Videos of migrants in US facility are likely AI-generated: experts
- Published on December 1, 2025 at 22:49
- 4 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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Two videos claimed to show migrants sleeping on the crowded floor of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility have spread widely online amid backlash against US President Donald Trump's mass-deportation policies, but the clips appear to be fakes created using artificial intelligence. Three media forensics experts who analyzed them for AFP found digital traces and visual inconsistencies indicative of AI.
"Dozens of immigrants sleep on the ground! Trump's America is a disgrace," says a November 23, 2025 post on X, which purports to show rows of migrants asleep under silver mylar blankets on the floor of a fenced-in room.
In another post sharing a video zoomed in on children sleeping in a similar-looking facility, the account added: "No beds no pillows, this is horrific! All while politicians having multi million dollar dinner! THESE ARE CHILDREN!"
More posts criticizing the Trump administration spread in English and Spanish across platforms, including Instagram and Threads, while supporters of the president argued that the visuals actually dated to former president Barack Obama's time in office.
News reports and footage have documented instances of people detained by ICE agents sleeping on floors as Trump has ramped up immigration raids and deployed National Guard troops to Democrat-run cities to support his mass-deportation efforts. Similar visuals surfaced during Trump's first presidency.
Images from Obama's and former president Joe Biden's administrations also showed migrants in overcrowded conditions at temporary overflow facilities where they were held for processing.
But the two videos circulating online are unrelated to all three administrations.
The clips carry the handle for a TikTok account called "@multiversoviral1." The page is full of seemingly AI-generated content, including several videos bearing the watermark for Sora, OpenAI's tool for converting text or images into videos.
According to three media forensics experts, the clips purporting to show the inside of a detention facility were also likely created by AI technologies.
"They appear to be very low quality synthetic videos posted by a known source of AI content," said Walter Scheirer, a professor of computer science and engineering at Notre Dame and the author of a book covering online deception (archived here).
Likely AI
Matthew Stamm, an electrical and computer engineering professor who leads the Multimedia and Information Security Lab at Drexel University, analyzed the videos for AFP alongside doctoral student Tai Nguyen using a tool geared toward identifying AI-generated content (archived here).
In a November 30, 2025 email, Stamm said their analysis "found evidence of traces left by generative AI in both videos," suggesting they are "likely AI-generated."
"AI video generators form each frame in a video using a very different process that what occurs inside a digital camera," he told AFP. "This leaves behind invisible statistical signatures in the video similar to how a criminal leaves behind fingerprints at a crime scene."
Stamm also pointed to visual cues that suggest the involvement of AI, including that the light reflecting off the blankets "seems to flicker inconsistently," and that the orientation of one person's feet "appears physically improbable."
Notre Dame's Scheirer noted faces in the background that appear "badly rendered," a common artifact of AI technologies, as well as a hand with missing or deformed fingers.
Siwei Lyu, director of the Media Forensic Lab at the University at Buffalo, also highlighted the blurred faces and "irregular and poorly defined" fingers during his own analysis, which likewise concluded that both videos are "likely AI-generated" (archived here).
Lyu said the individuals depicted "barely move at all, and their bodies fold in unnatural ways."
He added that at one point, "an arm and hand abruptly show up" that were not previously there.
AFP has previously debunked other AI-enabled misinformation here.
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