Last February, a few weeks after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president after campaigning on promises of mass deportation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a number of raids in at least six states around the country, picking up hundreds of undocumented immigrants. The raids sparked fear and panic in immigrant communities—families skipped work, stayed inside, and kept their children home from school.

They also sparked confusion. Immigration activists on the ground felt certain that they were seeing an increased level of enforcement, the first phase of Trump’s promised deportation force, while ICE insisted that the raids were “routine” and had been planned during former President Barack Obama’s tenure. On social media, rumors of random checkpoints and other unorthodox enforcement activities, which ICE described as “false, dangerous, and irresponsible,” spread like wildfire. Many of such reports turned out to be unfounded.