Image of man in 'Latinos for Trump' shirt getting arrested by ICE is fake

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents arrested alleged immigration violators at Fresh Mark, Salem, June 19, 2018. Image courtesy ICE / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Photo by

An image circulating on social media showing a man in a "Latinos for Trump" shirt being taken away by ICE officers is fake – the real photo from five years ago has been altered.

What we know:

The original photo was taken outside the Fresh Mark meat plant in Salem, Ohio, on June 19, 2018, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, later syndicated by Getty Images. 

In the real photo, three agents are seen wearing Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, vests, and are grabbing a man in a plain gray T-shirt by the arms. 

The altered photo shows a similar scene, except the man's T-shirt has a "Latinos for Trump 2024" logo emblazoned on the back and there are ICE agents grabbing the man's arms. 

ICE and HSI both operate under the Department of Homeland Security. And Donald Trump was also president when the original photo was taken. 

The doctored image has been showing up in recent days on Instagram and X, and confusing many people who think that the photo is real and current. It's been shared millions of times across multiple platforms. 

What we don't know:

It's not clear who changed the original photo, but it gives the feel of a political cartoon and has been generating many comments – for and against immigrants and deportations -- online.

Big picture view:

In November 2024, Trump received 46% of the Latino vote compared to 35% four years ago, an Associated Press poll shows – the most support Latinos have ever shown a Republican presidential candidate.

And that's despite repeated calls for mass deportations and falsely calling Mexicans "in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc." He has also said that immigrants "poison the blood" of this country. 

Despite all this, Andrés Quintero, political science professor at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, explained that what matters to Latinos most is the economy – not immigration.

"People tend to focus on immigration as the number one priority for Latinos," Quintero told KTVU shortly after the November election. "It actually falls down to fourth or fifth."

Quintero said that it's not surprising that as inflation rises and the purchasing power drops for Latinos, many of whom are working class or living in poverty, they gravitate toward someone "who is promising them answers."

"It seems like Latinos have bought into the message," he said. 

Mike Madrid, a national political expert on Latino demographics, said there are now many multi-generational Latinos living in the United States. 

And the third- and fourth-generation Latinos aren't "very tied to the immigration experience," Madrid said. 

"And when they hear regularly that immigration, especially from the Democratic Party, is a key issue, it's having the reverse effect of actually alienating these voters and pushing them to this economic pocketbook voter, this economic populist place. And Donald Trump represents the most populist candidate in the race and is winning more of their votes."

Dig deeper:

Coincidentally, last month Fresh Mark agreed to pay $3.7 million after a hiring manager conspired with others to steal identities of U.S. citizens and give them to job applicants at the company's meat processing plants, according to the Department of Justice. 

The case was first investigated by HSI, who arrested several Fresh Mark employees, who used stolen identities, between 2013 and 2018, the year the photo was taken. 

This story was reported from Oakland, Calif. 

ImmigrationDonald J. TrumpPoliticsCrime and Public SafetyOhioNews