In October 2025, social media users circulated a purported image of a toddler being arrested by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent following a high-profile immigration raid in Chicago, Illinois, on Sept. 30, 2025.
Users on platforms such as X (archived), Instagram (archived), and Facebook (archived) expressed outrage at the alleged image. One person posted on X (archived), "These children were babies barely two years old if that and they had been zip tied! This is diabolical behavior!"
Many of the posts sharing the image featured thousands of reposts and comments, with the image quickly becoming accepted as an authentic depiction of the events in Chicago.
The image circulating on social media was miscaptioned and did not depict a toddler being zip-tied by an ICE agent, though. The image was taken from a TikTok video posted on June 19, 2024, featuring a police officer jokingly arresting his toddler.
The original video came from an account called "YaFavoriteOfficer" and was marked with the hashtag "jokes" and a caption that read, "WHEN YOU CATCH HIM OUTSIDE AND HE SUPPOSED TO BE ON HOUSE ARREST 😂." It went viral at the time it was posted, garnering nearly 25,000 comments and over 1.5 million likes.
The footage was misappropriated in a different TikTok video posted on June 6, 2025, alleging to depict imagery of "foster children removed for deportation," amid U.S. President Donald Trump's administration increasing immigration raids across the country.
Following a raid in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood on Sept. 30, 2025, an eyewitness reported seeing federal agents use zip ties on children.
The widespread attention the latter claim received, coupled with the image's previous deceptive use in the "foster children removed for deportation" TikTok video, appeared to lead to out-of-context circulation of the image as users claimed it was authentic footage from the Chicago incident.
No footage of toddlers being zip-tied by ICE agents had surfaced as of this writing, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied the allegations, as Snopes previously reported.