On Twitter yesterday evening, the official Department of Homeland Security account shared a video of various ICE raids that was synced to the Pokémon anime theme song. Titled “Gotta Catch ‘Em All,” the post is another in a long line of the DHS using copyrighted material without expressed permission from the license holders that has commenced since President Trump resumed office in January. Considering how protective Nintendo is of its IP, this is likely not going to sit well with The Big N.
The video is roughly one minute long and shows various houses being broken into while ICE detains immigrants. Inter-cut between these raids are clips from the Pokémon anime intro, which shows Ash looking up during a stadium battle, throwing a Poké Ball, and catching various critters. The video even mentions “The Department of Homeland Security,” with the Pokémon font. At the end is a rapid-fire list of people detained by ICE with designs fashioned after Pokémon cards that lists what they’ve been charged with. In the bottom corner of the image is a logo that reads, “Worst of the Worst.”
Public response to the video has been very negative. As with prior videos DHS has uploaded in the last year, most people claim that the current administration is making light of real tragedies happening every day. There’s also been debates on how Nintendo and The Pokémon will respond to this video. While Nintendo likely doesn’t want yet another lawsuit on its hands, this does seem like an open-and-shut case of copyright infringement.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
