Facts Matter: ICE agents not paid a bonus for each arrest

Posts circulating on social media claim Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents can make money based on the number of people taken into custody.

“ICE Agents Get Bonuses for Every Arrest!!,” read a Feb. 5 TikTok post. An X post from January said, “Those rewards count even if the person is RELEASED without charges.”

But there is no evidence that this is happening, according to FactCheck.org.

Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications and public affairs for the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, told FactCheck.org that those rumors are false.

“We do not believe these claims regarding bonuses for arrests are accurate,” she said. “ICE and its parent agency, DHS, have never indicated that they would set up a bonus payment structure rewarding personnel per arrest.”

Some of those social media claims cite a Jan. 17 Wall Street Journal article about Minneapolis, Minnesota, that said officers are under pressure “from daily arrest quotas that leadership has set at 3,000 a day across the country. Though ICE has never come close to meeting that daily goal, officers are rewarded for making arrests, even if the immigrants they take in are later released.”

However, there are no details about how the agents are “rewarded” and some posts used the article to claim the rewards are monetary bonuses.

The New York Times reported on a proposal to pay agents for quicker deportations. The proposed program called for $100 and $200 bonuses for immigrants deported one or two weeks following arrest. But that program was never implemented, the Times said.

Netanyahu dispels reports of his death

Recent social posts claim Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is dead, following retaliatory strikes during the Iran war.

A post on X included video of Netanyahu during a March 12 news conference. The user claimed the footage didn’t look real, possibly created using artificial intelligence.

“IS NETANYAHU DEAD? YOU CAN SEE THIS THING HAS SIX FINGERS ON HIS RIGHT HAND JUST A FEW SECONDS INTO THIS SPEECH, SUPPOSEDLY FROM TODAY,” text on the post read. “Also, it talks to (sic) fast and animated than recent talks by Netanyahu.”

But that is the Israeli prime minister, according to Reuters.

Netanyahu quelled the rumors about his demise himself, with a March 19 news conference in front of journalists.

“First of all, I just want to say, I ⁠am alive and you are all witnesses,” he began the speech. “Now that I dispatch this piece of fake news, I want to give you ⁠an update on Operation Roaring Lion.”

Jordan, Kardashian posts are fake

Several social media posts appeared to capture an exchange between TV personality Kim Kardashian and actor Michael B. Jordan, following Jordan’s Best Actor win at this month’s Academy Awards.

One Facebook post supposedly included a screenshot of Kardashian’s post, which read, “Kim Kardashian on Michael B. Jordan winning the Oscars: ‘He deserves it. And is he single? Asking for a friend.’”

And an apparent screenshot of Jordan’s response read, “I'm good. Every time a successful Black man is winning, somehow you try to insert yourself into the moment and shift the narrative. Not happening here. I worked too hard for this to turn into something else. Respectfully … keep me out of it.”

But this isn’t real, according to Snopes. There is no evidence that Jordan actually “didn’t hold back,” as one user wrote, and no evidence Kardashian asked about Jordan’s relationship status.

The supposed Kardashian post first appeared on a parody account, named Hoops Crave. Users then copied the fake question and created a fake answer from Jordan.

There is no evidence that either of these posts came from any of Jordan’s or Kardashian’s various social media accounts. And there are no credible news reports that the two had this exchange.

• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.