A recent anomaly in Google's search algorithm has led to a surge in immigration-related panic across the United States. On January 24, 2025, a series of outdated Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) press releases suddenly appeared as top search results, leading many to believe that mass deportations were underway. This unexpected development occurred when every archived ICE article received an update on the same date, causing Google's SEO to misinterpret them as newly relevant content and rank them higher on search result pages.
This chain of events began when an immigration lawyer, who had started tracking ICE raids and enforcement actions during Donald Trump's presidency, noticed an unusual trend. Social media platforms and listservs were abuzz with rumors of ICE raids, with local news programs showing apprehensions in small towns like Cartersville, Georgia, with a population of just 25,000. However, upon closer inspection, the lawyer discovered that the actual dates of these reports were August 2018 and June 2008, respectively.
"There was a lot of noise online," said the immigration lawyer. "And it was creating terror in the community."
The resurfaced ICE press releases from 2008 and 2010 misled Google’s algorithm into ranking them as if they were recent developments. The lawyer embarked on a forensic examination of ICE's web pages by inspecting the front-end code. This revealed that all archived press releases shared the same timestamp of January 24, 2025. This single update date created a false impression of recency across the board.
Google's algorithm evaluates several factors to determine a webpage's relevance and authority. Unfortunately, this glitch caused outdated ICE press releases to appear prominently in search results, suggesting that enforcement actions were occurring nationwide. In almost every state, at least one ICE press release showed up among Google's top results, misleading users about the timeline of these operations.
"They all had the last update of 1/24/2025 and they were all popping up at the front of the algorithm," noted the immigration lawyer.
The lawyer also tried using Bing, Microsoft's search engine, but efforts to get a comment from Bing went unanswered. Nevertheless, ICE had marked these press releases as old on their website, yet they continued to dominate Google search results. In states across the country, users encountered thousands of instances where such press releases reached the first page of Google search results, giving the impression that enforcement actions had just taken place.
"Every article was updated on the 24th, which was causing the Google SEO to interpret that as a recently updated article, and therefore rank it higher," explained a tech expert.
Maria Andrade, an immigration lawyer based in Idaho, pointed out that ICE arrests in her state have been minimal. She noted that arresting 22 individuals would be considered a significant number for Idaho. The sheriff of Blaine County even issued a public statement to allay public fears about potential ICE raids.
"We had one that didn’t result in detention," Maria Andrade stated. "I haven’t heard of mass arrests in any area at all."
"If the objective is to scare people who look up raids in Idaho, that would be a good way to accomplish it," she added.
The widespread visibility of these old press releases has generated anxiety among immigrant communities nationwide. The optics of these supposed mass arrests have profound implications on public perception and community morale.
"Regardless of the actual numbers, the optics of these mass arrests throughout the country have very real ramifications," said Harris.
"All of that is intended to send a message to immigrants to be afraid and that they’re coming for you," Harris further commented.
The anomaly not only affected public perception but also raised questions about how search engines prioritize information. The tech expert emphasized that no other government agency experienced similar issues with outdated press releases appearing as recent news.
"With ICE these are old articles that are now appearing at the top of the Google and Bing search results as recent headlines, where no other government agency is doing this," remarked the tech expert.