The United States is targeting people of color and anyone deemed a threat with no proof, thanks to the deployment of the National Guard and ICE agents in cities across the country. In order to combat that, at least in a small way, is a pair of white underage teenagers from the suburbs of Chicago who might actually be the most untouchable figures to get the job done.
In a TikTok video from journalist Dan Ming, teenage brothers Ben and Sam, who are 17 and 15 respectively, explain how they track ICE in Chicago and try to film what they can for visibility. In the video, the brothers explain how they saw injustices happening in and around their neighborhood, though primarily in the heart of Chicago, and they wanted to do something.
Cue “Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler.
@thenewsmovement EXCLUSIVE: After seeing their neighbors swept up in Trump’s immigration raids, teenage brothers Ben (17) and Sam (15) have spent the last month tracking and documenting ICE @Dan Ming ♬ original sound – The News Movement
The teenage boys are risking a lot to follow ICE around.
In the TikTok, Dan rides with the boys while Ben explains how he and his brother felt the call to do something. They are homeschooled kids, for what it’s worth. What else are they to do with their days at home once their schooling is over? If you answered “play Fortnite,” I get it. But these kids felt compelled to do something else entirely.
“I woke up [on] a Monday in September, and my mom was saying, ‘hey, ICE is in West Chicago. We have to go,'” Ben says in the TikTok. “We met up with some other patroller groups and leaders, and got connected. And then, since then, it’s been no sleep, out all the time, just trying to find these guys.”
Can we just give these boys’ mom a huge round of applause, though?
Clearly, she is raising them in a way to urge them to stand up for something they believe in and stand up for other people. The idea being Ben and Sam’s work as patrollers is to see where ICE is and film everything they see, from potential ICE raids and intimidation to victims shouting their own names for the footage.
But the boys do more than just drive around and film ICE agents. They also, according to the video, document the arrests with a rapid response unit and help families of the people who are detained by ICE agents.
In the comments under the video, users on TikTok praised the brothers for their work.
“I hope Ben and Sam get everything they want in life,” one user commented.
Another wrote, “Ben and Sam are real Americans.”
And, someone pointed out, “As a minor white kid he is pretty much the most untouchable type of person in the US justice system. Using his privilege as such rules.”
Ben explains in the video that he has, as a teenager, “been very checked into the news.” As a result, he understands, probably more than most teens, what’s going on in the world. He says he originally felt “paralyzed” in being unable to help. Tracking ICE agents and helping the families of detainees is how he and his brother both help. They kind of put some of us adults to shame to be honest, in their response to a call to action.
Can we all be a little more like Ben and Sam, please?
