Following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis last month, Minnesota community members are making headlines for warning their neighbors about federal immigration agents through a shadow network of whistles and iPhone videos. In Florida, which saw nearly 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in the first half of last year alone, activists are following suit.
Florida residents are monitoring and posting sightings of ICE agents in an effort to shield the immigrant population from possible detainment, questioning and physical contact. These sightings are often posted on websites like ICE Activity Tracker and social media outlets, including Reddit, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
Of the 135 reports filed on the tracker website nationwide the week of Feb. 2-9, nine took place in Florida, including one in Gainesville. The crowdsourced reports aren’t exhaustive; that same week, booking logs show three people were detained or transported by ICE in the Alachua County Jail.
Jasmine Brown, a volunteer for Gainesville’s Party for Socialism and Liberation, said her organization posts ICE sightings online, often sent in by community members. She and her fellow volunteers have built an informal network of people to inform about ICE sightings on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, something they plan to expand to social media. They often get tips from their ICE-spotting hotline.
“We’re seeing a lot of aggressive tactics used to scare people and to really harass them,” Brown said. “And so it’s important that people are able to come together and see when ICE is reporting.”
Many ICE agents dress as everyday citizens but are often spotted with vests or patches confirming their credentials. They usually drive in unmarked cars rather than police vehicles with lights, sirens or law enforcement insignia.
Brown said she hopes as efforts to monitor ICE grow, people will start to educate themselves, protest and rally for immigrant rights.
Christina Neptune, a Miami cosmetologist and life coach, posts every suspected ICE agent and car she spots on Facebook, Threads and Instagram. The videos and pictures she posts range from south to north Florida, many of them submitted by residents across the state who are too afraid to share them personally, she said.
As the daughter of Haitian immigrants, she said, she felt hurt seeing families torn apart and hearing stories about ICE physically harming citizens.
The Supreme Court has legalized racial profiling as a method for ICE agents to spot potential noncitizens. Immigration agents can now stop, question and detain individuals who appear Latino or speak Spanish, which correlated with increased rates in ICE raids.
“I feel like it’s my due diligence to be public and speak about the very things that are unnerving and wrecking our country,” Neptune said.
Putting agents under a microscope through ICE detection groups will hopefully prevent them from carrying out illegal activities, such as attacking a citizen, she said. Her goal, she added, is to make the Florida community cognizant of where ICE is traveling.
“The ultimate hope for me is that the community is safe and protected,” she said. “As well that they are vigilant, that they know about their rights.”
Michelle Morgan, a Daytona Beach resident and charity owner, is involved in ICE watch groups across multiple platforms, including Reddit, YouTube and Instagram. She earned her undergraduate degree in peace studies and immigrant rights from Guilford College and has experienced life as an immigrant living a few years in Mexico, Egypt and Turkey, which motivates her to advocate for immigrant rights.
She said she tries to keep an eye out for ICE agents and posts them on social media because she might be able to help someone.
“It’s good for people to know where they [agents] are and what they might be doing, especially considering how dangerous they are, being undertrained and ill prepared for the job that they’re doing,” Morgan said.
She doesn’t know if her advocacy and posting is helpful, but she feels she has to do something to help the immigrant community. She said she hopes for the abolition of ICE, immigration law reform and an America that has a more welcoming environment for immigrants.
“This never should’ve gotten to this point, where people are being literally shot in the street,” Morgan said. “I would just like a more global community, a better world for everyone.”
Contact Angelique Rodriguez at arodriguez@alligator.org. Follow her on X @angeliquesrod.
Angelique is a first-year journalism major and the Fall 2025 graduate school reporter. In her free time, she'll probably be reading, writing, hanging out with her friends or looking through the newest fashion runway shows on Vogue.
