On a rural stretch of Texas 21, Limon Verde’s silver car skirted across the lane of incoming traffic onto a gravel driveway, beginning a rushed three-point turn. An unmarked gray GMC Terrain was driving the opposite way. In pursuit, Limon pulled his mask over the lower half of his face and tapped his phone to start a livestream. He veered between westbound lanes, passing trucks and vans until he found the GMC stopped at a red light. Through the opaque tint of the GMC’s driver-side window, he could make out two figures.
He cursed at them repeatedly. Then he pulled alongside the two trucks ahead of the GMC and warned the dark-skinned drivers inside, each in bright neon work shirts.
Limon can still remember the moment on Christmas Day last year when he left his partner and daughters watching a movie in the living room and rushed out after a tip about DPS troopers and ICE activity along a Bastrop County highway. He carried with him memories of his mother fearing police during the years she lacked legal status. He imagined his daughters growing up without him.
By livestreaming and publishing videos of immigration enforcement sightings to more than 85,000 Facebook followers, Limon has become part activist, part citizen journalist and part warning system for immigrants across Central Texas during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Followers send him tips about ICE and Texas Department of Public Safety activity, and Limon races to the scenes himself, documenting arrests and warning drivers at risk of detention. His videos, in turn, shape where and when some immigrants drive and sometimes provide crucial information during the terrifying moments of a loved one’s detention.
Limon is one of a rising class of independent social media personalities tracking ICE and collaborating agencies like DPS, filling gaps left by shrinking local Spanish-language media outlets. But unlike many others, Limon doesn't just repost videos. He spends entire mornings and evenings chasing leads himself, trying to catch troopers and federal immigration agents in the act.
Since the end of last year, “there has not been a day I have not touched my phone,” Limon said.
“If I sleep in, that’s one less family that might not make it home,” he tells himself.
Limon’s story reflects a growing dissatisfaction among many Hispanic Texans over aggressive immigration enforcement tactics some believe are unfairly targeting their community, including U.S. citizens and immigrants with legal status. Out of this crumbling relationship has emerged Limon.