TikTok Influencer Who Ran ICE Raid Alert Network Just Got Deported to Colombia

The Trump administration just sent a loud message to illegal aliens using social media to obstruct immigration enforcement.

And one TikTok influencer who thought she could sabotage ICE raids learned a brutal lesson about playing games with federal agents.

Now Tatiana Mafla-Martinez is back in Colombia wondering if building an empire on helping criminals escape justice was worth it.

TikTok Activist Built Network to Sabotage Immigration Enforcement

ICE confirmed the deportation last week of 24-year-old Colombian national Leidy Tatiana Mafla-Martinez — the illegal alien TikTok influencer who’d been running what amounted to an early warning system for immigration raids across Southern California.¹

Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin announced Mafla-Martinez was deported to Colombia after her unsuccessful legal battle to remain in the United States.² The influencer, posting under the handle tatianamartinez_02, had amassed more than 48,000 followers by documenting ICE operations and alerting her audience whenever federal agents were conducting enforcement actions in Los Angeles and surrounding areas.³

The entire operation was designed to help illegal aliens evade arrest by federal authorities.

ICE arrested Mafla-Martinez on August 15 during a dramatic scene that was captured on video while she was livestreaming to her thousands of followers.⁴ The footage shows federal agents pulling her from her Tesla as she screamed at officers in Spanish. The arrest went viral on social media, with the influencer’s attorney immediately claiming she was being targeted for her online activism.

But federal officials tell a different story about why Mafla-Martinez ended up in handcuffs.

"On August 15, ICE arrested Leidy Tatiana Mafla-Martinez, a criminal illegal alien from Colombia who was convicted for driving under the influence in Los Angeles," McLaughlin explained to Newsweek. "This criminal illegal alien entered the country in 2022 and was RELEASED by the Biden administration."⁵

The Biden administration’s catch-and-release policies created this mess in the first place. Mafla-Martinez waltzed into the country in 2022, picked up a DUI conviction, and then built a TikTok empire helping other illegal aliens dodge federal law enforcement — all while living in the United States illegally.

Her arrest scene turned into something out of a crime drama when another illegal alien attempted to interfere with the federal operation.

Illegal Alien Tow Truck Driver Faces Decade in Prison for Stealing ICE Vehicle

Bobby Nunez, an illegal alien tow truck driver, allegedly towed away an ICE patrol vehicle during Mafla-Martinez’s arrest.⁶ Federal agents were using the vehicle for the enforcement operation when Nunez decided to take matters into his own hands.

The stunt backfired spectacularly.

Nunez was arrested in early September and now faces federal charges for theft of government property.⁷ According to United States Attorney Bill Essalyi, Nunez is looking at up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted on the charges.⁸

The chaos surrounding Mafla-Martinez’s arrest shows exactly what ICE agents face on the ground in California’s sanctuary cities. Professional activists filming operations, crowds gathering to obstruct enforcement, and now illegal aliens literally stealing government vehicles to interfere with federal law enforcement.

Mafla-Martinez tried every legal trick in the book to avoid deportation.

Immigration attorney Carlos Jurado of The Jurado Firm in Long Beach represented her in the deportation case that ultimately failed.⁹ Jurado argued to ABC7 Eyewitness News that his client was being targeted specifically because of her social media activism. "We believe, at this point, based on things that have been said to her, is that, because she was out filming ICE activities, she was targeted," Jurado claimed at the time.¹⁰

The First Amendment protects free speech, but it doesn’t protect illegal aliens from deportation or give them a license to build networks specifically designed to help criminals evade federal law enforcement.

Mafla-Martinez was held in an ICE facility in Southern California until last week when she was deported to Colombia.¹¹

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Trump’s Deportation Machine Sends Clear Message About Obstruction

The timing of Mafla-Martinez’s deportation is no accident.

The Trump administration has been crystal clear since day one about its immigration enforcement priorities — remove illegal aliens, especially those who’ve committed additional crimes or actively work to undermine federal law enforcement.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin made the administration’s position crystal clear when discussing the case: "Secretary [Kristi] Noem has been clear: Anyone who seeks to impede law enforcement will be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."¹²

That’s not an idle threat — it’s official policy from the top.

The administration has ramped up arrests dramatically since Trump returned to office. By August 2025, ICE had deported nearly 200,000 people in seven months, according to CNN reporting.¹³ Internal data shows agents are conducting operations that would have been unthinkable under Biden — schools, churches, farms, and businesses are all fair game now for immigration enforcement.

The social media influencer game has evolved rapidly as Trump’s deportation machine kicked into high gear. When the administration announced mass deportations would begin in earnest after the inauguration, TikTok became ground zero for an underground network of activists working to sabotage federal immigration enforcement.

Creators with tens of thousands of followers started posting real-time raid alerts, using code words like "cute winter boots" and "icy roads" to evade content moderation while warning illegal aliens about ICE operations.¹⁴ Some built sophisticated crowdsourced mapping systems using Google Forms to track ICE agent sightings.¹⁵

Apps like ICEBlock emerged, designed as "early warning systems" to send push alerts when ICE agents are spotted within a five-mile radius.¹⁶

The goal is obvious — use technology and social media networks to undermine immigration enforcement by helping illegal aliens avoid arrest.

DHS has warned that ICE agents are facing a nearly 1000% increase in assaults against them.¹⁷ Whether it’s crowds throwing rocks at federal agents in Los Angeles or tow truck drivers stealing government vehicles, the obstruction has become organized and systematic.

Mafla-Martinez’s deportation sends a powerful message to the influencers and activists still running these networks. The Trump administration isn’t interested in debate about whether posting raid alerts crosses legal lines — they’re arresting the activists and deporting them.

The legal precedent is clear that warning people about law enforcement activity generally falls under First Amendment protection. But that calculus changes when you’re not an American citizen exercising free speech rights — you’re an illegal alien with a criminal record helping other criminals evade federal law enforcement.

Mafla-Martinez found out the hard way that building a TikTok empire on sabotaging immigration enforcement comes with consequences when you’re in the country illegally. Her 48,000 followers can’t save her from a deportation flight back to Colombia.

The really interesting part is what happens next with the hundreds of other influencers still running similar operations across social media platforms. If ICE starts working down the list of illegal aliens who’ve built followings by posting raid alerts and helping criminals evade arrest, this could be just the beginning of a much larger enforcement action targeting the social media obstruction network.

For illegal aliens thinking about starting TikTok channels to document ICE operations — Mafla-Martinez’s one-way ticket to Colombia should be all the warning they need about how that story ends.

¹ Randy Clark, "Criminal Alien TikTok Influencer Who Posted ICE Raid Alerts Deported to Colombia," Breitbart, October 16, 2025.

² Ibid.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Ariel Zilber, "ICE Arrests Influencer Tatiana Martinez During Live Stream," Newsweek, August 18, 2025.

⁶ Randy Clark, "Criminal Alien TikTok Influencer Who Posted ICE Raid Alerts Deported to Colombia," Breitbart, October 16, 2025.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Ibid.

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ Ibid.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² Ariel Zilber, "ICE Arrests Influencer Tatiana Martinez During Live Stream," Newsweek, August 18, 2025.

¹³ "Deportation in the second Trump administration," Wikipedia, October 16, 2025.

¹⁴ Justine Coleman, "People are using TikTok to track ICE raids," Axios Richmond, January 30, 2025.

¹⁵ "How a TikTok Post Sparked a Nationwide ICE Raid Tracking Movement," Jeelani Law Firm, July 17, 2025.

¹⁶ Clare Duffy, "ICEBlock: This iPhone app alerts users to nearby ICE sightings," CNN Business, June 30, 2025.

¹⁷ Jake Bleiberg, "Icy roads ahead: The creative — and controversial — ways people are warning of immigration raids," CNN, August 10, 2025.