TikTok Influencers Leverage Power of Gossip to Thwart ICE Raids

Jackeline Vera built a loyal following of tens of thousands of followers on TikTok posting “chismes,” or gossip, about celebrities such as Bad Bunny and Rauw Alejandro.

That was until Donald Trump was elected president for a second time and promised the largest mass deportation in US history. It was only then that Vera, who makes her living as a content creator in Chicago under the handle @jaxxchismetalk, began posting about politics.

What began as a series of missives decrying Trump’s executive orders grew into a campaign to track sightings of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in ...