Two days after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested At Chandee, known as Ricky, the White House posted about him on X, labeling the 52-year-old the “worst of the worst” and a “criminal illegal alien.” The picture used in the post showed a different person, and the post incorrectly stated Chandee had multiple felony convictions. In fact, his only documented conviction is a 1993 second-degree assault when he was 18; he served three years in prison. Chandee came to the U.S. as a child refugee and was ordered deported to Laos, a country that has not consistently accepted people the U.S. sought to remove. Federal officials later determined deportation was likely infeasible and allowed him to remain and work while requiring periodic check-ins. He has kept those check-ins for more than 30 years, has no later criminal incidents, worked for the City of Minneapolis for 26 years, raised a family, and is now seeking release in federal court after his detention. Colleagues and relatives say he is not the violent offender the post implied.
Chandee’s case is one example among many the White House, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE have repeatedly highlighted on social media. Over the past year, those accounts have posted about people detained in immigration operations, often using language and images that portray detainees as hardened, violent criminals. Yet agency data show a different picture: ICE’s own figures indicate that more than 70% of people detained lack criminal records. To understand how those social posts line up with records on the ground, NPR reviewed government social media and examined 130 Minnesota cases that federal accounts publicly highlighted.
Key findings from the Minnesota review
– Since last March, DHS and ICE social accounts have posted about more than 2,000 people targeted in mass deportation efforts, often posting multiple times each day.
– Of the 130 Minnesota individuals NPR tried to match to court and detention records, 19 — roughly one in seven — had most recent convictions that were at least 20 years old. Seventeen of those 19 cases involved violent crimes such as homicide or first-degree sexual assault.
– Seven people had only minor offenses in their records, such as DUI or disorderly conduct.
– Six of the 130 had no criminal convictions; in those instances the government posts relied on arrests or pending charges to imply criminal culpability.
– For 37 people NPR was unable to find any matching criminal history in available databases or news reports; some names produced no records at all.
DHS did not dispute the specific items NPR could not confirm. Its chief spokesperson responded forcefully to the reporting, accusing NPR of defending people the agency had labeled violent and providing lists of names and older convictions while noting dates of deportation orders.
Experts say the posts are designed to provoke fear and normalize tougher enforcement. Leo Chavez, an emeritus anthropology professor, said pairing images of mostly nonwhite people with assertions of criminality is meant to trigger emotional responses and make the public more accepting of “drastic and draconian” policies. Juliet Stumpf, a law professor who studies immigration and criminal law, compared the sustained campaign of individualized posts to “FBI most wanted posters” or reality-TV portrayals, warning that it distorts reality: research shows immigrants generally commit fewer crimes than U.S. citizens.
Other media investigations have found similar problems. CNN’s review of DHS’s “Arrested: Worst of the Worst” listings found hundreds of people included who did not have violent felony records; DHS called some entries a “glitch” and said affected entries involved additional crimes. The Deportation Data Project documented a substantial increase in arrests of noncitizens without criminal records during the current administration compared with the previous one.
State and local officials have pushed back when federal posts misrepresented events. DHS publicly criticized Cottonwood County, Minnesota, over a post implying the county ignored an ICE detainer related to alleged child sexual abuse; county officials said DHS’s account mischaracterized what happened and that officials had honored the detainer but ICE was unable to pick up the person before the hold expired. The Minnesota Department of Corrections published a blog pointing out that dozens of people DHS listed were transferred to ICE after being in state custody and created a page to correct repeated DHS inaccuracies.
There have been other notable errors. A national listing misidentified where former Colombian soccer player Jhon Viáfara Mina was arrested. In Minneapolis, DHS described Julio C. Sosa-Celis as mounting a “violent attack on law enforcement” during an ICE arrest; assault charges later faltered as new evidence emerged, and involved officers were put on leave, yet the DHS profile remained online.
NPR’s review illustrates how government social media can amplify selected cases — sometimes with inaccuracies — and present decades-old or unproven allegations as if they were current, definitive evidence of violent criminality. Scholars and advocates warn that combining striking images with strong assertions of dangerousness can shape public perceptions and policy long after any corrections are issued, helping to cement support for harsher immigration enforcement even when the underlying facts are cloudy or wrong.