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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem invited Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik on an ICE ride-along in Phoenix, Arizona, on Tuesday.
Raichik proudly snapped some selfies in the back of an ICE van, documenting her experience as agents arrested “dangerous” undocumented men accused of crimes in the state.
“These were criminals.. a gang member.. with long rap sheets. It was a targeted operation to remove criminals from our country who are here illegally,” she wrote on X.
Raichik, who opted to leave her Utah curls and Republican makeup behind—unlike ICE Barbie Noem—shared videos from the arrests.
In one of her videos, Raichik and other members of the group can be seen sticking their cameras into the back of a vehicle following the arrest of Jose Escobar-Robles. Seemingly in distress, Escobar-Robles uses his feet to shield himself from the cameras.
“This illegal was so mad he was getting arrested so he tried blocking us and hiding with his CROC,” Raichik wrote on X.
Another woman can be seen in Raichik’s video, leaning into the vehicle to capture footage of him as if she’s filming an animal at the zoo.
The Trump administration and fellow Republicans have been consistently dehumanizing people who are deported, regardless of whether they have been accused of a crime. In some cases, the only crime they have been accused of is not holding a legal U.S. visa.
The rhetoric the Trump administration uses to describe immigrants—referring to a man as “this illegal” and posting videos such as ASMR deportation clips—is done in an effort to remove their humanness, making it easier for people to support these mass deportations.
And Noem’s choice to include Raichik on the ride-along also stands to be questioned.
Libs of TikTok has a dark history of inciting violence against the LGBTQ+ community. What started as a troll account quickly grew into a platform that led to bomb threats and death threats against children’s hospitals and schools across the United States.
Raichik, who once hid her identity before being unmasked, spread the narrative that LGBTQ+ people were “pedophiles” and “groomers”—a narrative now popular in Russian media.
Now the White House seems hellbent on including Raichik in its media pool, kicking out centrist and left-leaning outlets to make room for extremist alt-right creators.
Noem and Raichik’s ride-along also marked a big day for the Trump administration, as the Supreme Court ruled that deportations to the notoriously brutal CECOT prison in El Salvador could continue, ending the temporary block.
Despite President Donald Trump’s goons admitting that they accidentally abducted and imprisoned a legal U.S. resident in the Salvadoran prison, the administration still plans to carry out its plans to deport blindly and quickly.
“You’ll see us continuing to partner with El Salvador. CECOT has the capacity for 40,000 individuals, and [El Salvador President Nayib Bukele] has said they’ll take as many as we want to send,” the Noem told the New York Post on Tuesday.
“There’s 14,000 there now,” she continued, “and he said he plans to build another prison right next to it.”
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