The momfluencers on the front lines of ICE takeover

Adriana Goblirsch sits in front of her camera with wet hair in bathrobe. She’s doing a “get ready with me video,” on Instagram which is common in the influencer space when, usually a woman, talks to the camera about something while she puts her makeup on and gets ready. It’s a personal approach to bring viewers into a more intimate space in an influencer’s life — it’s also an opportunity for influencers to promote and sell beauty products.

But instead of talking about her makeup, she invites people to “get ready with her” while her state, Minnesota, is under siege from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, raising awareness about what she’s seen and heard firsthand happening in her community.

“Schools are being surveilled,” she said. “There are checkpoints around pickup and drop-off.”

Daycares are being watched and U.S. citizens are being arrested, she continues. She says she needs people to hear what she’s saying because national news wasn’t covering what was happening thoroughly. As a mom of two living in Minnesota, Goblirsch first started posting motherhood content to Instagram. She had a traumatic birth and realized there was a gap between “the Instagram version of motherhood” and “the reality that most moms are living,” she told Salon.

She quit her day job as a teacher to be a stay-at-home mom and kept posting about parenting struggles, mental health, paid leave, childcare and more. But now since Minnesota has been taken over by ICE she regularly posts about what’s happening in her community and how to help. She even recently met directly with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to get answers about the investigations into the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

“I started posting more about what was happening in Minnesota because it felt irresponsible not to,” Goblirsch said. “Keeping things light or sticking to lifestyle content didn’t match the reality my kids are inheriting.”

In December 2025, the U.S. federal government started its Operation Metro Surge, in which thousands of armed and masked Department of Homeland Security agents, including those from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection stormed the Twin Cities. The surge has resulted in at least 3,000 arrests, according to the federal government. Federal immigration agents have also arrested U.S. civilian observers.

On January 7, 2026, a DHS agent shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother who was serving as a legal observer, volunteering to document and protest ICE enforcement. On Jan. 24, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse died after being shot during a federal immigration enforcement operation in south Minneapolis. The rise of mothers speaking out and protesting has led right-wing media to demonize these women. In an op-ed in Fox News, David Marcus wrote that “organized gangs of wine moms” are using “antifa tactics to harass and impede” ICE agents across the country.

Over the last couple of weeks, there has been a shift in the momfluencers space. Normally scrolling through it, one will usually find a seemingly endless stream of advice, tips and tricks that portray a very curated version of motherhood. But more content creators, like those based in Minnesota, are shifting their content to raising awareness about what’s happening in their communities regarding the presence of federal immigration agents.

Yelena Kibasova, a hockey coach and mom living in a suburb of the Twin Cities, usually posts humor content about parenting, fitness and hockey. She told Salon in a phone interview that she usually doesn’t say much about politics, but she’s been posting about what she’s seeing in Minnesota because, in her opinion, what’s happening is not “political at all.”

“If we separate this issue from politics, what you’re left with is just a suffering community,” Kibasova said. “I think that’s why a lot of moms decided that we are going to step up and speak, because we are in the headspace of protecting our communities and protecting our children.”

Kibasova said she laughed when she heard that people were saying that moms were protesting, like it was an insult.

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“We as communities have stepped up, especially moms. We’re part of mailing lists, we’re part of big, organized groups,” she said. “I have never in my life realized how organized Minnesota moms are, but we are part of these coalitions that just sprung up of collecting food for families every single week, being able to raise funds to get money to cover rent for those that have stopped going to work because they’re afraid to leave.”

Raena Boston, founder of Working Momtras, said she thinks the “dams are breaking” in the content creator space on social media where influencers can no longer ignore what’s happening in the country. In part, Boston said, because everything has been politicized and all influencers are being affected.

“Fitness is political, the way that we parent is political, the way that we eat has been politicized, everything has been politicized,” Boston said. “I think we’re at a point where you just can’t ignore it anymore. It’s not just happening to some people, it’s not happening to certain demographics — it’s happening broadly.”

For content creators who haven’t spoken up, Boston said, there’s likely going to be a point of tension between these creators and their followers.

“Where you can no longer refuse to acknowledge the real world and the things that are like impacting people’s day to day,” Boston said. “I would like to see content creators not contribute to the hyper-normalization of things that are like blatantly horrific by acknowledging them.”

It speaks to a bigger trend too, where the influencer space has become increasingly disconnected from what’s happening in everyday life. Boston said she thinks people are by and large tired of being sold to all the time.

Goblirsch said people are paying attention to who is speaking up and who isn’t speaking up. History shows, Goblirsch said, that staying silent “never protected anyone.”

“For moms especially, the line between life and politics is gone, even if our own families aren’t directly impacted in the worst ways, we know people who are, and the moment demands something more,” she said. “People are paying attention, and staying neutral or ‘business as usual’ feels impossible if you care about your community or your kids’ future. For me, I refuse to pretend these things aren’t happening.”

This is a moment for content creators “to rise” and “to speak up and act,” she said. “And in this moment, I’m noticing, we’re all noticing, who is willing to stand and who isn’t.”

The post The momfluencers on the front lines of ICE takeover appeared first on Salon.com.