A photo shared by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has gone viral online, drawing widespread attention—not for the arrest itself, but for the way it was presented.
The image, posted by ICE’s San Diego office on Saturday, shows 42-year-old Diego Hernandez, a Mexican national, standing next to a female ICE agent whose back is turned to the camera. The agent’s pose, tight-fitting pants, and flicked-over hair have sparked debate across social media, with critics accusing ICE of deliberately staging the photo for engagement.
The post has garnered nearly 25 million views on X (formerly Twitter), prompting thousands of comments. Some users questioned the intent behind the composition of the image, suggesting it was designed to go viral.
One user wrote, “Am I crazy, or is this ICE trying to humiliate an immigrant and using an agent’s body to make it trend?” Another remarked, “The Cartman T-shirt, the agent facing the wall—this feels more like satire than a government post.”
Others responded with humor and incredulity, jokingly asking for the agent’s identity or suggesting they’d renounce citizenship just to get her sent to their home.
According to ICE, Hernandez has multiple DUI convictions and has been deported from the U.S. several times before. He was taken into custody in San Diego following a notification from local law enforcement and now faces removal proceedings.
“ICE San Diego arrested Diego Hernandez, 42, an illegal alien from Mexico with multiple convictions for DUI and repeated illegal re-entry into the U.S.,” the agency said in its statement. “He chose to break our laws again and again. He will remain in ICE custody pending removal—because public safety comes first.”
While the agency often obscures agents’ identities in arrest photos for security reasons, this particular image has ignited broader discussions around the use of government imagery and social media optics.