October 20, 2025

Hi readers, Cameron Peters here! It's Monday morning. 

My colleague Christian Paz recently wrote about the viral phenomenon of the second Trump administration: a flood of ICE videos, often capturing violent interactions with the public, that are received very differently on the left and on the right. I spoke with him about what his reporting uncovered: 

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The ICE videos that explain America

Cameron Peters

What are we seeing in these videos of ICE agents?

Christian Paz

There's an emerging genre of cellphone footage, very impromptu, capturing violent interactions [with] federal agents, usually with ICE or CBP (although sometimes it's hard to tell because they aren't always easily identifiable).

These are interactions happening in purely civilian contexts like courthouses in New York or neighborhoods in Chicago, or they're happening on the street outside of ICE facilities, which are public spaces as well. These tend to be videos that show ICE agents aggressively handling people: pushing and shoving them, firing tear gas, or firing pepper balls at civilians. 

More and more, we're also seeing videos being captured by bloggers or influencers, primarily from the right, coming out of these specific locations. In many cases, it is not just a bystander capturing it, but it's more professionally made. And the reason I bring these all up is because what we're seeing is a social media phenomenon of video content being created, being captured, being received very differently by different audiences, and that’s creating an additional kind of hunger for more videos to be made and more content to come out. And that's becoming more intentional by a certain section of the right.

Cameron Peters

You write that these videos explain America right now. What are they revealing?

Christian Paz

People have very different views on what kind of force, what kind of enforcement action is okay. We're seeing two worlds: People who are outraged by this, who are really just appalled by the actions, wondering how this is possible in America. And on the other side, there's a lot of people who are supportive of this. The common refrain there is, “I voted for this.” This is the enforcement action that a sizable chunk of the country is actually okay with. 

Part of those opinions being born is these siloed ecosystems — your algorithms and social media platforms that you're on — influence what kind of content you're seeing. The people who support this are getting more of that content fed back to them. People who don't support it are also getting that information fed back to them. So in that way, we have diverging realities forming. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle being fed by journalists and bystanders on one side and right-wing bloggers and influencers on the other.

Cameron Peters

We've seen videographers accompanying ICE on these raids. What do you think the administration sees in creating and promoting these videos?

Christian Paz

It's crazy how highly produced some of these videos are. Sometimes they're not fully accurate — recent reporting shows that some of these sizzle reels compile arrests and actions in other states that are totally unrelated to some of the raids or arrests that are being made in big cities. But there's a propagandistic effort by the administration to control the narrative and to use social media to have a bigger reach. 

A lot of the experts that I spoke to for this story were telling me that that's kind of the point, to flood the zone with an overwhelming amount of content for critics to parse through. Separately, it's also to advance the idea for their own supporters and for their own audiences — friendlier audiences — that there's a serious threat here that they're addressing; that there is violence, that there is crime, that Portland is a "hellscape," that Chicago is being "invaded." And so that's part of forming the narrative. 

It’s a symbiotic relationship: The administration is putting out their version of what's happening, they are amplifying some of these violent interactions that go in these viral videos, and they're also promoting sympathetic content creators, influencers, podcasters, livestreamers, who they have either allowed special access to raids or have given interviews at specific facilities, and they put that content out there for their own audiences.

Cameron Peters

Where is this all leading?

Christian Paz

There used to be one viral interaction that would be able to reach the public consciousness or break out of media bubbles. That time seems to be past, because we have so many viral interactions now that just seem jarring, and you have so many alternative media sources trying to muddy the waters. 

I'm thinking specifically of how the administration and right-wing influencers jump on a viral moment to try to discredit it and say, “Actually, this person is accused of this, this, and that.” And sometimes they're lying about the stuff that they're accusing these subjects about. But the idea is to make it a wash. 

The other important thing to remember is there is some degree of belief among some liberals that you still have to capture everything. You still have to document it. It matters that it's happening, whether for now or for the future, in terms of holding accountable people in power, but also because otherwise it'll be one side that is advancing a narrative. 

The worrying thing is how the country exists with various versions of reality. And I think it’s a question about the power of social media, the power of algorithms, and the importance of just trying to remain informed as much as possible.

Today’s edition was produced and edited by me, staff editor Cameron Peters. Thanks for reading!