After Theo Von discovered that the Department of Homeland Security had used footage of him for a social media clip that insinuated he was in favor of the administration’s current wave of mass deportations, the popular podcaster and stand-up comedian quickly took to X to request its removal.
“Yooo DHS i didn’t approve to be used in this. I know you know my address so send a check. And please take this down and please keep me out of your ‘banger’ deportation videos,” Von posted on his X account last week. “When it comes to immigration my thoughts and heart are a lot more nuanced than this video allows. Bye!”
Von shared some of those thoughts and a little of his heart in a new podcast episode. In it, he references his father, who immigrated to the United States decades ago from Nicaragua, along with his siblings, something he has repeatedly addressed during his stand-up sets.
“My father immigrated here from Nicaragua. One of my prized possessions is, I have his immigration papers when he came here,” Von explained. “I have them in a frame [from when] him and his siblings came here. So, I have tons of thoughts about it.”
He goes on to call it “fucked up” that DHS posted the clip featuring him saying “aw, shucks” before adding, “heard you got deported, dude — bye!” The clip continues with promotion of President Donald Trump’s record on immigrant deportations during his second and current administration.
“This was just fucked up. It was fucked up and it was everywhere. It was on all platforms and stuff. So that had me really kind of paranoid,” he continues, adding that the paranoia led him to closing all of his curtains. It got worse when he woke up the next morning to a text from a high-ranking government official asking him if he wanted “extra security” or “extra police cars on patrol” for his neighborhood.
“I’m like, what are you talking about? Extra security? I don’t even know the code to my ring camera. I don’t even know how to log in. So it’s like, you’re just going to put police cars in my neighborhood? What are my neighbors going to think now? They’re fearful. I don’t know, man, that really kind of shook me.”
See the full clip below.
