Fictional Rumor Claims ICE Paused Hotline Due to Influx of Calls About Musk

In late January 2025, a rumor was circulating online that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced it was pausing a hotline where people can report undocumented immigrants because calls about Elon Musk were flooding it. 

Musk, an immigrant from South Africa, is the world's richest man, CEO of Tesla, founder of SpaceX and owner of X, as well as an influential force on newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump's administration.

For example, someone posted on Facebook on Jan. 28, 2025 (archived): 

(Facebook / Dave Lawrence)

BREAKING: ICE just announced it is pausing the hotline where people can call to report undocumented immigrants because 90% of the calls are from people reporting Elon Musk.

The rumor spread not only on Facebook but also on X and Reddit. Further, Snopes readers reached out to the newsroom looking for information on the claim.

Some people seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events, including an X user who suggested that people could use ICE's online form to report Musk instead. However, there was no evidence of ICE announcing a pause in operations for a hotline. The rumor was presumably in reference to a phone number (1-866-DHS-2-ICE) for people "to report suspicious activity" that's listed on the header of the agency's website.

(U.S. ICE)

Rather, the rumor about people supposedly reporting Musk to ICE originated with The Halfway Post — a social media account that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. Its bio on X and Threads states: 

DADA NEWS. Halfway true comedy and satire by Dash MacIntyre. I don't report the facts, I improve them. 

The accounts sometimes link to a Medium profile with more writings by MacIntyre, as well as what it describes as a "portfolio of political comedy."

The Halfway Post shared the satirical claim on X (archived), as well as on Threads and Facebook, gaining close to 6 million views across the platforms and more than 300,000 likes. 

Musk immigrated to the U.S. from South Africa on a student visa. According to a 2023 biography about him by Walter Isaacson, the tech magnate has been a U.S. citizen since 2002. Snopes found no evidence to support claims that Musk was once an undocumented immigrant.

The fictional story about ICE's hotline spread in the second week of Trump's presidential term after the administration vowed to ramp up efforts to deport undocumented immigrants.

The Halfway Post has a history of making up stories for shares and comments. 

Snopes has addressed other satirical claims stemming from the account in the past, including the assertion that Milwaukee bars and clubs hosted drag shows during the 2024 Republican National Convention so that GOP members would not have anywhere "to party."

For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.