A hunt for ICE operations or chicken feed raids on Google give back a astonishing amount of returns . While it ’s true that internal-combustion engine has been busy since Trump took bureau , Google would have you trust that it did more than 300 binge on January 24 , 2025 , just four days after Trump admit authority . However , clicking through to the release itself often reveals a foray that took place years ago , some as far back as 2008 .
The result are most striking when you explore for a specific state . calculate at Texas , Google evidence me that “ internal-combustion engine executes Union criminal search warrant in North Texas ” on January 24 . Click through and the story is from 2019 . Another , also dated in January , say me that South Carolina will be getting extra benefits and living from ICE . Click through andit ’s from 2011 . seem for raids in Nebraska , Google tells methat ICE publish a jam acquittance about the arrest of 44 people it swept up in an operation on January 24 , 2025.It happened in 2008 .
As first reported byThe Guardianthese old stories have been pushed to the top of Google search answer , mixing with the very real stories of recent ICE raids and operations across the country . A faithful look at the older ICE press releases show that each got a small update around the 24th of January .
The New York City Fugitive Operations Team, joined by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, conducted targeted enforcement operations on 28 April 2025, resulting in the arrest of an illegal Dominican national.© ICE photo.
Sometime on that date , each story got a red - tinged banner at the top indicating it had been file away . “ In an feat to keep ICE.gov current , the archive contains subject from a premature administration or is otherwise outdated , ” the streamer says . “ This selective information is file away and not reflective of current practice . ” There ’s also a small billet at the bottom of each page that say it was update on January 24 , 2025 . Looking at the archived version of the stories on theWayback Machinereveals that the streamer and particular date were n’t present on the insistency handout on January 23rd .
That ’s all well and good , website mark old stories all the fourth dimension to indicate that they ’re honest-to-god . bond to the new banner is also a new bit of HTML on each erstwhile going . “ update : < time datetime=”2025 - 01 - 24T15:28:00 - 05:00″ title=”2025-05-03”>2025-03-07 , ” which would make Google see the stories as recently changed . Google weigh recency when it ranks stories in search event , but it ’s not the only factor nor the determining one . However , it ’s confusing to search for entropy about current Methedrine raids and see old press sack dated January 24 , 2025 , in a Google outcome , with no meter reading it ’s an old narrative .
At first flush , it take care like methamphetamine is juicing public perception by updating old stories with Modern HTML . The truth is probably stupefied . calculate at the HTML for these news report in the Wayback Machine shows that they ’ve been edit before in the same manner , on November 18 , 2024 .
Also , this happened to every single ICE press release , not just those about halt . Stories about ICE - relatedCOVID-19 protection , I-9 policies , andresponsesto old Washington Post stories are shuffle in .
I went back through the HTML of old press releases from other government websites , those that still survive . Old going from the Department of Defense have n’t been update at all . Old Department of Labor closet releases do have a streamer marked January 20 that indicates they may contain outdated information but there ’s no timestamp in the hypertext mark-up language , not even one from when they were first print . Department of Agriculture press releases , like those for the Pentagon , have n’t been neuter in any way .
Asite specific searchof www.ice.gov for “ update : 2025-04-24 ” return more than 300 solvent . Many of these are honest-to-god raids , some ten old , and now they ’re mixed in with the very real news of the current arrests and dated in Google search as if they happened four days after Trump ’s inauguration .
In some cases , these results are buried deep beneath the churn of local news . In other cases , they ’re thefirst ensue at the top of the Thomas Nelson Page . It ’s puzzling . The mix of onetime and Modern information , gratis of context , contributes to the equipment failure of the information space we ’re all feel . As Musk theme through the federal government and Trump suggests even more grand and off-the-wall policies , it ’s important to be able to reliably hunt down for current news . ICE , and Google ’s systems , have made it arduous to do that .
“ The explanation here is very straightforward : the internet site in query added an ‘ file away content ’ taproom to many of its press releases from 2024 and before ( on a variety of topics ) , which is why the dates were updated in Search , as they were on other search engine as well . Our systems are not design to boost a Thomas Nelson Page ’s ranking simply because a timestamp is updated , and when multitude do these Searches on Google , they find a range of sources including recent newsworthiness articles , ” a Google spokesperson told Gizmodo .
Donald TrumpGoogleiceSearch ResultsSEO
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , skill , and culture news in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your present tense .
Please select your desired newssheet and submit your email to elevate your inbox .
You May Also Like
