The Department of Homeland Security is churning out social media hype videos featuring NFL Hall of Famers while fentanyl and cartel operatives move across the southern border unchecked — and the NFL's only complaint is copyright infringement.

DHS posted a video Sunday showing former Philadelphia Eagles safety Brian Dawkins' pregame walkout — him chanting "The time has come" over a montage of big hits, set to the music of Korn — with the caption "Our time has come." The post was in reference to reports of a "huge" migrant caravan heading toward the U.S. border, according to Fox News. The NFL immediately asked the agency to take it down. "The league has requested the DHS take down the video," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said Monday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Notice what's missing from that statement: any concern whatsoever that a federal law enforcement agency is spending time and resources making meme content while Americans die from fentanyl pouring across the border. The NFL's grievance is strictly about who owns the broadcast footage. Major sports leagues "regularly tell the public that express written consent is required to use their footage," The Athletic's Devon Henderson wrote Monday, as if the real scandal here is a licensing dispute.

It isn't.

DHS has a budget of roughly $60 billion and a mandate to secure the homeland. Instead of stopping the cartels that kill tens of thousands of Americans each year with fentanyl, someone at the agency — presumably a social media manager from the greater Philadelphia area, as one Bluesky user speculated — is cutting together NFL highlight reels with nu-metal soundtracks. That's not law enforcement. That's content creation on the taxpayer dime.

The left's reaction to the video tells you everything about where their priorities land. Activists on Bluesky and X demanded the Eagles organization condemn the post, with one user calling on "long-time registered Democrat Jeffrey" Lurie to speak up. Another compared the DHS social media manager to Joseph Goebbels. Comedian D.L. Hughley's account posted: "DO YOU REALLY EXPECT THEM TO ASK PERMISSION WHEN THEY'RE SO USED TO TAKING WHATEVER THEY WANT." The outrage is directed entirely at the symbolism of using a football clip — not at the fact that the border remains porous enough to generate regular caravan headlines in the first place.

OutKick's Craig Carton pushed back, arguing there was no one better to represent border protection than a Pro Football Hall of Famer known for hard hits. That's a fun talk-radio take. It also sidesteps the actual problem: DHS is supposed to be the hard hit, not the hype reel before the snap.

The bipartisan failure here is structural. Washington funds a sprawling homeland security apparatus, and that apparatus produces videos. The border stays open. The cartels stay in business. The NFL protects its intellectual property. Nobody with institutional power is protecting the American communities paying the price.

Dawkins was a nine-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro over 16 seasons with the Eagles and Broncos. He retired in 2011. The footage of him is property of the NFL. The southern border is supposed to be the responsibility of DHS. One of these things matters more than the other, and it isn't the copyright.