Examining claim video shows ICE detaining Chicago parents in school pick-up line

A rumor that circulated online in October 2025 claimed a video showed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents breaking into the vehicle of a mother waiting in a school’s car pick-up line to receive her children. According to social media posts, the person who recorded video captured the incident Oct. 8 at West Loop Elementary School in the Chicago area.

For example, on Oct. 9, Ed Krassenstein — a political commentator who has opposed U.S. President Donald Trump’s administrations — posted (archived) the 54-second clip on X. Krassenstein shared the text caption, “This is terrifying! ICE breaks into this woman’s car in the pick-up line at West Loop Elementary school in Chicago and detains her before she can pick her kids up from school. This is Trump’s America.” Many other users, including former cable news TV hosts Don Lemon (archived) and Joy Reid (archived), as well as U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. (archived), also shared the claim — with some of their posts directly citing Krassenstein’s X post.

In the video, men wearing vests displaying the word “POLICE” — most wearing hats and masks covering their faces — pull a screaming woman from her car. A second screaming woman who does not visibly appear in the clip can be heard. The woman recording the video says, “Wait, you guys came to the school to do this?” 

One of the detained women, who agents pinned to the ground, says, in part:

Do you have a warrant? They haven’t asked for a warrant. My name is Jocelyn from Cicero. They don’t have a warrant. They didn’t ask for one. They forcefully opened the door of the trunk. It was locked.

She later says, “They were following us.” One of the men then tells the woman recording the clip the purported reason for the detainment, appearing to say, “She’s being arrested for intrusion.”

Instagram user @erynfreepress claimed to have recorded the video, sharing (archived) a longer, higher-quality version of the clip on Oct. 8 — one day earlier than Krassenstein’s post. In an update to her caption, @erynfreepress added, “Important: These are NOT parents from the school.” Chicago news station WFLD’s Instagram account identified (archived) the user by name.

The Sidewalk School, an organization whose website says it fights for equity and safety for asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, reported (archived) on Instagram of the detainees, “Both Jocelyn and her sister, who was driving the car, are DACA recipients—and were eventually released after they were finally allowed to prove their legal status.”

Snopes found no reason to question the authenticity specifically regarding the forcible detainments depicted in the clip. While attempting to confirm all aspects of the claim, we noted the men involved in the arrest were wearing Border Patrol vests, with none of them wearing clothing visibly labeled “ICE.” Also, a school named “West Loop Elementary School” does not exist, according to searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo.

After matching square-footage information from a building leasing sign visible at the end of the longer video to a specific address, a Google Street View search for that address confirmed the detainments occurred on West Congress Parkway in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, just west of South Racine Avenue. Similar searches identified Chicago World Language Academy as the closest school educating elementary-age children, located several hundred feet west of where the detainments took place.

Tricia McLaughin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security — the agency that oversees ICE and the Border Patrol — alleged in an email that the driver of the car “harassed” Border Patrol agents “recklessly” prior to them approaching the vehicle. McLaughlin’s statement also claimed the two women traveled from Mexico and resided in the U.S. illegally:

While conducting targeted immigration enforcement operations, the U.S. Border Patrol was harassed and recklessly followed by agitators with megaphones and whistles who began to yell inflammatory remarks and alerted the public of the officers’ presence. The agitators attempted to obstruct law enforcement by stalking the law enforcement vehicle and impeding ongoing targeted operations. They were driving recklessly including weaving between lanes and putting other motorists at risk. Following the driver abruptly stopping in the middle of traffic near a school, law enforcement approached the vehicle. The occupants refused to exit the vehicle and follow law enforcement commands. It turns out the agitators were two illegal aliens from Mexico.

We contacted Krassenstein in an X direct message, as well as @erynfreepress and The Sidewalk School, to ask for more evidence and information about the video and claim. Specifically, we attempted to confirm @erynfreepress’ update saying the two detained women were not, in fact, parents waiting to pick up their children, as well as The Sidewalk School’s post reporting officials released both women from custody. We also reached out via Instagram, Messenger and/or X to request information from Lemon, Reid, Warner and Chicago World Language Academy, and will update this article if we receive further details.

This claim made the rounds amid the Trump administration’s escalating immigration enforcement tactics, as well as its attempts to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago and other cities within the country. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Chicago Public Schools created a command center to help schools navigate ICE activity. Some neighbors also organized to help protect students and guardians from federal agents, per reporting from the nonprofit news organization Block Club Chicago.

Former cable news hosts and US senator shared claim

Politically progressive commentator Don Lemon, formerly a CNN news anchor and current YouTube host of “The Don Lemon Show,” credited Krassenstein when reposting the video on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok and YouTube. Lemon’s reposted video displayed the onscreen caption, “ICE detains a mom in her car at a Chicago school pickup line.”

Fellow progressive commentator Joy Reid, a former MSNBC news anchor currently hosting “The Joy Reid Show” on YouTube, also shared Krassenstein’s post and the video on Instagram and Threads, writing, “This is Trump’s America, and it is hideous and shameful.”

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., reposted (archived) another X user’s post (archived) reading, “CHICAGO — ICE abducts a woman picking up her kids yesterday at West Loop Elementary School.” Warner’s commentary read, “Your eyes are not deceiving you. These are, in fact, masked ICE agents dragging a legal U.S. resident out of her car while she waits in a pickup line outside an elementary school.”

Other users also shared the clip and claim on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Reddit (archived), Threads (archived), TikTok (archived) and X (archived).

For further reading, we previously confirmed a claim that federal agents, including ICE, the FBI and ATF, rappelled from helicopters during a Sept. 29 raid on a Chicago building.

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