A viral photo shows a man in a “Latinos for Trump” T-shirt being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. “DID THIS REALLY HAPPEN?” asks one version of the post with more than 78,000 likes on Instagram. “How ironic,” says another.
The photo is altered: The arrestee’s T-shirt and the ICE patches on the officers’ uniforms have been edited into the image.
The original version of the photo was taken by ICE on June 19, 2018, in Salem, Ohio. It depicts officers of the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit apprehending several undocumented workers during a raid at Fresh Mark, a meat processing company. In the photo, the arrestee’s gray T-shirt has no writing on the back, and the officers’ vests read “POLICE HSI.” This differs from the now viral version, in which the arrestee’s shirt reads “LATINOS FOR TRUMP 2024” and the officers’ vests read “POLICE ICE”.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, HSI agents detained 146 workers at the plant who were subject to arrest for immigration violations. Following the arrests, Fresh Mark agreed to pay a $3.7 million penalty in connection with identity theft and obstruction offenses by one of its hiring managers, who had used stolen information from U.S. citizens to falsely verify employment eligibility for undocumented immigrant workers.
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