Immigrants and Allies Are Using Social Media To Report ICE Sightings And Help Each Other Avoid Enforcement

The Trump administration continues seeking to ramp up its mass deportation efforts, sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers across the country to take undocumented immigrants into custody. In response, immigrants and allies are taking to social media to track ICE activity and warn their undocumented neighbors in real time to avoid enforcement.

Users are sharing real-time locations of ICE vehicles and officers in platforms like TikTok, X, Reddit, Instagram and more. In the first two weeks of March, conversations surrounding ICE amassed almost 300,000 mentions on X, Reddit and YouTube, a more than fivefold increase compared with the same period in February, according to a new analysis from The Washington Post.

"These organic online networks and movements have now become as impactful as community organizations," Julia Jean-Francois, co-executive director of the Brooklyn-based social service organization Center for Family Life, told the outlet.

Sheidriany Pomales, a kindergarten teacher, recently came across a video on TikTok where ICE officers were hanging around the entrance to the subway on 125th St and Lexington, where her mother and many of their friends live. She quickly exited the app and warned her mother, requesting that she pass the information along.

Her mom then used WhatsApp to reach out to undocumented friends and co-workers who made plans to take alternate routes to work or skip errands such as grocery shopping. Pomales then made a video about the alleged sighting, using the code phrase "ice cream truck," instead of ICE to refer to the agency.

"I get my news from TikTok, so if I learn something about ICE, I'm going to share it there," Pomales told The Washington Post.

On Reddit, people across the country have used the forum r/LaMigra, dedicated to documenting and discussing ICE activities. Some name specific sightings, such as "ICE at Market Basket in Chelsea," says one post re-shared from r/Massachusetts. Others funnel users toward nationwide tools such as Juntos Seguros, a shared map where people could report ICE sightings and attach photos.

Nevertheless, the efforts have also faced setbacks. For one, ICE agents often wear plain clothes and do not openly identify their intentions, leaving the door open to misinformation and unverified claims about their sightings.

At the same time, anti-immigration users have made efforts to curb down the community network. For instance, in late January, the LaMigra subreddit shut down temporarily after the Instagram account Libs of Reddit shared one of the forum moderator's name, face and address publicly. The moderator was allegedly flooded with death threats and anti-immigrant and antisemitic attacks, according to The Washington Post.

The Trump administration has not been shy to push the boundaries of the law to curb down on immigration. He recently invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador, and several instances of Green Card holders being taken by ICE and deported with no due process have also become viral on social media.