By Max Rivera | Bloomberg
Jackeline Vera built a loyal following of tens of thousands of followers on TikTok posting “chismes,” or gossip, about celebrities such as Bad Bunny and Rauw Alejandro.
That was until Donald Trump was elected president for a second time and promised the largest mass deportation in US history. It was only then that Vera, who makes her living as a content creator in Chicago under the handle @jaxxchismetalk, began posting about politics.
What began as a series of missives decrying Trump’s executive orders grew into a campaign to track sightings of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in pursuit of undocumented migrants. The videos, set against a backdrop listing the latest raids, grew so popular — and the sightings so frequent — that Vera started a crowd-sourced spreadsheet and map to keep up with tips as her follower count soared.
@jaxxchismetalk Ice Raid location sightings #ice #iceraids #raids #chicago #immigration #chi #immigrant #raid
On Jan. 18, she posted about planned ICE raids coming to her hometown. Three days later, a video identifying several dozen purported ICE actions across the country got 2 million views. Sometimes the sightings listed on the map are of what appear to be ICE agents simply standing outside a gym or coffee shop. The goal is to let her followers who lack documents or have family members without legal status know where law enforcement is congregating so they can make decisions about whether it’s safe to be in those areas.
If Trump fulfills his campaign promise to save TikTok, he just might be making it harder to make good on another pledge — to round up and deport the more than 11 million people living in the country without authorization. For the most part, protections for free speech mean it isn’t illegal to warn people about immigration raids. Vera and other like-minded content creators on TikTok are taking advantage of that.
“I’m going to do it regardless, because I feel like this is really important,” Vera, 32, said. When she first heard about deportation raids in Chicago, she was “shocked, upset and afraid for everyone that could possibly be affected by all of this.”
While celebrities including the billionaire Selena Gomez and actor Sophia Bush drew attention with social-media posts lambasting Trump’s immigration crackdown, Vera and her allies see themselves in a more niche role — providing information to a community overwhelmed by fear that being in the wrong place at the wrong time could lead to an arrest and ultimately being deported. They say that as authorities ramp up raids in the early days of the Trump administration, they’re trying to inform migrants of their rights.
@jaxxchismetalk Tom Homan responds to Selena Gomez video crying over mass deportations #tomhoman #selenagomez #selentors #selena #samparker #deportation #ice #iceraids #raids #chicago #immigration #chi #immigrant
The Trump administration emphasizes that its focus is on deporting violent criminals, conducting high-profile arrests in New York, Baltimore, Atlanta, Denver and elsewhere that target those convicted of serious crimes. Supporters of the crackdown have also taken to social media to try to undermine the raid warnings, contributing false sightings to the people trying to aggregate data and generally causing havoc to try to disrupt the efforts.
“This seems like aiding and abetting criminals,” one person posted on Reddit. “It would be a shame if it were swamped with false reports,” another said.
Immigration officers averaged more than 1,000 arrests a day from Jan. 27 to Jan 29, according to posts on X, almost triple the rate of the previous fiscal year. Among those taken into custody since Trump took office were people accused of illegal gun possession, sex crimes and lewd and lascivious acts with a minor. But a significant number of the people arrested had not been accused of any crime beyond entering the US without permission.
Celeste, a California-based part-time content creator under the @celestiedabestie handle, reached out to Vera to offer to lend her tech savvy to the project and help improve and expand the database of raids. They eventually developed what they call People Over Papers, a map covered in pin drops from all over the country identifying businesses, intersections and addresses where anonymous contributors post ICE sightings. It’s received thousands of tips after going live last week.
“I wanted to share resources with people,” said Celeste, who asked not to be identified with her full name because of concern about backlash. “So I stepped up, and asked if she wanted some help managing all of the tips that she was receiving.”
Soon a team of more than a dozen helpers came together to build the interactive map, vet contributions and address latency issues.
@celestiedabestie #greenscreen @People Over Papers @Kat @Jaxx #immigrant #indocumentados #peopleoverpapers #latinostiktok #latinos #latinas #imigracion
Advocates for migrants caution that the maps are informal efforts susceptible to misinformation, and stress that those worried about the raids should seek out information about their rights from reputable organizations that have been working on the issues for years. The ACLU has a guide for migrants, as do other non-profit groups.
Chantal Serrano, a Brooklyn-based organizer for the volunteer group NYC Migrant Solidarity, says the demand for immigration resources has never been greater, which makes vetting the information that much harder. Part of what her organization does is dispel unhelpful rumors, seeking to quell fear and allow migrants to live their lives.
“We try to make sure everything we see and hear is vetted with a video or a photo,” Serrano, 25, said. “The system is imperfect; we are relying on people to reach out and let us know.”
Vera is posting a lot less about celebrity gossip these days, saying the urgency of the moment has compelled her to focus on immigration issues. But she hopes that the raids will abate after a shock-and-awe campaign in the early days of the Trump administration, and she can return to posting her normal content.
“I hope that they can be informed and also maybe, like, I could make somebody laugh too in the same day,” Vera said. “My dream is that we don’t ever have to use this map again.”
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