Social media falsely identifies pardoned Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio as ICE officer

Social media posts have falsely identified Enrique Tarrio, the pardoned former leader of the Proud Boys, as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer — a claim denied by both the agency and Tarrio himself, according to the Associated Press.

The false claim circulated on multiple platforms this week as protests continued in Minneapolis over the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal ICE officer. A single X post calling Tarrio one of “Trump’s Nazi ICE agents” had received nearly 74,000 likes and shares as of Friday, the AP reported.

The posts surfaced days after President Donald Trump pardoned Tarrio alongside more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Tarrio had been serving a 22-year sentence — the longest handed down for the attack — after the Justice Department prosecuted him for orchestrating a failed plot to prevent the certification of Trump’s 2020 election defeat.

Agency and Tarrio both deny the claim

“This individual was never hired by ICE,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. McLaughlin said the claims represented “the types of smears that vilify our brave ICE law enforcement.”

Tarrio denied the claim on social media but did so in stages. On Tuesday, he posted on X: “A list I’m finally happy to be part of…” He clarified the following day that the claim was untrue but that he wished he worked for ICE. By Thursday, Tarrio described his original post as “satire.”

Origin of the claim

Posts pointed to what users described as a leaked roster of ICE agents as evidence of Tarrio’s alleged employment. A DHS whistleblower allegedly leaked identifying details for approximately 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees to ICE List, an independent website that collects information on federal immigration enforcement, according to reporting by The Daily Beast published Tuesday.

Tarrio does have an entry on the site, but it lists no agency affiliation. His role is identified as “Propagandist; Agitator.”