1990s band Semisonic has responded to the Trump administration using their hit song in a controversial deportation video posted onto social media.

Earlier today the White House and Border Patrol official Instagram accounts posted a video of agents searching illegal immigrants before deportation set to the tune of the 1998 smash hit Closing time.

The video was captioned featuring lyrics to the tune as it read: ‘[music note emoji] You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here [music note emoji]  @borderpatrol’

Now the Minneapolis based band has responded to the use of their song in an statement to DailyMail.com which read: ‘We did not authorize or condone the White House’s use of our song in any way. And no, they didn’t ask. 

‘The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely.’

The track has always been ᴀssumed to be about the last call at a bar.

1990s band Semisonic has responded to the Trump administration using their hit song in a controversial deportation video posted onto social media

Earlier today the White House and Border Patrol official Instagram accounts posted a video of agents searching illegal immigrants before deportation set to the tune of the 1998 smash hit Closing time

However frontman Dan Wilson – who wrote the hit track – previously told Billboard that the song is also partially inspired by the birth of his daughter Coco.

He said in 2018: ‘The guys wanted a new song to close our sets with. I thought “Closing Time” would be a good тιтle. We had spent seven years of our lives at that point, four nights a week entertaining people. That was our life. 

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‘Some bouncers yelling things, closing time coming, all that imagery, literally, that’s how the song started and then when I was halfway done, I started realizing the whole thing was a pun about being born, so I just made sure that the rest of the thing could ride with that double meaning, but nobody got the joke and I didn’t bother to explain. I thought everyone would get it.’

Wilson, 63,has continued to have a successful career in songwriting including co-writing Grammy Award winning 2011 Adele track Someone Like You.

The song was a global hit in the late 90s as it reached number one on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and the top 50 in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, the US-Mexico border has become drastically more secure under the Trump administration compared to Biden’s, data from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed earlier this month.  

The number of southwest land border encounters in February 2025 are the ‘lowest in history,’ according to the White House. 

Last February, there were 189,913 reported interactions between US patrol agents and non-citizens at the border while Joe Biden was president. 

 The video was captioned featuring lyrics to the tune as it read: ‘[music note emoji] You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here [music note emoji] @borderpatrol’

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Border Patrol could be seen emblazoned on the back of a pick-up truck toward the end of the short clip

Now the Minneapolis based band (pictured in LA back in February 1999) has responded to the use of their song in an statement to DailyMail.com which read: ‘We did not authorize or condone the White House ’s use of our song in any way. And no, they didn’t ask. ‘The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely’

The track has always been ᴀssumed to be about the last call at a bar as the 1998 music video is shown

However frontman Dan Wilson (pictured in February 2019) – who wrote the hit track – previously told Billboard that the song is also partially inspired by the birth of his daughter Coco

The song was a global hit in the late 90s as it reached number one on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and the top 50 in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom

In February 2022 and 2023, those numbers were 166,010 and 156,630 respectively. 

But after less then two months in office, Donald Trump’s stern immigration policies have made those figures plummet, with just 8,326 incidents reported this February.

In a post to his Truth Social page, Trump said that in the last month his administration had recorded the lowest number of immigrants trying to enter the country ever.

He declared that the ‘invasion’ of the United States is over and the border is now ‘closed to all illegal immigrants’ after mᴀss ICE arrests.

Trump said the more than 8,000 who were apprehended ‘were quickly ejected from our Nation or, when necessary prosecuted for crimes against the United States of America.’

Meanwhile, US-Mexico border has become drastically more secure under the Trump administration compared to Biden’s, data from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has revealed

After less then two months in office, Donald Trump ‘s stern immigration policies have made those figures plummet, with just 8,326 incidents reported this February

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The commander-in-chief added: ‘This means that very few people came – The Invasion of our Country is OVER.

‘In comparison, under Joe Biden, there were 300,000 Illegals crossing in one month, and virtually ALL of them were released into our Country.

‘Thanks to the Trump Administration Policies, the Border is CLOSED to all Illegal Immigrants.

‘Anyone who tries to illegally enter the U.S.A. will face significant criminal penalties and immediate deportation.’

His announcement came just after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirsti Noem announced that the administration had arrested 20,000 illegal migrants in one month.

That was a 627 percent increase in monthly arrests compared to Biden, Noem claimed.

She said: ‘President Trump and this Administration are saving lives every day because of the actions we are taking to secure the border and deport illegal migrant criminals.

‘Hundreds of thousands of criminals were let into this country illegally. We are sending them home, and they will never be allowed to return.’

Trump said that under Joe Biden, more than 300,000 illegal migrants were came into a America in one month

Among those deported were Ivan Oramas and Santos Maradiaga-Villalta, who were first ordered to be removed from the country while George W. Bush was president 

Trump declared that the ‘invasion’ of the United States is over and the border is now ‘closed to all illegal immigrants’ after mᴀss ICE arrests

The president has pledged to purge the US of its ‘most dangerous’ unlawful immigrants through a sweeping deportation strategy that would result in the ‘largest deportation effort’ ever carried out. 

More than 50,000 illegal migrants have been removed from the US so far, with several law-evading fugitives among them, a Department of Homeland Security official previously revealed to DailyMail.com.

Among those deported were Ivan Oramas and Santos Maradiaga-Villalta, who were first ordered to be removed from the country while George W. Bush was president. 

News of their arrest was circulated at the end of February in an internal immigration memo noting recent enforcement actions made by Trump’s administration.

Oramas, 61, is a citizen of Cuba with a rap sheet including convictions for Sєxual battery and aggravated ᴀssault.

His Sєxual battery case caused serious injury, according to his charges in the file. ICE Houston nabbed Oramas this week, enforcing a deportation order first handed down in October 2003.

Maradiaga-Villalta, a 40-year-old from Honduras, has convictions for smuggling people into the US. 

He was arrested by ICE in Phoenix. His first deportation order dates back to January 2006, a 19-year lapse in action.

The South Texas Family Residential Center will reopen in Dilley with the capacity to hold 2,400 people

The Trump administration also announced plans to reopen a detention center for immigrant families which was shuttered by the former president.

Biden shuttered the South Texas Family Residential Center while seeking to end the detainment of children. 

But the facility is set to reopen in Dilley with the capacity to fit 2,400 people.