Did ICE announce it was pausing a hotline to report undocumented immigrants because 90 percent of the calls were people reporting Elon Musk? No, that's not true: That claim originated on a satirical X account named "The Halfway Post." The ICE website still lists the number 1-866-DHS-2-ICE to "report suspicious activity," and it currently shows no statements or news releases about pausing the number.
The claim first appeared in a post on X (archived here) published by "The Halfway Post," which read:
BREAKING: ICE just announced it is pausing the hotline where people can call to report undocumented immigrants because 90% of the calls are from people reporting Elon Musk.
It was later copied by other accounts that omitted to mention the original source, for example, by YourAnonNews here (archived here):
(Source: Screenshot of X.com taken by Lead Stories on Thu January 30 at 10:37:58 2025 UTC)
The Halfway Post has a bio (archived here) that reads:
DADA NEWS. Halfway true comedy and satire by @DashMacIntyre. I don't report the facts, I improve them. Subscribe: https://substack.com/@thehalfwaycafe
Check out my Linktree ➡️linktr.ee/dashmacintyre
The official website of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently lists no announcement about pausing a hotline on their "News Releases and Statements" page (archived here).
ICE does, however, prominently feature the number of a tipline in the header:
(Source: screenshot of www.ice.gov taken by Lead Stories on January 30, 2025 at 10:42:32 UTC)
A telephone call by Lead Stories to the listed phone number was met with a recorded message that said it was not currently accepting reports and directed callers to a website form at https://www.ice.gov/webform/ice-tip-form.
