Does a video titled "Operation Metro Freeze" show real footage of a deportation flight in Minnesota? No, that's not true: AI made that clip. Early versions of it showed a watermark pointing to a specific generative AI tool and it's unlikely a military transport plane would have a tail number like the one in the video.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, where it was published on December 16, 2025. The text across the attached video began:
Operation Metro Freeze...
The caption continued:
ICE Metro Freeze is sending so many illegals in Minnesota home for the holidays 🎄
The entry on the social media platform additionally mentioned that "DHS signed a contract for $140 million with Boeing for 6 737 jets to establish their own Deportation fleet."
This is what the clip from the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at x.com/1109Patricia)
In December 2025, ICE increased (archived here) the number of raids in Minnesota, but this viral video did not document any of them.
Within the first second, the Sora watermark appeared in the clip:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshots of post at x.com/1109Patricia)
Sora (archived here) is an app developed by OpenAI that uses AI to create realistic-looking videos from a text prompt, which raised concerns among disinformation and misinformation experts from the app's early days on the market. Lead Stories, among others, reported that Sora has been repeatedly employed to spread false claims concerning immigration, natural disasters, politics and wars.
The watermark was not the only sign revealing the fake nature of the clip examined in this article.
The video showed tail number of the kind that has been removed from most military cargo planes:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshots of post at x.com/1109Patricia)
As first reported by The Washington Post, the DHS indeed signed a $140 million contract with Boeing to acquire six 737 jets (archived here) in late 2025, aiming to create its own deportation fleet instead of contracting private companies. But the tail number from the video didn't match public records for any Boeing aircraft.
Privately owned planes' tail numbers, also known as N-numbers in the U.S., can be looked up at the Federal Aviation Administration registry. While an aircraft may change its tail number over time, no two planes can have the same number simultaneously because tail numbers serve as unique identifiers. As of this writing, the FAA registry linked "60153" to an AT-502B fixed-wing single-engine turboprop manufactured by "Air Tractor, Inc" for crop-dusting:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of page at registry.faa.gov)
A lookup of that model on the manufacturer's website (archived here) showed a very different type of aircraft compared to what the video on social media depicted:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of page at airtractor.com/aircraft/at-502b)
But, the "AMC" at the start of the tail number in the video would have referred to an Air Mobility Command military cargo plane in years past, if it were authentic video.
Defense industry specialty publications reported in 2023 that those AMC tail numbers were being removed from cargo craft in order to prevent enemies from tracking the movement of sensitive goods. Military.com reported the change in this March 1, 2023 report (archived here). The change was also reported by Aviation Week, which said Air Force and other markings seen in the past on cargo craft were all being painted over or removed (archived here).
Lead Stories searched the Department of War archive of press releases from October of 2022 through December of 2023, (archived here) finding no public announcement of the change.
