Posts claim ICE agent asked woman he detained on a date. Here's what we know

In March 2026, a rumor circulated online that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent stopped a woman for questioning in an unspecified Target parking lot and obtained her number after searching her phone, later using her contact details to call the woman and ask her on a date.

The claim spread across multiple platforms as U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents continued to be spotted in communities across the country. For example, one X user shared screenshots purportedly showing a Reddit post in which the claim was originally made. The X post's caption read, in part:

WOMAN GETS DETAINED BY ICE, SAME ICE AGENT STEALS HER PHONE AND INFORMATION, STALKS HER FOR A DATE WHEN SHES RELEASED

ICE AGENT SAYS SHE LOOKS "cute" and "obiedent"

THIS IS WHAT IS GOING DOWN IN Ice Detention

The Reddit post was allegedly titled, "I was detained by ICE, one of the agents asked me out on a date and I feel scared."

According to the widely-shared screenshots, the author of the Reddit post — originally from Russia — was speaking Russian on the phone to her mother when two masked Border Patrol agents (who are not part of, but can be confused for, ICE, which may have explained the inconsistency between the title and the rest of the copy) stopped her and asked for identification as well as for her to unlock her phone. She did so, then said that approximately a week later, the agent contacted her and asked her on a date, saying he liked how "obedient" she was.

The screengrabs stemmed from an authentic March 16, 2026, Reddit post that received more than 20,000 upvotes before moderators removed it. Snopes viewed and saved the post in PDF format, as shown below.

Snopes contacted the Reddit user who posted the story seeking further details. We will update this story if we hear back from her.

She later responded to another user's comment, saying she had a brief phone call with her family's lawyer, who told her they would file a complaint to the DHS Office of Inspector General, which handles reports of misconduct.

(Reddit)

Because the story is purely anecdotal and the user did not provide any evidence beyond her personal testimony that the incident took place, nor specific details about where this alleged incident occurred, we cannot rate this claim.

The user has consistently maintained — in both her account bio and in other posts — that she is a Russian immigrant, meaning it may be unlikely an unrelated Reddit account fabricated a claim about being an immigrant for the sake of the story.

"I'm (f) originally from Russia (Russian mom/Ukrainian dad) but now live in WA state," her account bio read. Her later edit to the since-deleted post read:

Edit: Thank you for al the support and advice. Also, for those who asked in my DMs, yes my dad and I are naturaalized US citizens but due to past immigration problems, my mom is not a US citizen but she is a legal green card holder.

Snopes reached out to DHS seeking information regarding the department's presence in Washington state. A spokesperson responded, "Since February 2026, ICE has arrested hundreds of criminal illegal aliens in the state of Washington," and then listed five people who posed "public safety threats."

We often report on accounts that have a demonstrated history of posting inflammatory, AI-generated or misleading claims for the sake of online engagement. The activity history of this Reddit account (which has been active for just over two months, as of this writing) displayed engagement on a range of channels and mostly consisted of the user sharing her personal opinion, as opposed to repetitive misinformation.

Given the lack of evidence for this incident taking place, we have left this claim unrated and will update this article if new information emerges.