The Concealment of Human Rights Abuse in Videos of the United States Customs and Border Protection

This essay examines the short-length videos of the United States Customs and Border Protection agency that were produced between 2009 to 2022. It examines how the CBP exploits video to fashion an image of itself as a humane and “benevolent” force. Studied as an ensemble, the videos fall under three distinctive categories: the agency’s canine training program; CBP officers and volunteerism; and the agency’s self-described “humanitarianism.” By omitting reference to the agency’s human rights abuses of migrants and refugees, the moving images opt for a representation of laboring officers executing their duties for the protection of the U.S. A contribution to scholarship in nontheatrical and nontraditional media, and border and immigration media, this essay examines the scope of propaganda production specifically in the context of border policing.