Are Los Angeles's massive traffic jams gone because of the mass deportations of illegal immigrants that are under way? No, that's not true: Google Maps showed lots of red and orange on Los Angeles highways, indicating clogged traffic, during the evening rush hour on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. A map screenshot purportedly of the previous evening's rush hour included in a social media post making the claim was not timestamped. Still, a green freeway on a Monday after a major holiday is not evidence of the impact of ICE operations.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on July 7, 2025, featuring two images. The caption of the first image showing the map read:
Dear Lord. Monday evening rush hour... it's just gone.
The image in the post showing a jammed freeway from several years earlier was captioned:
Turns out the solution to LA traffic was mass deportations.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: screenshot of X.com by Lead Stories)
There is no timestamp to show when the screenshot of the Google map showing light traffic in Los Angeles was taken.
(Source: screenshot of X.com by Lead Stories)
While Monday was lighter, it could have been the result of other factors such as the first day after a major holiday weekend. This screenshot, captured Tuesday, July 8, 2025, at 5:32 p.m., is evidence that the Los Angeles evening commute regained its infamous congestion.
(Source: screenshot of Google Map by Lead Stories)
It's undeniable that Los Angeles drivers suffer through major traffic jams, but the photo of white and red ribbons of gridlock used in the post is the worst of the worst. It is an iconic image captured by a Los Angeles TV helicopter camera on the busiest evening rush hour of the year on the biggest freeway in Los Angeles -- the 405 on the eve of Thanksgiving 2016.
(Source: screenshot of X.com by Lead Stories)
There are visible signs of reduced activity in some areas of Los Angeles as a result of increased enforcement by federal immigration agencies, but Lead Stories could find no evidence that a decrease in rush hour traffic congestion was a result.
