Department of Labor’s Project Firewall Posters Draw Controversy Over Imagery

The U.S. Department of Labor has sparked heated debate after sharing a series of promotional posters on its social media accounts for “Project Firewall,” the Trump administration’s initiative to restrict H-1B work visas for foreign workers and promote American hiring.

Critics across social media platforms have drawn comparisons between the imagery used in the posters and white supremacist propaganda, with some specifically noting similarities to Nazi-era German promotional materials. The controversy centers on the posters’ exclusive depiction of white nuclear families and nationalist symbolism.

The posters, shared across the Labor Department’s official accounts, feature several striking images: a white man with text reading “Restoring the American Dream!”; an all-white family standing before a house with a church and factory in the background; another white family sitting in a church pew beside a U.S. flag with text declaring “A dream worth fighting for”; a white man positioned in front of the American flag and construction cranes with text stating “Americans first”; and another white family with American flag imagery and the slogan “Restoring the American Dream! Through Project Firewall.”

All families depicted in the materials follow the same visual pattern – a man and woman as parents with a boy and girl as children, representing what many view as the traditional nuclear family structure.

While some of the images appear to be inspired by historical American promotional materials, the overall aesthetic has raised questions about their intended messaging. One poster directly mirrors a U.S. World War II advertisement encouraging Americans to buy savings bonds, while another references a 1944 advertisement from the now-defunct Lee Rubber & Tire Corporation.

The image showing a family in a church pew originated from 20th-century American artist Harold N. Anderson, known for romanticized illustrations of American life that primarily featured white individuals. Another poster featuring people raising the American flag was taken from a 1940 cover of The American Legion Magazine.

However, several images bear striking resemblances to Nazi propaganda materials from the 1930s and contemporary white nationalist imagery. One poster shows similarities to materials used by the American Identity Movement, a white nationalist organization involved in organizing the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Department of Labor has not responded to requests for comment about the inspiration behind the posters or their choice of imagery, making it difficult to determine the intentional messaging behind the campaign.

Experts on propaganda and nationalism have previously noted how such visual rhetoric can function to normalize certain ideals while excluding others. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, found similar imagery when analyzing recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruitment materials, noting that the Department of Homeland Security’s preference for white faces in recruitment advertisements was part of a broader propaganda strategy.

Lindsay Schubiner, a director at Western States Center, a social justice organization, told the SPLC: “They [DHS’ social media posts] are not only intended to recruit staff but to normalize the dehumanization of immigrants. At the same time, bigotry and dehumanization wrapped in the American flag conditions Americans to accept the heightened horrors and blatant disregard of civil rights that ICE is inflicting upon our communities.”

The Project Firewall initiative represents a cornerstone of the Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies, which have consistently prioritized limiting legal pathways for foreign workers while promoting “Americans first” hiring practices. Stephen Miller, widely considered the architect of Trump’s immigration agenda, has played a significant role in shaping these policies.

The controversy surrounding these promotional materials highlights the ongoing tensions in American immigration policy debates and raises questions about the visual language used by government agencies to communicate policy objectives to the public.