As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intensifies its operations across the country, some Somali migrants are finding creative ways to deter potential encounters with federal agents. In a viral video, one woman from Utah taped her U.S. passport around her head, hoping it would serve as visible proof of her citizenship and offer some protection against profiling or prejudiced assumptions.
The viral video came from TikTok user somalisnaps, who shared the clip of the Somali-American woman who now apparently goes outside with her US passport taped around her head whenever she needs to buy groceries or do any errands in Salt Lake City, Utah. For the record, it’s not clear how effective this “method” is or how serious the woman was, but she alluded to how certain authorities present in the grocery store she went to ignored her.
The video has since gone viral on multiple social media platforms, with many commenters praising the woman for her humor and ingenuity and how she essentially “turned fear into fashion, rocking the most patriotic headgear ever.” US passports can be a good proof of citizenship after all, though this might vary per state. However, some have also warned others about doing the same as the Somali-American woman, as this could easily backfire.
To counterbalance the praises, some Reddit users have offered a more cautious insight, “They just say it’s fake anyway. ICE never cared about passports or legality. It was only an excuse for all the violence, now that people are showing their passports, they just say it’s fake.” Indeed, some ICE agents or perhaps ICE larpers might even snatch the US passport away, taking away the immigrant’s fastest way to prove their citizenship.
People online are pointing out the absurdity of the situation
Regardless of how effective or serious it was, wearing a passport on your head as a way to not get deported is a rather worrying reflection of what’s happening right now in the US. And while some might consider it a dark joke, people being scared enough of federal entities and immigration policies to consider doing it is a cause for concern, as one commenter puts it, “This is heartbreaking at the same time hilarious.”
Other people were reminded of South Africa’s “Apartheid,” which is an institutionalized racial segregation, because now darker-skinned people, or people with foreign accents, might have to present an identifier to avoid being targeted by state agents. While some have argued, “If I was in a foreign country, I would keep my passport with me,” what we’re seeing here is a US citizen having to carry a US passport in the US just to be safe, a notion many have found ridiculous.
Regardless, ICE continues to operate in multiple US states right now, and its heightened operations in the state have invited major pushback and protests from the local populace. Protesters have even resorted to causing nuisances in hotels where ICE agents reside as some form of defiance against their state-wide crackdown on migrants.
