MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S. â" JANUARY 12: U.S. Border Patrol agents question a person who appears to be a minor before arresting him during immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota, U.S., January 12, 2026. (Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
While I have no doubt this could have happened, fuck ICE, I do seek more evidence than a picture with a bold claim. When the first commenter asked for evidence, the links went to a site had the same picture and caption with no additional information. Showing that the picture and caption are circulating the internet does nothing to aid its credibility.
The caption could make anything up, right media might spin it and say something like “extremest interferes with federal operation resulting in arrest”. Same picture, 2 opposite stories.
It’s like posting a picture of an old man alone in front a birthday cake and the caption reading “so sad none of his family showed to the party”, meanwhile all the family is just out of frame.
In the age of for-profit-media, it’s difficult to filter out what is true and what is false or exaggerated for rage clicks. When bold claims are presented to us, we need to do the best we can to verify our source is presenting them to us in good faith.
Edit I see the Getty link was shared after my original comment, and I didn’t see until after typing this one out.
My first reaction is wow, the photographer is selling these? - photos of people getting arrested and harassed, possibly the worst moments of their life sold for profit.
My second reaction is, these photos are visually very nice, and more important, it’s probably dangerous to get that close, so if you wanna make money doing that - you do you bro.
Please can people provide reputable sources for random images like this? At this point, to me, it’s just ragebait.
Seems the photographer Mostafa Bassim sells his photos on gettyimages:
https://www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?artistexact=anadolu&phrase=mostafa+bassim&sort=newest&license=rf%2Crm
https://www.mostafabassim.net/biography
The text from the photographer on gettyimages:
Here’s another bunch of photos of the same boy (found on page three from the first gettyimages link):
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/ice-descends-on-minneapolis/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/ice-descends-on-minneapolis/
Yeah, I’m with you on this one. Even the linked sources don’t have anything, its just a picture with a caption.
Would you like another link to the same thing?
While I have no doubt this could have happened, fuck ICE, I do seek more evidence than a picture with a bold claim. When the first commenter asked for evidence, the links went to a site had the same picture and caption with no additional information. Showing that the picture and caption are circulating the internet does nothing to aid its credibility.
The caption could make anything up, right media might spin it and say something like “extremest interferes with federal operation resulting in arrest”. Same picture, 2 opposite stories.
It’s like posting a picture of an old man alone in front a birthday cake and the caption reading “so sad none of his family showed to the party”, meanwhile all the family is just out of frame.
In the age of for-profit-media, it’s difficult to filter out what is true and what is false or exaggerated for rage clicks. When bold claims are presented to us, we need to do the best we can to verify our source is presenting them to us in good faith.
Edit I see the Getty link was shared after my original comment, and I didn’t see until after typing this one out. My first reaction is wow, the photographer is selling these? - photos of people getting arrested and harassed, possibly the worst moments of their life sold for profit. My second reaction is, these photos are visually very nice, and more important, it’s probably dangerous to get that close, so if you wanna make money doing that - you do you bro.