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A Comedian Made a Fake ICE Tip Line. The Calls Were Terrifying (w/ Drew Harwell)

2026-02-24 News & Politics
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The Bulwark
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Description

Sam Stein is joined by Drew Harwell of The Washington Post to talk about his reporting on one of the most disturbing viral stories of the year. Ben Palmer, a Nashville comedian, set up a fake ICE deportation tip line and watched as Americans flooded it with calls. The callers weren’t trolls. They were neighbors, coworkers, even a kindergarten teacher, calmly trying to get families deported. What began as a prank by Palmer turned into a horrifying window into people's worst instincts. Read more from Drew's reporting: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/20/fake-ice-tip-line-viral/ Become a Bulwark Youtube Plus Member here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG4Hp1KbGw4e02N7FpPXDgQ/join

Top Comments (10)

@JohnSmith-qy1wm 2026-02-24

If you ever wondered how people can participate in or ignore atrocities, here you go.

736 16 replies
@aquamarine9568 2026-02-24

What kind of horrific person, especially a kindergarten teacher, decides to use confidential information about a child in their care to try and get the child and the child’s family deported. This is what evil looks like.

525 24 replies
@cecilshinra 2026-02-24

And these people dont want to be compared to nazis...

415 13 replies
@tomdchi12 2026-02-24

"It wasn't Goebbels or Himmler who arrested me and put me in the camp, it was the village shoemaker." I don't have that quote quite right, but things keep reminding me of it.

521 15 replies
@bethkopelowitz2438 2026-02-24

So depressing. As a teacher in NYC of immigrant children, this is horrific.

458 8 replies
@tubabelle 2026-02-24

I listened last week to the full call with the kindergarten teacher that they're talking about. For those who haven't heard it, it's actually worse than this discussion makes it sound. The woman started to get mad when he was repeating her words back to her (done in the guise of making sure he was getting it all correctly) because she didn't like how it made her sound. But it was her exact words. Instead of having some self-reflection, maybe wondering if she really wanted to be making this call, she doubled down and asked to speak to the manager. It was really just disgusting and I don't think this woman learned anything at all. Or regretted it at all. At least not until it went viral and people are rightfully aghast.

258 14 replies
@Kathmandoux 2026-02-24

Even if the 5yo child's parents were illegal, I would much rather have THEM here than the teacher trying to get rid of them.

72
@karensedlacek1252 2026-02-24

Hitter’s Youth ratted out their own parents so I’m not surprised this is happening. I am hoping the teacher loses her job over looking into the records to try to get these people deported.

239 4 replies
@claireconover 2026-02-24

I was a daycare teacher once… so this is soul crushing.

233
@Skyiscryingg 2026-02-24

This shows how it can happen again, as in Nazi Germany

172 2 replies

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