Two days after At Chandee, who goes by Ricky, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the White House’s X account posted about him, calling the 52-year-old the “WORST OF WORST” and a “CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIEN.” The photo the White House used, however, was of a different person. The post also incorrectly said Chandee had multiple felony convictions; he has one, a 1993 second-degree assault conviction from when he was 18. He shot two people in the legs, served three years, then completed school and built a life in the U.S.
Chandee came to the U.S. as a child refugee and was ordered deported to Laos. Because Laos was not accepting all the people the U.S. sought to deport, authorities determined deportation was likely infeasible and granted him permission to remain and work while checking in periodically with immigration officials. His lawyer says he has not missed a check-in in more than 30 years and has had no other criminal incidents. He worked for the City of Minneapolis for 26 years, became a father, and is now petitioning for release in federal court after his detention.
Chandee’s case is not unique. Over the past year, the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and other immigration agencies have posted frequently on social media about people detained in immigration enforcement actions, typically portraying them as hardened, violent criminals. That narrative persists even though ICE data reviewed by outside researchers shows that a majority of people detained have no criminal records. An NPR review of cases in Minnesota found that while many people the government highlighted had recent serious criminal records, about a quarter resembled Chandee: decades-old convictions, minor offenses, or only pending charges.
Since last March, DHS and ICE have been posting on X nearly daily about apprehensions, and NPR counted more than 2,000 people highlighted by the agencies during this period. NPR identified 130 people arrested by federal agents in Minnesota from that set and sought to verify the government’s statements about their criminal histories by consulting Minnesota court and detention records, national criminal history databases, sex offender registries, federal and other state court records, and news coverage.
Findings in Minnesota: in 19 of the 130 cases (about one in seven), the most recent convictions were at least 20 years old. Seventeen of those older-conviction cases did include violent crimes such as homicide and first-degree sexual assault. For seven people, the only criminal history found involved offenses like DUI or disorderly conduct. Six of the 130 people had no criminal convictions; the government’s social posts relied on arrests or pending charges as proof of wrongdoing, though arrests do not always lead to charges and charges can be dismissed. For 37 people, NPR could not confirm a matching criminal history in the public records it consulted. The government has used some of those names in media appearances to underscore its enforcement achievements.
DHS’s chief spokesperson, Lauren Bis, did not dispute NPR’s findings in response but pushed back on coverage, characterizing reports that questioned the agency’s posts as defending violent offenders. In some cases, DHS has acknowledged inaccuracies on its own website but insisted additional crimes supported the listings.
Scholars and critics say the aim and effect of the campaign is to generate emotional reactions by coupling images — often of nonwhite people — with statements about criminality. Leo Chavez, emeritus professor of anthropology at UC Irvine, says images of brown men shown without context are intended to frighten and to build support for extreme enforcement measures. Juliet Stumpf, a law professor who studies immigration and criminal law, likens the daily posts to “FBI’s most wanted posters” or reality TV and says she has never seen government enforcement communicated like this in the modern era. Research indicates immigrants generally commit fewer crimes than U.S. citizens, Stumpf notes, so a drumbeat portraying immigrants as uniformly dangerous creates a distorted public perception.
Critical reporting has also found problems with DHS’s broader “Arrested: Worst of the Worst” website. CNN’s analysis showed that among the roughly 25,000 people posted, hundreds were listed for nonviolent or minor offenses such as traffic infractions, marijuana possession or illegal reentry. DHS called some entries the result of a “glitch” it would fix and said the people in question had committed additional crimes, though that was not always documented.
State and local authorities have pushed back when federal posts mischaracterize how arrests occurred or who was responsible. For example, DHS accused Cottonwood County, Minnesota, of failing to honor ICE detainer requests; the county published a different account saying it had honored the detainer but ICE could not complete the pick-up before the order expired. The Minnesota Department of Corrections has posted statements saying dozens of people DHS listed were transferred to ICE from state custody and were not arrested on the street as described by DHS; the state launched a page aimed at correcting what it called repeated false claims.
The “Worst of the Worst” site also contained high-profile errors. It described Colombian soccer star Jhon Viáfara Mina as arrested in Wisconsin, when he had been extradited, tried and convicted in Texas and later returned to Colombia after early release. In other instances, federal social posts named people and shared photos to highlight confrontations during arrests; in one high-profile Minneapolis shooting, DHS described Julio C. Sosa-Celis as launching a “violent attack on law enforcement” after a federal agent shot him. Assault charges linked to that incident later fell apart in court as new evidence surfaced, and the officers involved were placed on leave — yet the DHS social post remains online.
Advocates and researchers say the repeated use of images and short, declarative social posts serves to harden public opinion and normalize draconian policies. Even when corrections are issued, the initial emotional impression remains, Chavez argues. The aggressive posting strategy also appears to have political and institutional objectives: to tout enforcement wins, defend agents’ actions, and criticize local officials and so-called sanctuary policies.
Data show an increase in arrests of noncitizens without criminal records during the current administration compared with the previous one, according to the Deportation Data Project. Legal scholars warn that public portrayals that equate immigration status with criminality can have real consequences for community trust, local policing cooperation and the people singled out publicly.
NPR’s review underscores that while many federal enforcement targets have significant records, a notable share of those promoted on social media have old convictions, minor offenses, no convictions, or charges that were later dismissed — raising questions about the accuracy and fairness of a campaign that uses images and short posts to label people as the “worst of the worst.”