A new ad campaign from the U.S. Department of Labor promoting its “Project Firewall” initiative is drawing fierce criticism online.
Social media users have pointed out what appears to be an absence of racial diversity in the images used to promote it.
One of the first people to highlight the controversy is content creator Laverne, an education advocate known as @scholarshipcollegemama on Instagram. She posted a video calling out what she described as “a not-so-subtle attempt to whitewash patriotism.”
“Make America white again? Because that’s the vibe that I’m getting from the U.S. Department of Labor’s new ad campaign for Project Firewall,” she said in the viral clip. “Have you all seen these ads? They’re all over the place… ‘‘Restoring the American Dream,’ ‘American jobs for American workers’ — and yet, all the Americans pictured look the same.”
In her post, Laverne displayed screenshots of the ads, which feature slogans like “Restoring the American Dream through Project Firewall” and “America will rise stronger than ever before.” Each ad, she noted, features white families and workers, without any visible representation of people of color.
What Project Firewall Is Supposed To Be
According to a Sept. 19, 2025, press release, Project Firewall is a federal enforcement initiative aimed at protecting “highly skilled American workers” by cracking down on alleged abuse of the H-1B visa program.
The Department of Labor said the program will investigate employers who may be favoring foreign workers over U.S. citizens, calling it a move to “put Americans first and restore the American Dream.”
In the release, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer praised the effort as “a historic action” and said the initiative reflects the administration’s “commitment to end practices that leave Americans in the dust.”
But while the stated purpose of the program is to protect workers, critics argue that the campaign’s imagery sends a much different — and racially charged — message.
Critics See Echoes of “America First” Nationalism
Civil rights advocates and social media users have called the ads a “dog whistle” for exclusionary nationalism, echoing rhetoric often associated with the Trump-era “America First” movement.
“This is not about protecting jobs; it’s about defining who counts as ‘American,’” one commenter wrote. “And from these ads, it’s clear who they think that is.”
The Department of Labor has not responded to questions about the lack of diversity in its promotional materials.
Why It Matters
While protecting American jobs is a legitimate policy goal, the optics of government messaging carry weight — especially when taxpayer-funded campaigns seem to exclude entire segments of the population. The backlash highlights a recurring tension in American politics: when efforts framed as “pro-worker” are perceived instead as pro-white.
As Laverne put it in her post, “Look at who they’re trying to ‘restore the American dream’ to. You see them, right? I have so many questions.”
For now, those questions hang over Project Firewall like a storm cloud, threatening to overshadow the initiative’s policy objectives with accusations of racial bias and political tone-deafness.
