ICE Locks Twitter Account That Alerts About Illegal Immigrants; Critics Irked

By Joshua Summers First Posted: Mar 03, 2021 05:30 AM EST

The United States' Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency received backlash after it locked the ICE Twitter account that gives updates and safety alerts regarding the illegal immigrants present in the United States who have committed crimes.

Fox Business noted that the agency's account was created in 2013 and boosted during the Trump Administration. It became a platform for posting escapees, including their name, nationality, criminal history, and the U.S. Jurisdiction where they were released.

ALSO READ: ICE Cancels Operations Targeting Illegal Immigrants with Sex Crime Cases

ICE's locked twitter

Former Senior Employee at U.S. ICE, John Feere, shared with The Washington Times that the account of the agency, known to be @ICEAlerts, is protected. This means that only the users following the account before its update on their privacy setting can see the target names. Feere added that users are also not allowed to retweet the old posts published by the agency.

The Sara Carter Show echoed Feere's statement, saying that the ICE Alert Account page shares a note that states the Tweets of the account are protected, and only approved followers can see its tweets. A follow is now required to view the agency's alerts. Feere condemned the movement, saying that it seems like the Biden Administration locked the Twitter account to make it not too obvious that assaulters, drug dealers, thieves, and drunk drivers are now free under the new administration's policy.

Fox Business also mentioned Feere, saying the current administration is not interested in public safety since the account of the agency that was launched in 2013 who supplies tweets inclined in involving the public in locating individuals deemed as threats to public safety. However, an ICE spokesperson shared that the locked Twitter account of the agency is not being utilized by the current agency only use their main Twitter account.

Immigrants tested positive for COVID-19

Amid the issue of ICE's Twitter account privacy update, the agency faces another issue as Asylum-seekers tested positive for COVID-19 after authorities released them on the United States border.

The Daily Wire mentioned a 35-year old asylum seeker, Miriam Izaguirre, from Honduras who crossed the Rio Grande with her young son, tested positive for COVID-19 a few hours after she was released. Izaguirre added that eight of them were separated as they wait for a bus headed to Houston, Texas. Reports also mentioned that other migrant families shared they tested positive for COVID-19.

NBC News reported that the city of Brownsville administers these rapid tests at the bus stations after the migrant families are released by the border patrol. 108 migrants, or 6.3 percent of those immigrants who took the test as protocol, tested positive.

From the locking of the agency's Twitter account concerning Immigrants, Fox News noted that President Joe Biden has pledged to modernize the Immigrant policy of the United States with ICE, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas shared that the administration is acting as restoratively as possible.