At first glance, the scuffle in the video is shocking. A New York City school principal, waving a bat, confronts masked ICE agents trying to enter the building. Instead of turning violent, the encounter draws cheers from onlookers. “Let me show you why they call me bat girl,” she quips. In similar clips, a server hurls a bowl of hot noodles at two officers dining at a Chinese restaurant, and a shop owner demonstrates her Fourth Amendment rights. Fortunately, none of these encounters result in bloodshed.
These videos, both tense and dramatic, are clearly AI-generated and are part of a wave of anti-ICE content circulating on social media. This surge coincides with federal actions in Minneapolis, linked to the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants and the tragic deaths of two citizens in January. Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs, were both unarmed when they were fatally shot by federal agents.
In America, the role of imagination—envisioning a better world and taking action to make it real—is crucial during political turmoil. With millions of views on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, these videos create a scene of revisionist justice that imagines a digital universe where ICE agents are held accountable.
According to AI creator Nicholas Arter, the collective nature of these anti-ICE videos allows people to challenge the narratives spun by the Trump administration and MAGA influencers. “Over the last decade, social media has amplified voices that lack access to traditional media. With AI as a new technological shift, we’re witnessing similar patterns where people use available tools to express emotions, fears, or resistance.” However, while these videos may offer a sense of relief, they also distort reality in ways that could exacerbate existing narratives about communities of color or create skepticism towards actual video evidence.
An account named Mike Wayne, whose owner has not commented, stands out as one of the most prolific contributors to this genre. With over 1,000 videos uploaded since Good’s shooting on January 7, Wayne’s account features clips of people of color battling ICE agents on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. These clips serve as digital counternarratives: shots of ICE agents being publicly confronted, a Latina woman slapping an officer, or a priest pushing masked officials away from his church while declaring, “I don’t know what god you worship, maybe one with an orange hue, but my god is love.” (In reality, federal agents arrested around 100 clergy members during a protest at Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport, where faith leaders reported that about 2,000 people had been deported.)
The videos craft an alternative timeline where the defiance of Americans against federal occupation doesn’t cost lives and where accountability truly matters. Among Wayne’s most viewed clips features an ICE agent confronting white tailgaters at a sporting event, a moment so surreal that it garnered 11 million views in under 72 hours. “Down with fascism,” a voice can be heard in the background. Humor also plays a significant role in these fan-fiction-style videos; in one clip from the meme account RealStrangeAI, four drag queens in neon wigs chase ICE officers through a neighborhood in Saint Paul.
