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Newsweek
8 hours ago
- Newsweek
Trump Admin DHS Account Accused of Referencing Avowed White Supremacist
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Trump administration was accused of quoting a white supremacist who was backed by a Neo-Nazi group, as part of its social media campaign to recruit immigration enforcement agents. In a post shared to X on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said "Which way, American man?", a quote from which appeared to reference Which Way, Western Man, a 1978 book by the avowed white supremacist William Gayley Simpson, who argued Hitler was right and Jews must be killed. The phrase has also been a part of online meme culture for years, typically stripped of its relation to the Simpson book. "This administration has made a point of further normalizing explicit extremism – from dangerous conspiracy theories and rhetoric, to the appointment of officials with deep extremist ties, to dehumanizing policies," Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, told Newsweek. Responding to Newsweek's question about whether the person who posted the quote understood its origin, Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin asked: "Where are we quoting a white supremacist?" adding, "This is so embarrassing for Newsweek." Why It Matters The post comes amid a clear shift under the Trump administration for government social media accounts to use memes, quotes and trends to share messaging on policy, particularly when it comes to immigration. Supporters have praised the administration for keeping its finger on the pulse of the digital conversation, while critics have said the posts are not befitting the status of federal government offices at best and racist dog-whistles at worst. What To Know Simpson's book is widely seen as racist and antisemitic, with the author writing that if the U.S. was to survive, then "all aliens" including Jewish, Asian and Black people would "have to be put out and kept out". In another chapter, Simpson wrote that Hitler was right in his actions leading up to WWII, and that the U.S. would need to take a similar approach. The book was published by the National Alliance, a known Neo-Nazi group which says on its website that it believes multi-racial societies cannot be healthy, and governments cannot be good if they serve more than one racial entity. The "Which way?" post, shared on the DHS X account, included an illustration of Uncle Sam at a crossroads from 1936, which referenced President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. The original image included Uncle Sam holding a sign which said "Prosperity", with signs pointing in different directions reading "New Deal," "Liberty," "Opportunity," "Inflation," and "Depression". Left: A Department of Homeland Security post on X, as part of an ICE recruitment campaign. Right: Federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on August 12,... Left: A Department of Homeland Security post on X, as part of an ICE recruitment campaign. Right: Federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on August 12, 2025 in New York City. More DHS/Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images DHS' version changed the words, with the sign in his hands reading "Law and Order" – a familiar phrase used by the Trump administration – along with "Opportunity," "Homeland," and "Service," pointing in one direction, and "Invasion," and "Cultural Decline" in the other. The use of the image comes after similar uses of older U.S. artwork depicting seemingly bygone eras of American life and war time messaging. Bible quotes have also begun appearing as part of social media messaging when promoting DHS' efforts in defending the homeland. What People Are Saying Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, told Newsweek: "At a moment of record antisemitism and broader violent hate, we know where this increasingly mainstreamed extremism leads.I'll also note that yesterday and today are the 8th anniversary of the Charlottesville violence, which was fueled by the very same white supremacist ideas." Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, on X: "To be blunt; the propagandists running @DHSgov are deliberately pushing thinly-veiled neo-Nazi material through the official communications channels of the U.S. government. Their goal is stirring outrage (to which they will express fake outrage) and signaling to their followers." Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, on X: "It's a common meme & I'd be surprised if 1 in a million heard of the book. Book sounds loathsome, so in that respect the meme is like "This Land Is Your Land", written by a Stalinist lickspittle (w/ commie verses at the end) but now disconnected from its origin & widely accepted." What's Next DHS is continuing its social media push as part of a recruitment campaign for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with over 100,000 people said to have applied for roles over the past few weeks. The agency was given $75 billion in funding as part of President Trump's recent tax and spending bill, with $30 billion earmarked strictly for hiring.
WIRED
16 hours ago
- WIRED
Inside the ‘Whites Only' Community in Arkansas
Aug 12, 2025 9:50 AM Members have espoused racist and antisemitic views and repeatedly praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. They've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, and their movement is growing. Photo-illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty Images A group of Americans are building a 'whites only' community in rural Arkansas they call the 'Return to the Land.' They believe that white people and Western culture are facing extinction due to an influx of immigrants and minorities, and according to the group's founder, access to the community is open only to people of white European ancestry who share common views on topics such as segregation, abortion, and gender identity. Video footage shared by the group on its social media accounts show a bucolic setting with animals and children running around their 160-acre site, while members of the community build timber-frame homes, churches, and other facilities. A 'few dozen' people are already living there full time, says Eric Orwoll, the group's president. Though the organization claims that Return to the Land is nothing more than a peaceful settlement of like-minded people, the online histories of the group's leaders tell a different story. Members have espoused virulently racist and antisemitic views and repeatedly praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. One of the leaders says he is currently under criminal investigation in Ecuador. Orwoll himself has spoken about the coming of a second Hitler and praised KKK leader David Duke. He is also closely aligned to an international network of far-right influencers, extremists, and white supremacists, including Thomas Sewell, a neo-Nazi living in Australia who was the founder of a group that influenced the Christchurch shooter. Despite this, the Return to the Land community has been lauded by far-right influencers and has already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. Return to the Land, which was first reported on by The Forward and Sky News, is actively scouting for other locations to create a network of similar communities across the country, with a development in Missouri apparently in the works. Inspired in part by the Silicon Valley-based concept of the 'network state' and by a white separatist community in South Africa known as Orania, the group promotes itself on its website as a community designed to 'promote strong families with common ancestry, and raise the next generation in an environment that reflects our traditional values.' 'They use a lot of innocuous language,' Morgan Moon, a researcher at the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, tells WIRED. 'Instead of saying they want to make a white ethnic community, they say they want to make a strong community of common ancestry. But at the same time, when we see their promotional videos and propaganda, what we see is that when they're depicting the failing modern society, they use imagery consisting of minority groups or the LGBT+ community. When they're showing the idealized parallel society that they're attempting to create with Return to the Land, they tend to only use white Aryan imagery.' Orwoll has spent years building up an audience of like-minded followers on social media, primarily on YouTube, where he speaks about Western culture and philosophy. In 2023, a group of Orwoll's followers decided to buy the 160-acre plot in rural Arkansas. They chose the location because Orwoll lives nearby, the property was relatively cheap, and the building regulations were lenient. The county is over 90 percent white, which was also a deciding factor, says Orwoll, who also claims to be a classically trained musician who previously played with Shen Yun, a Chinese performing arts group run by the Falun Gong, a religious movement. Return to the Land is set up as a private members association, and those seeking to join have to go through a number of steps in order to verify their identity and heritage. 'You fill out a questionnaire that'll give us an initial idea of where you're coming from, your values, who you are, your background and then there is a phone interview, and we make admissions decisions on a case by case basis,' Orwoll tells WIRED. The application form for Return to the Land asks potential members to outline their ancestry and also respond to a range of questions about their social and cultural viewpoints, including whether they support foreign immigration, 'transgenderism,' Covid-19 vaccines, and segregation. It also asks: 'How often do you think about the Roman empire?' with answers ranging from 'every day, at least once' to 'a few times a week, probably' and 'never.' This initial process only gets you approved to access private group chats on Telegram. For those who decide they want to move to Arkansas and become part of the community, 'vetting for that level of involvement is much more thorough,' says Orwoll, though he declined to say what that process involved beyond conducting a 'background check.' Peter Csere, the group's secretary, tells WIRED that the association currently has 300 members across the country. Orwoll says they have had interest not only from Americans, but also from people on other continents. Despite being the face of the development, Orwoll himself does not live in the Return to the Land community right now. 'I've not developed my homestead sufficiently to allow my four children to live safely there full time, so I have a house 15 minutes away, but I'm working towards moving into the community,' he says. In recent weeks, as Orwoll's past has been closely scrutinized, researchers found videos in which Orwoll performed in online porn videos with his then-wife Caitlyn, who is now a resident on the Return to the Land compound. Orwoll has condemned porn addiction, claiming that it 'emasculated' young men. 'In my early 20s I did plenty of things that I am now totally against,' says Orwoll, who confirmed on X that he appeared in the videos. 'I considered myself a nihilist, did psychedelics and didn't respect traditional sexual morality. The lack of guidance I had and the way it threw off my early adult life informed the importance I later placed on traditional values.' To date, the community has raised approximately $330,000 from land sales, according to a financial analysis conducted by the ADL's Center on Extremism. It is also running five separate crowdfunding campaigns on GiveSendGo, a Christian-focused crowdfunding platform. These campaigns have raised over $185,000 in donations. The latest campaign, which has a target of $100,000, was launched last month, and is designed to fund rallies across the country to promote the Return to the Land model. The campaign has already raised over $88,000; one of the top donations was for $5,000, to which the donor appended the white supremacist '14 words' slogan. Orwoll says that all of this funding has allowed him to quit his job and work full time traveling around the US speaking about the project. One of the fundraising campaigns was specifically launched to help fund a legal defense that Orwoll believes may eventually be necessary. 'I would prefer not to be sued, but I recognize that it probably will happen and the upside of it happening is that, should we win, case law would be decided in our favor,' Orwoll says. While the Fair Housing Act of 1968 prevents housing discrimination based on race or religion, Orwoll believes that the structure of his group as a private member association will allow him to circumvent the law. The group has raised over $63,000 from supporters for what it calls 'legal framework research.' 'The attorneys that we've consulted with believe that what we're doing is legal,' Orwoll says. 'I think it is a debatable edge case, probably, but we believe it is legal.' When asked to provide the names of the legal experts who they are working with, Orwoll declined to divulge their identities. Arkansas attorney general Tim Griffin tells WIRED his office has found nothing illegal about the community. 'Racism has no place in a free society, but from a legal perspective, we have not seen anything that would indicate any state or federal laws have been broken,' Griffin says in a statement emailed to WIRED. A spokesperson for Shannon Smith, assistant US attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas, declined to comment on whether her office was investigating the situation. However, WIRED has learned that her office has referred the matter to the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. 'They are better equipped to handle allegations such as these,' Smith wrote in an email shared with WIRED. The DOJ declined to comment on the situation. Multiple civil rights organizations have condemned Return to the Land's project and called on local and federal lawmakers and officials to shut down the project. 'We believe this development not only revives discredited and reprehensible forms of segregation,' Lindsay Baach Friedmann, a regional director at the ADL, wrote in a statement posted on X. 'We urge the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission, local elected officials, and law enforcement to act swiftly to ensure that Northeast Arkansas remains a welcoming and inclusive community, not a refuge for intolerance and exclusion.' The Arkansas Fair Housing Commission and Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not respond to WIRED's repeated requests for comment. The idea of Return to the Land was partly inspired by venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan's book The Network State , which promotes the idea of digital-first communities of people with shared values with the aim of gaining a degree of sovereignty. 'That book was one inspiration,' Orwoll says. 'I wouldn't say we're trying to emulate everything that Srinivasan writes about in the book, the more techno, crypto, and augmented reality aspects that he discussed doesn't exactly align with our values, but the core concepts of how to organize the network state, I think, were very useful, actually.' Orwoll posted about the book in the group's Telegram channel earlier this year, urging others to read it. 'Imagine a network of a dozen high tech, high human capital, small White cities spread through the US south, exchanging workers, students and ideas,' Orwoll wrote on X in February. The Return to the Land community has also been hailed as a huge success by far-right influencers and extremists on social media. 'If you don't have the right to build a community on a private piece of land and live around the sorts of people you want to live around, then you don't have any rights at all,' right-wing podcaster Matt Walsh wrote on X about Return to the Land. 'This is as basic and fundamental as rights can possibly get. Freedom of association.' Many of the very people who have been most vocal in supporting Orwoll and his project are the same extremists who he has forged close relationships with in recent years. Orwoll has long associated with white supremacists and promoted neo-Nazi ideals. Last year, Orwoll was a 'VIP' guest at the America First Political Action Conference, an annual white nationalist gathering run by Nick Fuentes. 'I have always considered you a brilliant and dedicated advocate for our cause,' Fuentes wrote on X recently in response to a post from Orwoll. When asked if Fuentes would be allowed to live within the compound, given his Mexican heritage, Orwoll tells WIRED 'it would depend on a vote.' Earlier this year, Orwoll invited Sewell, the well-known Australian neo-Nazi, to be a speaker at a conference dedicated to discussing intentional communities. Jared Taylor, who runs the white supremacist American Renaissance website, antisemitic influencer Lucas Gage, and Thomas Rousseau, the leader of white nationalist group Patriot Front, were also speaking at that conference. Rousseau has been interviewed by Orwoll on his social media channels on multiple occasions. Moon says that she has also observed active clubs—many of which are run by Rousseau—taking part in events on the Return to the Land plot in Arkansas. Active clubs are a network of white supremacist groups who participate in physical training, preparing members for a war they believe they are fighting against a system designed to bring down the white race. In a post on X last year, Orwoll wrote that 'what really matters isn't which biological race you belong to or what your ethnic background is. What matters is what proportion of admixture you have from the ancient and spiritually superior root races.' In a follow up post, he said that anyone who disagrees with the statement needs some 'ahnenerbe' teaching. Ahnenerbe was a pseudoscientific organization created by Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS in Adolf Hiter's Nazi Germany. The group consisted of scientists and academics charged with proving that Germans descended from an Aryan race that was responsible for most of the world's greatest achievements in everything from agriculture to art and literature. Orwoll has also recently reminisced about a period in history when, as he portrayed it, former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke was almost elected as governor of Louisiana, and 'White Pride rallies … filled stadiums.' When asked recently about his comments regarding the arrival of a second Hitler, Orwoll said that the Nazi Party leader was 'a very controversial historical figure.' 'I'm not saying you're going to have to wait for a new person to start a new Holocaust,' Orwoll told Sky News. 'I am saying you are going to wait for a charismatic leader who is going to advocate for your interests because that's how a lot of people see Hitler." A deeply antisemitic, anonymous X account with the screen name Raven Resolve has repeatedly referred to themselves as part of the Return to the Land group. As well as promoting the movement on numerous occasions, the account has also claimed that Return to the Land is 'forming a nationwide army of future warriors.' In the past, the account has said that the American government is the enemy. 'The people who rule this country hate it and its people,' the account wrote in 2023. 'It's a similar screen name to one of our member's screen names on our internal chats,' Orwoll wrote in an email to WIRED, without officially confirming that Raven Resolve was part of Return to the Land. 'If it is him: Views expressed by our members don't necessarily represent the views of RTTL,' Orwoll added. 'We have a program for authorizing someone as a representative, and if that X account is one of our members, he's not been authorized to represent us.' Csere, the group's secretary, who has repeatedly referred in social media posts to Nazis as 'based,' tells WIRED that he was merely 'trolling leftists.' When asked what his real view of Nazis is, Csere said: 'The Nazis made a lot of politically conservative reforms that were popular among the German people, however, their method of dealing with foreign influence in German politics and society ended up backfiring.' Csere is also facing allegations of financial fraud related to his departure from a vegan ecovillage he was part of in Ecuador. The group has accused Csere of owing the project $29,000 and stealing $30,000 in cryptocurrency. Csere denies the allegations, telling WIRED that 'various owners of that former community owed me large amounts of money and did not pay it back.' He also says he has been prevented from selling land he owned in the development. It isn't just allegations of financial impropriety, either: Csere is under criminal investigation in Ecuador for stabbing a local miner. 'My attorney says that he has never seen a case of clear-cut self defense where the prosecutor tried so hard to press charges, for so long,' Csere says, adding that the investigation is still active. Ultimately, Orwoll and Return to the Land have also been emboldened by an administration they believe offer the best chance at making this project work. 'Right now we have the most favorable judiciary,' Orwoll said in a recent video posted on X. 'We have the most favorable cultural climate and administration that we're going to get. I can't imagine someone a lot better than Trump being elected next time. I mean, I can imagine it, it's just not a realistic scenario. So we have a limited amount of time where we need to fight battles.' Trump's second term has been marked by hardline immigration policies including a massive uptick in ICE raids, the construction of draconian detention centers, and the embrace of the idea of 'remigration,' a far-right European plan to expel minorities and immigrants from Western nations. 'The first thing that the Trump administration really did when it got in power was go after diversity programs and start attacking civil rights,' Chuck Tanner, a researcher for the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, tells WIRED. 'Groups like [Orwoll's] are attuned to that and want to use that to insulate themselves from prosecution or investigation for setting up deeply racist secessionist kinds of communities.'
Atlantic
17 hours ago
- Atlantic
Kari Lake's Attempt to Deport Her Own Employees
After rushing to shut down the government-funded media outlets she was tapped to lead, Kari Lake has launched on a mission so strange that it is perhaps unprecedented: She is trying to force her own employees out of the country. Lake has been making the rounds on right-wing media in recent weeks to pitch herself as a devoted enforcer of President Donald Trump's broader agenda. Her latest targets are J-1 visa holders who worked for Voice of America. Obscure to most Americans, they have attracted Lake's attention in part because they embody a trifecta of triggers for Trump's ire—they are federal employees, they are immigrants, and they are journalists. And in Lake's telling—which distorts the facts in pursuit of a more provocative narrative—they are national-security threats worthy of the same kind of rough handling that Trump has encouraged for suspected Venezuelan gang members. 'Their time here is up. And I said before, if I have to go to the airport with them, and accompany them to the airport and get them on the flight, I will do that,' Lake, a former journalist herself, told Eric Bolling of the right-wing TV channel Real America's Voice last month. Bolling responded by suggesting that the journalists could be sent to 'Alligator Alcatraz,' Florida's new massive migrant-detention center in the Everglades. Lake began to laugh before saying, 'If you overstay your visa, ICE is going to find you. And they will find you in this case as well.' Eric Schlosser: 'We voted for retribution' The Trump administration's anti-immigrant fervor has come to Voice of America, which for years has recruited journalists from all over the world to broadcast the American point of view globally. Some of those reporters face likely persecution or imprisonment if they are deported to their home nations after having worked for the United States government. Since landing at the U.S. Agency for Global Media—the federal parent of Voice of America—in February, Lake has moved with speed to decimate VOA and independent broadcasters that receive government funding, including Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. Shortly after Trump's March 14 executive order to close down her agency, she placed almost all of VOA's staff on administrative leave, fired hundreds of contractors, and ended programming throughout much of the world. For the first time since VOA was founded, in 1942, to counter Nazi propaganda during World War II, the network went dark in March. In some parts of the world, viewers wondered if the blank screens meant a coup had taken place in the U.S., Steve Herman, who recently retired from VOA after a 20-year career, told me. In her public comments, Lake has described Voice of America—once hailed bipartisanly as a prime example of U.S. soft power—as 'rotten to the core' and 'a serious threat to our national security.' Its destruction has been so swift and debilitating that few of the former VOA journalists and executives I spoke with think it can ever recover the level of international influence it once had. Today, only a few dozen people work at the agency, down from more than 1,300 before Trump retook office. VOA has downsized from broadcasting in almost 50 languages to just a handful. During the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran in June, which culminated in U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, VOA had to ask dozens of staffers to return to work and restart the Persian news division's broadcasts. The sudden downfall of VOA will have long-term and unknown impact on America's foreign policy, yet it has had more immediate consequences for dozens of J-1 visa holders who had worked as translators and broadcasters in languages including Mandarin, Indonesian, and Bangla. As a condition of their visas, they had to remain employed by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, or depart the U.S. within 30 days. Some have already left. Others are making asylum claims. A few quickly got married or began considering enrolling in school to avoid being sent back to countries where they may not be welcome. Their plight showcases how Trump's mass-deportation agenda has morphed beyond its original contours. Although the president campaigned on a pledge to deport 'the worst of the worst'—the gang members and criminals Trump has claimed foreign governments purposefully sent to infiltrate America's southern border—Lake is targeting multilingual professionals who had been actively recruited by the U.S. to help counter propaganda from hostile nations. 'In many ways, they're exactly the people you want,' Chase Untermeyer, who served as VOA's director under President George H. W. Bush, told me. By sending them out of the country, the U.S. is giving space to governments in China, North Korea, and Iran to fill the void on the global information battlefield, he said. 'It's extraordinarily short-sighted and seen in the context of so much else of what the administration has been doing to eliminate foreign aid and reduce the State Department.' For years, VOA relied on the J-1 visa program, a cultural-exchange initiative that brings 300,000 foreigners—including au pairs and visiting medical doctors—to the U.S. annually. After spending up to three years reporting in the United States, many VOA journalists on J-1 visas have been able to pursue a green card and eventually become citizens. That was the path Sabir Mustafa thought he was on after working for more than a year as the managing editor for VOA Bangla, the U.S. public broadcaster for Bangladesh. But on March 6, as he was working at the Washington, D.C., headquarters, he was given a letter that said the agency had determined that his role was 'not a national security or mission critical position.' He was being terminated immediately, the letter said. He was asked to hand over his badge and was escorted out of the building by security. A few months short of completing his two-year probationary period, he had little recourse to try to keep his job, he told me. Tom Nichols: They're cheering for Trump in Moscow—again Because he was on a J-1 visa, his termination started a 30-day countdown in which he would need to settle his affairs in the U.S. and leave the country. If he overstayed his visa, he faced the prospect of being accosted by masked officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who around the same time had begun snatching foreign students off the street and flying migrants suspected of gang affiliation to an El Salvador megaprison. 'You either leave within those 30 days, or you are in violation of the law,' Mustafa told me. 'And nobody wants to be in violation of the law.' He knew that he had to leave, and unlike some of his colleagues, he's a citizen of a stable, safe country that happens to be a U.S. ally: the United Kingdom. He quickly began selling his furniture, paid to break his lease, and boarded a U.S.-funded flight back to London exactly 30 days after receiving his termination letter. Mustafa said his decision to leave was an easy one, but that was not the case for others. WhatsApp and Signal groups sprung up in which hundreds of VOA journalists offered resources and support to their J-1 colleagues, and the group hired an immigration lawyer to help. Those with pending asylum applications have tried to keep a low profile. A representative for them declined to be interviewed for this article, hoping to avoid the political spotlight that Lake has been actively pursuing. But press-freedom organizations and former VOA directors are speaking up on behalf of these journalists, noting that several foreign reporters have been imprisoned abroad after working for U.S.-funded outlets. 'Protecting these journalists from the risk of deportation is a moral obligation and demonstrates a commitment to democratic values and a free press,' the Committee to Protect Journalists told me in a statement. Last month, Lake shut down the J-1 visa program at VOA, attempting to cast it as a loophole through which foreign spies and other bad actors from 'hostile' nations have been allowed to enter the country. Critics have long suggested that the J-1 exchange program is inappropriate for professional journalists, who instead should be using the I-1 visa program, which is specifically for foreign media. Lake has offered little evidence to back up her espionage accusations, though opponents of the agency seized on news last year that an alleged Russian spy posing as a freelance journalist had reported for VOA. The man was based in Poland and was not on a J-1 visa. Some supporters of VOA have agreed that changes and reforms were overdue at the broadcaster—including more effective vetting of employees—but few expected that it would so quickly be declared irredeemable. Even Lake, who lost elections for Arizona governor and the U.S. Senate in 2022 and 2024, respectively, did not initially give any indication that she would try to shut down the agency she had been tapped to oversee. 'We are fighting an information war, and there's no better weapon than the truth, and I believe VOA could be that weapon,' she said in a February 21 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. 'Some people have suggested shutting it down. And with all the corruption, I totally get it, I do—all the corruption we're seeing. But I believe it's worth trying to save.' Lake and the U.S. Agency for Global Media did not respond to my requests for comment. VOA's ultimate fate is in the hands of judges who are weighing multiple lawsuits challenging Lake's authority to close the congressionally funded broadcaster. VOA's director, Michael Abramowitz, filed legal documents last week claiming Lake had illegally tried to oust him from his role. As those cases play out in court, hundreds of VOA journalists remain on paid administrative leave. Meanwhile, Lake has been appearing on other networks to portray J-1 visa holders as 'spies' who are inherently dangerous because some of them come from nations that are U.S. adversaries. 'That sort of rhetoric—it's utter nonsense,' Herman, a former White House bureau chief at VOA, told me. 'To perceive these people as a national-security threat is just ridiculous. In fact, it can be argued that those responsible for dismantling the Voice of America have harmed America's national security by taking away one of our most powerful instruments of public diplomacy and soft power.' In a previous era, someone like Rio Tuaskil might be seen as evidence of the success of that kind of diplomacy. Born in Indonesia, Tuaskil grew up watching a weekly VOA lifestyle show called Dunia Kita, an Indonesian analogue of CBS Sunday Morning that highlights American culture. The show and other VOA programming helped him see a more textured version of America than what was presented in Hollywood action films, he told me. He said the Indonesian-born VOA journalist Patsy Widakuswara was his 'role model,' and that watching her on television inspired him to come to the States on a J-1 visa and work as a journalist. (Widakuswara, who later became a U.S. citizen and the broadcaster's White House bureau chief, is a lead plaintiff in one of the lawsuits challenging Lake. The case remains pending.) Chris Feliciano Arnold: Naturalized citizens are scared Tuaskil had been working as a reporter for VOA's Indonesian service in February when he was handed a letter similar to the one Mustafa would later receive. It did not dawn on him until after he was escorted from the building that the termination meant he would have to leave the country in a matter of weeks. He had been in the early stages of applying for a green card. He spoke with an immigration lawyer to see what options he might have for staying. None of the prospects seemed very promising, he told me. 'She asked me, 'Do you have a possible good case for asylum?' And I said, 'Well, I'm gay, and homosexuality is criminalized in Indonesia,'' he told me, referring to the country's ban on same-sex marriage. But ultimately, with only a few days to make the decision, he opted to return to Jakarta, figuring that attempting to stay in a country that had told him he was no longer 'mission critical' was not worth it. Whereas VOA was once viewed as a diplomatic effort to cast the U.S. as a more appealing place in the eyes of foreigners, Lake's campaign against J-1 visa holders is part of a broader push that is having the opposite effect. International tourism to the United States is down significantly this year, the number of foreign students planning to enroll at American universities this fall has dropped precipitously, and fear of arbitrary deportation has gripped longtime U.S. residents who lack legal documents. The fact that journalists for VOA, who were invited to work for the U.S. government, have been caught up in Trump's deportation machine is likely to have a further chilling effect. Mustafa, who told me he continues to be 'shocked' by how quickly his fortunes changed after agreeing to work at VOA, said he advises anyone coming to the U.S. to think short-term and 'have a backup plan.' 'I made the mistake of planning long-term,' he told me. 'I bought the furniture. I shouldn't have bought the furniture.'
