When it comes to the immigration debate, the internet has become a battlefield
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On Saturday afternoon, after spending much of my morning in post-Thanksgiving transit with a baby in tow (it’s not an experience I would recommend), I lay on my couch and scrolled through Bluesky. It didn’t take long before I stumbled upon posts coming out of lower Manhattan showing hundreds of New Yorkers blocking and trapping dozens of immigration agents inside a federally owned parking garage, hoping to stop them from going out on the streets and carrying out a planned raid.
It worked — the operation was called off and the New York Police Department eventually showed up and arrested several protesters. In a statement to Time, the Department of Homeland Security blamed the outcome on “agitators” who had used social media to encourage others to show up.
I watched the events unfold pretty much in real time thanks to the reporting of independent journalist Talia Jane. It was yet another reminder of the vital role the indie press has played in chronicling the ongoing immigration raids taking place all over the country, which have largely been broadcast via social media.
In L.A., the work of the likes of Joey Scott, Sean Beckner-Carmitchel and Mel Buer have given Angelenos an on-the-ground view of clashes between protesters and law enforcement — both local and federal. For his column published last Tuesday, my colleague Gustavo Arellano profiled Memo Torres, who launched a daily video series called “Daily Memo” for L.A. Taco that tracks daily immigration enforcement activities across the region.
It’s not just journalists pointing their phones and cameras at federal agents, either. Everyday citizens have exercised their constitutional rights by documenting them. In Chicago, Dayanne Figueroa, a U.S. citizen, was filmed being dragged out of her car by DHS officers after they crashed into her. She was later detained. They have caught Greg Bovino — a top Border Patrol official and the de facto face of the roving immigration raids — lying in 4K, as the kids say. Bovino had previously justified using tear gas in a crowded Chicago street after claiming he was hit by a rock, something that never happened.
No doubt the proliferation of videos showcasing federal agents’ tactics has been instrumental in Americans largely souring on these mass raids — a recent Pew report found that whatever gains the Trump administration had made with Latino voters during the 2024 election cycle have largely evaporated.
Saturday also highlighted how critical online tools have become for organizing during the Trump administration’s plan to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history.”
The White House is keenly aware of how technology and social media platforms are being used to report and inform communities about ongoing immigration raids, and has leaned into the giant tech companies that own them to take them out. In early October, the Justice Department pressured Apple and Google to remove ICEBlock — developers described it as “Waze but for ICE sightings — and other similar applications from their respective app stores.
“Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move,” Joshua Aaron, ICEBlock’s developer, said in a statement condemning the move.
Two weeks later, Meta took down a popular Facebook group used for tracking ICE activity in Chicago at the request of the Justice Department, claiming it violated the company’s policies “against coordinated harm.” The page, “ICE Sighting-Chicagoland,” had more than 80,000 members at the time of removal.
Not all efforts to quash online coordination among activists and those looking to protect their communities have been successful. In September, a federal judge ordered Meta not to hand over the personal information of an individual running an Instagram account that posts the name of immigration agents. Last week, DHS gave up altogether, withdrawing its subpoena seeking that information from Meta.
Of course, social media isn’t just being leveraged by the pro-immigrant camp. In October, Wired reported that ICE is looking to hire contractors to build out a 24/7 surveillance team scouring these platforms to generate leads on potential deportation targets.
If implemented, this wouldn’t be the only tool federal agents had at their disposal. In late October, independent tech outlet 404 Media revealed that ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers have been using facial recognition technology while out in the field, scanning people’s faces to verify their citizenship. (There has been a lot of good reporting on the intersection of technology and immigration enforcement, but few outlets are doing it quite like 404 Media, so if you can, I encourage you to subscribe.)
The revelation was so shocking that the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, came out in favor of putting guardrails on the usage of this technology.
Imagine that.
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- “They still need care”: Why California migrant workers are avoiding medical clinics. [CalMatters]
- Why won’t LA28 stand up for L.A.’s immigrants? [Torched]
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Perspectives
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Ideas expressed in the piece
Social media platforms and digital tools have become essential for documenting immigration enforcement activities, allowing independent journalists and everyday citizens to capture and share real-time footage of federal agents in action across the country, from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York.
Video documentation has exposed problematic conduct by federal agents, including instances where officials have been caught lying about incidents and using excessive force in public spaces, thereby undermining the credibility of immigration enforcement operations.
The proliferation of citizen-recorded videos showing federal agents’ tactics has contributed to a measurable shift in American public opinion, with recent polling indicating that gains the Trump administration made with Latino voters during the 2024 election have largely reversed.
Digital organizing tools and social media platforms have enabled communities to mobilize and coordinate rapid responses to planned immigration raids, allowing residents to exercise their constitutional rights by gathering to document and potentially interfere with enforcement operations.
The Trump administration’s aggressive push to remove applications like ICEBlock and takedown requests for Facebook groups tracking immigration enforcement demonstrate heightened awareness of how technology empowers communities to organize against these operations.
Different views on the topic
Immigration enforcement advocates emphasize that illegal immigration generates insecurity about America’s borders and carries significant economic and fiscal costs, including expenses for education, emergency medical care, and incarceration that burden American taxpayers[1].
Concerns exist about crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, with enforcement supporters pointing to specific cases and arguing that stronger enforcement and detention measures are necessary to protect public safety[1].
Some government and law enforcement perspectives suggest that coordinated online tracking of immigration enforcement activities poses operational challenges that can undermine legitimate immigration control efforts and border security objectives.
Federal authorities argue that surveillance and identification technologies, including facial recognition used by ICE and Customs and Border Protection, are necessary tools to verify citizenship status and identify individuals subject to removal.
