Politics
JUST IN: ‘Coordinated Messaging Campaign’ Pushing Anti-ICE Narrative Is Exposed
A curious similarity in anti-ICE messaging from liberal online influencers is raising questions about whether a coordinated messaging campaign is being funded to denounce President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Michelle Boland, a creator on TikTok, is just one of dozens of users who in recent days have repeated nearly verbatim defenses of illegal immigration. In short video clips, Boland has compared crossing the border illegally to civil crimes.
“You know what else is a civil offense? Jaywalking,” she told her followers.
Identical videos have sprouted up across TikTok, Instagram, BlueSky, and other social media platforms where liberal messaging is more likely to be warmly received. A compilation shared by top influencer Collin Rugg shows more than four minutes of content creators regurgitating nearly line-for-line comparisons between illegal immigration and jaywalking or other nonviolent crimes.
“Have you ever drank and driven a car? What about jaywalking?” another asks her viewers.
“It’s the same caliber as a traffic offense,” a third says.
According to Rugg, many of the creators have used their platforms to pronounce other influencers as “bad” for declining to weigh in on the extended chaos surrounding pro-illegal immigration riots against U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement in Los Angeles, where President Trump has deployed 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to protect life and property. At least one individual has been found dead following looting and vandalism across the city, which has been operating under an 8 p.m. curfew since Tuesday.
“Many are regurgitating the same phrases, comparing jaywalking to illegal immigration, for example. Some users are beginning to question whether the posts are organic or not,” the Trending Politics co-founder wrote on X.
Already, Republicans are clamoring to uncover whether there is a nexus of advocacy groups funding the protests, which have spread to other liberal parts of the country.
On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to an L.A.-based group that received tens of millions of dollars from the Biden administration for immigrant resettlement and has been organizing some of the protests in the city.
In the U.S. House, Nancy Mace (R-NC) has introduced legislation that would choke off federal funding to sanctuary cities and states that refuse help from the federal government to quell violent protests like those seen this week, as well as during the 2020 riots following the death of George Floyd.
The proliferation of protests into other corners of the country is not necessarily a symptom of coordinated campaigning, but it’s undeniable that progressive organizations may seek to capitalize on the unrest.
