In Midst of Border Crisis, DHS Releases Coloring Book for Children

While dealing with more illegal immigrants crossing the southern border than at any time in U.S. history, the Department of Homeland Security managed to find time to create a children’s coloring book.

In the book, entitled Jobs We Do, children can fill in 14 different images that showcase DHS, including one that features a man in a biohazard suit counting radiation after an apparent nuclear attack. Another features an airport security dog. The book was produced by the DHS “Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer.”

No public statement has been made on the coloring book’s release, the first of its kind in agency history. One senior DHS staffer who flagged it for the Washington Free Beacon called it “laughable.”

“It makes a lot of sense that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is just standing there not doing anything,” the staffer said. “But if they wanted to make it more realistic, they’d have ICE handing over families to NGOs to board planes destined for secret locations across the U.S. interior.”

Since President Joe Biden entered office, DHS has faced criticism for shirking its core responsibilities, such as stopping illegal immigration and protecting the homeland from outside threats, in favor of passion projects from staff members. The Free Beacon previously reported on internal memos that declare the agency will prioritize “diversity, equity, and inclusion” in the 2022 fiscal year. Migrant crossings in March exceeded 221,000, the highest number seen under Biden.

Agencies within DHS, including Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are included in the book. The images for CBP and ICE do not feature anything to do with immigration, instead showing agents carrying out various customs-related missions on the water.

One image includes a man in a biohazard suit using a Geiger counter to measure radiation levels, presumably after a nuclear weapon lands. Billowing smoke or chemicals appear in the background.

Another image, for the Transportation Security Administration, features an airport with a dog in the foreground wearing a collar that says “DO NOT PET.” One scene features a breaking news report for a Category 5 hurricane with 185 mph winds about to crash into the eastern seaboard.

The release of the coloring book comes just after Alejandro Mayorkas appeared before the Senate to defend his tenure as DHS secretary. During heated hearings, Mayorkas insisted his department has “operational control of the border,” even though hundreds of thousands of migrants have crossed into the country month after month.

Senators also grilled Mayorkas over the new DHS “Disinformation Governance Board,” run by outspoken liberal Nina Jankowicz. Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) has since introduced a resolution to dissolve the board entirely, calling it unconstitutional, partisan, and unnecessary for DHS’s mission. Officially, the disinformation board is meant to track and counter disinformation in Latin America and from hostile countries such as Russia, although critics say Jankowicz’s insistence that Hunter Biden’s laptop constituted disinformation makes her unsuitable for the role.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

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