- False claims of immigration raids have been spreading online in Michigan, provoking fear in communities.
- In places that used to be protected, like schools, hospitals and churches, even talk about potential ICE raids can be harmful.
- Experts say it’s harder to differentiate fact from rumors online, especially if photos or videos are embedded in the claims.
- They suggest being especially skeptical if you don’t know the person or source who shared the information. Be mindful that if a post provokes strong emotions it’s probably even more important to do a quick Google search or check for another source before sharing.
It was an ordinary Monday morning at Ottawa Hills High School. Counselor Damika Houston was at her desk, listening to soft jazz, planning the activities for that day’s art therapy group when she got a text from a friend.
The text was a screenshot of a Facebook post that was circulating, claiming that Immigrations Customs Enforcement had entered the Grand Rapids high school she works at and arrested a couple of students.
The Facebook post read: “Imagine sending your child to school and they never come home, sometime people go thru more then u know so just be thankful! SN: ICE is at Ottawa Hills they just removed a few student pray for my uncle wife her son they just took.”
Houston headed to the principal’s office to find out what was going on. “So usually, when anything that's happening, someone's in our building, we have a procedure, and we, all staff are notified, and we weren't, right?” she said. “There was no email, no code or anything like that. So I was really confused.”
Houston quickly found out ICE had never been at Ottawa Hills High School. But by the time Houston had seen the post, the rumor had already spread among the school’s 400 students.
“It was very chaotic during our lunch period,” she said. “Students were coming up to staff and just asking questions like, what is going on? Is ICE here?”
Even though that Facebook post turned out to be false, Houston knows the reality now is that it could have been true. Places like schools are no longer exempt from ICE arrests and searches, due to a new executive order from President Donald Trump. The order gives ICE permission to go into schools, churches and hospitals, which were all previously protected from immigration enforcement.
The social media post about ICE arresting students in Grand Rapids came just a few days later.
For Houston, the rest of that week felt like a blur. She says she spent several days trying to convince her high school students that ICE was never there.
“Imagine if, you know, you wake up one day and someone says, ‘Hey, I want to take you and your family, and you're no longer going to be here.’ That's very scary,” she said. “That's very anxiety provoking. You have a lot of fear and anxiety with that, and so it's really hard to come from that, even if, even if it doesn't happen, you're now constantly worried about that.”
In the weeks since Trump has taken office, there’s been more claims going around on social media that ICE is in Michigan neighborhoods deporting people.
In Detroit, City Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero said in an Instagram post last month that she had been getting reports of ICE going to people’s homes in Southwest Detroit, home to many immigrants. Santiago-Romero said she saw videos of ICE in the area and she drove around herself trying to find them, to no avail.
Many of the posts and videos circulating online are not current or are not ICE. Some of the posts are years-old videos of ICE raids. Some are videos of other law enforcement agencies like state marshals or Border Patrol. Some are fabricated completely with tools like A-I. Others are rumors and hearsay that people are sharing, not knowing if it’s true, but just in case in order to help someone who fears deportation.
Nationally, there is no evidence yet to suggest that immigration enforcement is more active or more “successful” in the first few weeks of the Trump administration, but the posts and changing immigration policy is scaring people.
Dustin Carnahan is a professor of communications at Michigan State University. He’s looking into how and why rumors like the one at the Grand Rapids school spread. He says there’s often a grain of truth in misinformation and that’s what allows it to take hold.
“When you talk about these claims about ICE having a presence in someone's community and you talk about the impact that could have on the immigrant community, obviously that could have the potential of activating a sense of fear that, you know, we could be next and someone could be here right now looking to deport us,” he said.
Misinformation on social media is nothing new. Carnahan says people often have a tough time differentiating what’s real and what’s fake online - especially if there is a photo or video involved. “It's not just somebody telling me that this happened,” he said. “I'm actually witnessing it with my eyes.”
How to fact-check for yourself
There are a few things you can do to fact-check posts, videos and images yourself.
Peter Adams is a senior vice president at the News Literacy Project, an organization focused on teaching teenagers how to recognize fact-based journalism.
Here’s what he teaches those teens:
“If you see a visual and you don't know the source, I think you need to really remain skeptical, especially if it accompanies a really sensational, outrageous claim,” he said. “That's too good to be true. That makes you really angry. That makes you really fearful. That even makes you hopeful.”
Those visceral reactions are something to watch out for, Adams says. Often, a Google search can help debunk the viral claim. Google even has an option where you can search an image or video and find out where it originally came from just by putting the link in.
In general, lean on the side of mistrust when it comes to posts from accounts you know nothing about. Follow journalism outlets like Michigan Public or other newspapers on social media to keep up with current news updates.
Experts like Adams and Carnahan say it’s important to validate the very real fears some people have of possible deportation, but that folks should still do as much research as they can before sharing something on social media.
