A video of what looks like an abrupt exchange between an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and an airplane passenger has stirred social media outrage. But it isn’t footage of an actual law enforcement encounter.
The video shows a man at an airplane cabin wearing a bulletproof vest and a badge with his face covered. The man asks a woman at the front of the plane for someone named “Juan Garcia.” He then walks down the aisle to confront a bearded man.
“We would like to verify that you’re a citizen of this country, look dude, you’re wearing a Mexico shirt,” the masked man says before escorting the bearded man and a woman seated next to him off of the plane. People on the plane jeer at the exchange and film the encounter with their phones.
“ICE thug kidnaps US citizen on a plane for being Latino,” the video’s caption reads in a March 26 Facebook post.
Other X, TikTok and YouTube users also shared the video with similar captions.
The video may seek to replicate the tensions of real encounters recorded between ICE agents and U.S. citizens in cities across the U.S., but in this case it’s staged.
President Donald Trump sent ICE agents to help Transportation Security Administration workers with security lines across U.S. airports because of the partial government shutdown, but this footage isn’t a result of Trump’s order.
The video has a TikTok watermark with the username, @tonyandangel. The account posted footage of the supposed arrest on March 25, with the caption, “ICE agent removes US citizen from airplane. CRAZY!” The video is currently unavailable in the account.
The account has posted multiple skits and prank videos, including other videos in the same airplane set. We also noticed that some of the people in the purported ICE agent video were featured in other skits.
The blue chairs and carpet with the white airplane cabin matches the image of the airplane set offered to social media creators by Network Media, a company that provides creative coaching, and filming infrastructure for content creators, according to its website.
PolitiFact reached out to the video creator for comment, but didn’t receive an immediate response.
This video of a man being removed from an airplane by an ICE agent is a skit, we rate this claim False.
