Fact Check: Does the video show Black kids protecting Latino neighbors from ICE officer?
ALBANY, GEORGIA: A video has been going viral on social media platforms claiming to show Black kids protecting their Latino neighbours from an ICE officer. The video has renewed scrutiny against President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies, while others questioned the authenticity of the viral claim, prompting an analysis and fact-check of the clip.
Claim: Video shows Black kids protecting Latino neighbours from ICE officer
The viral clip allegedly shows Black children protecting Latino neighbors from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.
The clip that surfaced in July featured multiple young-looking Black people throwing water balloons, shooting water guns, and dumping water on a man wearing what appeared to be a uniform and a tactical vest.
The earlier version of the video was uploaded on TikTok, which described the video as showing "a group of Black children in an apartment complex who told their Latino neighbors to stay inside because ICE was in the complex looking for immigrants."
The video spread across multiple social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, X, and Bluesky, garnering millions of views.
The video drew mixed reactions from online users, with many praising the boys for their effort while others slammed them. Meanwhile, a few others called it fake and questioned its authenticity.
Fact Check: Misleading; the clip actually shows a water fight
Although the video is indeed authentic, as it did not display signs of artificial intelligence or other digital-editing manipulation, the claim attributed to it is false.
No evidence suggests the people in the video were protecting Latino neighbors from an immigration agent.
The clip actually shows a water fight with college-aged Black men and women at an apartment complex called ‘Rams Edge,’ which provides off-campus housing for Albany State University, a historically Black institution in Albany, Georgia.
A search on Google for ‘Rams Edge’ found an X user, an apparent eyewitness of the water fight who made a post identifying the man people mislabeled as an ICE officer as "off campus housing security."
In a post with a video, the user called the rumor "false information," talked about combating misinformation, and shared an alternate angle of what he called the apartment complex's "water wars."
The US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told ‘Snopes’ by email, "This is not an ICE officer in the video."
Albany Police Department spokesperson Sylah Ferguson also confirmed by phone that the video did not show one of the city's officers.
