A TikTok from comedian Ben Palmer (@palmertrolls) showed how easily suspicion can slide into cruelty.
In the video, which has been viewed nearly 11 million times in 2 days, Palmer poses as the operator of a fake hotline to "report" undocumented immigrants, fielding calls from people who believe it's real.
One call, from a woman who identified herself as a kindergarten teacher, quickly escalated into a discussion about deporting a child’s parents, even after acknowledging the child was a U.S. citizen.
The anonymous woman quickly framed her concern as a civic duty, claiming, "They seem like nice people or whatever."
"I’m just saying, they’re taking resources from our county, I’m not into illegal people being here," she said.
Palmer told the caller that the couple’s child was born in New York, which made him a U.S. citizen. The teacher acknowledged this fact.
Then, Palmer asked if the plan involved deporting the parents and leaving the child. "Right," she said, before hedging, claiming she did not know their immigration status. Instead, she called their presence in her community "odd."
When Palmer pressed her, she explained why. She worked at a school, she said, and knew "the whole law about schools."
Meanwhile, she admitted she had checked school files, which breaks FERPA. "I was like, 'Oh, she was born in Honduras, and he’s born in El Salvador,'" she said. "So right there, it’s like, okay, maybe I’m on the right path."
Palmer confirmed the child attended her school, then he asked the obvious question. "Okay, so now you want to get his parents deported?" She deflected again. However, she repeated that she opposed "illegal people being here."
As the call went on, Palmer summarized her statements out loud, which made the teacher bristle because of the phrasing that she herself had used. When he noted the child’s age, she laughed nervously.
"You make it sound terrible," she said, after Palmer said he wrote down, "Teaches at school, wants kindergarten child’s parents deported."
Later, Palmer called back. He said the family was documented. "Oh, good," she replied, sounding flat. Then Palmer joked, "That little fella could have been a threat to our national security." The teacher accused him of sarcasm and demanded to speak to a supervisor.
The internet called out the teacher for her actions
Palmer pretended to loop in a supervisor, to whom the teacher complained that Palmer made her look heartless. "He’s acting like it’s like I’m this terrible person," she said, recalling the comment about a six-year-old being a national threat.
Commenters, for the most part, were disgusted with the casual cruelty with which the teacher discussed the deportation of her students' parents.
Afterward, the video spread to Reddit. Commenters both there and on TikTok focused on her lack of empathy and her access to records.
"There’s some genuinely evil people out there," wrote u/SugarCanDee. u/DrFranFine added, "The genuine lack of empathy and dehumanization […] might be the scariest thing."
Meanwhile, on TikTok, one user wrote, "He didn’t even sound sarcastic. She just felt guilty." Others flagged possible legal issues. "This is absolutely a FERPA violation," one commenter said. Another added, "She would have reported Anne Frank." Even musician FINNEAS saw the video and shared his disgust.
One comment explained the mental disconnect. "'You make it sound terrible' GIRL HE’S QUOTING YOU," they wrote.
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