The short-lived reality show where 12 migrants compete for US citizenship

The first reports sounded like something out of dystopia. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was considering producing a new reality show in which 12 immigrants would compete to obtain U.S. citizenship, the Daily Mail and the Wall Street Journal reported late last week, both citing DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. Outraged reactions quickly followed, with macabre comparisons to The Hunger Games, the series in which contestants battle each other until only one remains. The uproar grew so intense that on Tuesday, at a congressional hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem denied the plan, and The American, the supposed name of the show, died before it was even born.

According to initial information published by the Daily Mail, the 35-page proposal for the new TV show had been submitted by Rob Worsoff, a screenwriter and producer known for Duck Dynasty, another reality show about a Louisiana family that runs a successful duck hunting business. In his new idea, a dozen pre-selected immigrants from different countries would arrive by boat at Ellis Island in New York, the famous port where hundreds of thousands of migrants arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where they would be greeted by a naturalized American. He even suggested Sofía Vergara (born in Colombia), Ryan Reynolds (Canada), and Mila Kunis (Ukraine) play the role.

From there, the contestants would travel on a train named after the show, The American, to different parts of the country where they would learn about national history, tell their own stories and explain why they want to become naturalized citizens, then compete in events to highlight their American identity. Participants would work in gold mines in San Francisco, assemble an antique Ford car in Detroit, or build and launch a rocket from Cape Canaveral. In each episode, one contestant would be eliminated, and in the final episode, the winner would receive U.S. citizenship on the steps of the Capitol in Washington.

Criticism mounted for turning migrants’ stories into a commodity, for dehumanizing them, and for, as has become customary with Kristi Noem since taking office, turning immigration enforcement into a performative act. First, there were the videos of Venezuelans being deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, set to epic music as if it were a Hollywood production; the macabre ASMR video of the deportation, which suggests that the sounds of chains and handcuffs generate a feeling of physical satisfaction; and the Studio Ghibli-style image of a migrant woman crying while being detained by an immigration agent.

On Saturday, Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas addressed the issue on MSNBC and didn’t mince his words: “During this Trump administration, it seems like every day we lose more and more of our humanity. The idea that you would make a reality show and have people compete for citizenship is sick, a sick idea.”

New York Representative Jerry Nadler took to social media to say that “human lives are not game show props” and that the idea was “shameful and far beneath the dignity of your office,” in a post in which he directly tagged Noem.

On Tuesday in Congress, at a hearing of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal directly asked Noem about the alleged plans for the program, citing the Wall Street Journal article.

The DHS secretary denied this. “Something may have been presented at some point, because there are proposals that are submitted to the department, but neither I nor my executive team were aware of the reality show,” Noem replied. “There are absolutely no plans to do a reality show,” she added.

The secretary accused reporters of lying when they quoted the department spokesperson as saying that “it was a good idea” and that they were negotiating with production companies like Netflix to develop the program.

However, Worsoff, the man behind the original idea, had already given an interview in which he confirmed that while he hadn’t spoken with Noem personally, there had been positive contact with the DHS about the proposal, and they were already in touch with television networks about producing it. Worsoff also defended his idea by denying that it was a kind of Hunger Games, but rather a celebration of American identity.

The idea proposal, which had previously been unsuccessfully pitched during the presidencies of Obama, Biden, and Trump’s first term, hasn’t convinced anyone. And the criticism has ultimately condemned a reality show that will no longer see the light of day.

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