A claim that West Coast fast food chain In-N-Out Burger was promoting free food for officers of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) circulated on the internet in mid-June 2025. The rumor circulated as ICE continued raids on immigrant communities in Southern California, prompting massive protests in Los Angeles.
The rumor spread primarily on social media, in the form of an image of an alleged sign hanging on the door of an In-N-Out restaurant that read, "Free burgers for all ICE agents in uniform, thank you for your service."
Users shared the image widely across Facebook (archived, archived, archived), TikTok (archived) and X (archived), with some people applauding the chain's recognition of ICE's work and others calling for a boycott of the burger joint.
However, the alleged sign advertising free burgers for ICE officers in uniform was fake, and the company had not announced any such offer.
A spokesperson for In-N-Out Burger told Snopes via email, "I can confirm that the sign circulating on social media is an AI-generated image. It is not accurate nor is it posted in our restaurants."
Indeed, while some of the posts sharing the claim featured a cropped version of the alleged sign, the full image displayed a Grok watermark in the bottom right corner. Grok is the X platform's artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that is capable of generating images and words such as the fake sign in question.
The post appeared to originate from a popular conservative account on X, which posted (archived) the image on June 18, 2025 and immediately followed up with a second post (archived) confirming the image was made with AI. A community note on the original post also points out that the image was created with AI.
The X post was the earliest appearance of the fake sign according to a reverse-image search on Google. The fake image began going viral on social media soon after that post.
In-N-Out Burger's social media accounts responded to a variety of comments from users questioning the chain's support of ICE. For instance, in one Instagram post (archived) asking users to guess which location was displayed in the posted photo, a user asked, "Is it true you guys are giving out free food to ICE agents?"
In response, the account replied, "We'd like to clarify that the information shown on the sign that is currently circulating on social media is untrue. In-N-Out Burger is not affiliated with the sign depicted, and we apologize for any misunderstanding. -Irene."
(In-N-Out Burger on Instagram)
Of note is that the alleged sign mentioned free food specifically for "ICE officers in uniform," a topic around which there has been substantial debate, particularly the use of face masks by the officers when making arrests, which could have added to the spread of the rumor.