Building security from the screen up: securitization of migration, social media, and the everyday security of targeted immigrant groups in the United States

This research explores the personal navigations, experiences, and perspectives of migrants in the New Jersey tri-state area, in response to the 47th presidential administration of the United States of America’s apparent use of social media as a tool of securitization. This research takes place from July to September 2025, involving 16 non-citizens of the U.S. with insecure documentation status1. It evaluates the unprecedented implications of securitization carried out through digital platforms, and what this means for the nexus of migration and security studies. As illustrated through different axes of Securitization Theory, Donald Trump’s second presidential term uses social media as a way to securitize migration to the general American public, in turn creating a real-time space where immigrant communities evaluate their navigational agency within these platforms. Members of these communities engage in Everyday Security to ensure their own security, prominently through methods such as restricted self-expression, increased use of community-focused information sharing, as well as avoiding social media completely also to dissimilate from “migrant identity”. Further analysis shows these lived experiences navigated through core emotions of anger, grief, and hope. Ultimately, this research reveals how security has evolved from a top-down procedure from political elites to bottom-up processes when social media is a primary tool of securitization. It allows targeted individuals to provide security through their own choices in real-time due to the interactive nature of these digital spaces. In reflection of this work, expansion of Everyday Security theory must be conducted, focusing on the agency and power granted to individuals when social media is used as a tool of securitization by respective governments.