Since returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a top priority. Videos of confrontations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents can be found on social media, but one widely known clip purporting to show New York City police officers arresting two federal agents was generated using artificial intelligence.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the NYPD! Goodbye, ICE!” the thread said on Nov. 4, 2025, with more than 37,700 likes. He shared a short clip showing handcuffed ICE officers being led into a New York City Police Department (NYPD) vehicle.
The same video also spread elsewhere on X, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and in Spanish-language posts supporting the immigration officer’s alleged arrest.
Screenshot taken from thread on November 21, 2025
In October, ICE conducted a raid on Canal Street in New York City, focusing on criminal activity related to the sale of counterfeit goods. Nine men were arrested (archives here).
Immigrants and citizens expressed anger and fear in the wake of the attack.
Jurisdiction of New York StateNS has various laws that limit cooperation between local law enforcement and immigration officials. New York City considers itself a “sanctuary city,” with policies that protect people from detention and arrest based solely on their immigration status.
Newly elected Mayor Zoran Mamdani said he opposes the deployment of federal immigration agents to the city, which President Trump continues to claim is a crackdown on crime.
As of November 16, 2025, ICE detained more than 65,100 people, the majority without convictions, according to data from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (archived here).
Several images related to ICE raids have been misrepresented on social media, and a video purporting to show NYPD arresting officers is also false.
A reverse image search on Google reveals that the video was created on TikTok (archive available here). The user claims to be the founder of FunnelStreams.AI, and multiple videos on his page show NYPD officers arresting ICE agents (archived here).
A closer look at the video revealed visual discrepancies. At the end of the clip, one of the officers moves to open the trunk as he leads the agent to the car, but it appears to be the back door that opens instead.
Additionally, the uniforms of NYPD officers are inconsistent with the official uniforms, which do not have “Police” written on the back.
Charlie Tribarrow
Analysis using Hive Moderation, an online detection tool for AI-generated content, determined that the video was likely artificially generated.
Screenshot of Hive moderation results taken on November 12, 2025
Learn more about AFP’s fact-checking of US politics here.
