ICE List Wiki:Volunteer

Volunteering with the ICE List Wiki

The ICE List Wiki is a public-interest documentation project cataloguing ICE agents, incidents, vehicles, facilities, and enforcement agreements across the United States. Volunteers help expand and maintain this archive so it remains accurate, verifiable, and continuously updated.

This page gives a brief overview of what volunteers do, how the workflow operates, and how to join.

What Volunteers Do

Volunteers help the project in several core areas:

1. Build Incident Pages

• Use available evidence (articles, videos, social posts, legal filings) to create clear, structured incident pages.
• Extract the identifiable agents, vehicles, facilities, and locations involved.
• Cross-link the incident using existing templates on the site.

2. Build Agent Profiles

• When incidents reveal identifiable agents, volunteers help complete or expand their profile pages.
• Unnamed agents receive temporary profile pages; these should be completed using screenshots, images, or stills from the incident where they appeared.
• Redlinks for agents should only be created when an agent is actually identifiable from evidence.

3. Document Vehicles

• Create and complete vehicle pages referenced in incidents.
• Add screenshots, state information, and—when possible—rename the page to the plate_number + state format.

4. Track News and Media Sources

• When a news article or report is relevant, volunteers create a page using the news template.
• If the article references an incident, create or update the corresponding incident page.
• If the article references an agent, vehicle, or facility, ensure the correct cross-links are added.

5. Improve Existing Pages

• Some pages need cleanup, expanded summaries, source additions, or completion of infoboxes.
• Use discretion: do not create redlinks for volunteers; only create missing pages tied to agents, incidents, vehicles, or facilities.

Explaining each role

Every role below feeds the same goal: accurate, sourced, public-record documentation held to our two-source minimum. You don't need experience for most of them. You need care, consistency, and a bit of time. Pick whatever fits the hours you actually have.

OSINT

Open-source intelligence work. You take a lead and confirm it against public records, building toward our two-source minimum before anything is published. This is methodical verification, not guesswork: cross-referencing official records, public filings, and on-the-record reporting. Good fit if you enjoy puzzles and care about getting it right the first time.

Light Research

The on-ramp. Short, self-contained research tasks that don't require any prior training: confirming a single detail, chasing one public source, checking a date or a record. Ideal if you want to help but only have pockets of time, or if you're new and want to learn how we work before taking on heavier roles.

News tracking

You monitor coverage of immigration enforcement and log relevant stories into the tracker. We're building a continuous record of what's happening and where, so nothing slips past us. Steady, structured work that turns scattered headlines into something we can actually use.

Social media watch

One of our most open roles, and one we'd love to fill. If you already spend time scrolling, you can turn that into real documentation. You watch public posts, footage, and accounts for anything relevant to enforcement activity, then flag it to the team so it can be verified and preserved before it disappears. No special skills, no fixed schedule: you log what you see when you see it. It's flexible, it's immediate, and it's genuinely valuable, because a lot of what matters surfaces here first and vanishes fast. If you can spare even short, regular check-ins, this is where you make a difference quickly.

Data entry

You take verified information and enter it cleanly into the wiki using our templates. Accuracy and tidiness matter more than speed. A calm, focused role that keeps the whole archive usable.

Photography

Working with publicly available imagery, you help source, organise, and correctly attribute photographs tied to documented public records. Useful if you've got an eye for matching and sourcing visual material to the right entry.

Detailing

This is the role that makes everything else shine, and we'd love more hands on it. Detailing is where a thin, bare entry becomes a complete, well-sourced one. You go through existing records and fill the gaps: adding verified public-record detail, tightening the sourcing, fixing formatting, making sure every field is consistent and every claim is backed. It's satisfying, low-pressure work with a visible result: you can watch an entry go from sparse to solid in a single sitting. Perfect if you're detail-oriented, like steady progress, and want to contribute without needing to chase down brand-new leads yourself. You can do it in short bursts, on your own schedule, and you'll see exactly what you've improved.

Apply to Join

After applying:

1. You will receive a volunteer login.
2. Your edits will go into a review queue.
3. Once you’re comfortable with the workflow, you can take on larger tasks at your own pace.

We welcome volunteers of all backgrounds—whether you have five minutes a day or hours each week. Every contribution helps build a public resource that holds power to account.