3,129,580. However, technical analysis by WIRED confirms this number is fabricated. The starting figure was manually typed into the site’s code, and the incrementing motion is driven by a timer initiated by the visitor’s browser rather than reflecting actual enforcement data. This displayed figure is approximately seven times larger than actual ICE arrest counts recorded since January 2025.
Beyond the inflated totals, the site contains significant data anomalies. One location listed is an address in Ohio corresponding to a state-run prison rather than a city or town. Additionally, Puerto Rico is mapped as a separate jurisdiction on the site, yet it is also listed among the foreign countries of origin for arrestees. In more than one-fifth of the locations flagged on the site, no criminal charges are recorded, contradicting the administration’s narrative that ICE is targeting serious criminals.
The site also incorporates audio from The X-Files theme song without confirmed permission from Disney Music Group, which holds the rights to the music. Metadata indicates the audio track was created using late-2000s-era CD-ripping software. The White House did not respond to questions regarding how it obtained the files or whether it had permission to use them. The bureau’s Anti-Piracy Warning program is designed to deter such unauthorised reproduction, though the FBI did not immediately comment on the matter.
The Trump administration has repeatedly stated that ICE is targeting the “worst of the worst,” but independent data suggests otherwise. An April report from the Deportation Data Project found that ICE arrests of people without any criminal convictions have skyrocketed compared to the six months prior to the start of the administration. The White House stated that WIRED’s request for comment did not reach its inbox until two hours after it was sent and did not address specific questions regarding the site’s data accuracy or copyright usage.
