FACT FOCUS: Former Proud Boys leader falsely identified as an ICE officer

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As protests continue in Minneapolis after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, social media users are falsely claiming that Enrique Tarrio, a former Proud Boys leader, is working for the federal agency.

President Donald Trump pardoned Tarrio in a sweeping grant of clemency to all 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Tarrio was serving a 22-year prison sentence for orchestrating a failed plot to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election. His was one of the most serious cases brought by the Justice Department and he received the longest sentence handed down for the attack.

Posts cited a list of leaked ICE agents as alleged evidence. However, both ICE and Tarrio say he does not work for the agency.

Here's a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio is now an ICE officer.

THE FACTS: This is false. Tarrio denied working for ICE on social media and the federal agency confirmed that he is not now, nor ever has been, employed there.

“This individual was never hired by ICE,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. “ICE only recruits patriotic professionals who respect our nation's laws, care about their communities, and have the integrity and moral compass to perform such critical roles in keeping America safe.”

She called the claims about Tarrio “the types of smears that vilify our brave ICE law enforcement.”

In response to the claims spreading online, Tarrio wrote in a Tuesday X post: “A list I'm finally happy to be part of....” He clarified in a post on Wednesday that the claims are not true, but that he wishes he worked for ICE. Tarrio called his initial post “satire” in another post on Thursday.

Still, users on multiple social media platforms falsely identified Tarrio as an ICE officer.

“Proud Boy Leader / Convicted Felon Enrique Tarrio, Is one of Trump's Nazi ICE agents. Imagine that,” reads one X post that had received nearly 74,000 likes and shares as of Friday.

A DHS whistleblower allegedly leaked details for about 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees to ICE List, an independent website that collects information related to federal immigration enforcement in the U.S., according to a Daily Beast report published on Tuesday.

Tarrio does have an entry on the website, but is not listed as being affiliated with any agency. His role is identified as “Propagandist; Agitator.”

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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.