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'Closing Time': Band criticizes White House for using song in deportation video

A representative for Semisonic told Scripps News that the music was used without permission and White House officials “missed the point” of the song.

In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, a prison guard transfers deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025.

By: Jacob Gardenswartz

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An American rock band is slamming the White House for use of its music in a video purportedly showing the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.

🎶You don't have to go home but you can't stay here🎶 @CBP pic.twitter.com/yWWhlvKQrb
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 17, 2025

The video features the 1998 song “Closing Time” by Semisonic. The lyrics include, “I know who I want to take me home.”

A representative for Semisonic tells Scripps News the White House never asked for nor received permission to use the music, and the post’s message “missed the point entirely” behind the song.

"We did not authorize or condone the White House’s use of our song in any way. And no, they didn’t ask,” a band representative said in a statement. “The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely.”

Asked about the controversial video during a press briefing Monday afternoon, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the post, saying the White House is “unafraid to double down and to take responsibility and ownership of the serious decisions that are being made.”

“The specific video you referenced, I think it sums up our immigration policy pretty well,” Leavitt told a reporter. “You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.”

President Donald Trump is seeking to use the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime authority granting the president broad powers in times of war, to speed up his mass deportation effort. But District Judge James E. Boasber on Saturday temporarily barred such a move while legal challenges continue through the courts.

As the judge was rendering his decision during a hearing on the matter Saturday, government lawyers told Boasber there were already two planes with immigrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, and another for Honduras. Though Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, he did not include that directive in his written order and White House officials contend the judge had no authority to block such flights once they reached international waters.