‘Team Pepsi’: Rumors of Coca-Cola calling ICE on their workers ignites Latino boycott
A 2025 Coke boycott was launched across Latino communities over rumors that Coca-Cola called ICE on its employees and fired others. Pro-immigrant social media users are now working to educate people on which products the company owns and suggesting alternatives, especially Pepsi, as former customers accuse Coke of "betrayal."
The boycott began over Coca-Cola's support of President Donald Trump, who briefly imposed heavy tariffs on Mexican products and has pushed for an increase in the arrest and deportation of immigrants.
It's unclear if the rumors of firings and Coke reporting its workers to ICE are true, but that hasn't stopped some Latino communities across social media from calling for a Coca-Cola boycott.
Coke boycott and the 2025 Freeze Latino Movement
Early in February, Latino communities and social media users began to list companies that have supported Trump via campaign donations, ending DEI programs, or anything else that signals approval and call for boycotts in what they call the "Freeze Latino Movement."
These companies include Starbucks, McDonald's, Walmart, Amazon, Costco, and Coca-Cola, among others.
According to Open Secrets, a database that tracks corporate political donations, Coca-Cola donated $14,717 to Trump and $50,000 to Make America Great Again Inc. in 2024, plus $51,463 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In the same year, it gave $87,246 to former Vice President Kamala Harris. According to the data, they've been greasing both blue and red wheels pretty equally since 1990.
But with Trump's aggressive anti-immigrant and anti-DEI actions, any support was enough to begin boycott calls. These accelerated against Coke when rumors spread that a plant in Texas had fired Latino workers—over a thousand according to food and beverage outlet Mui Kitchen—and even reported some to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
A new trend on TikTok and Instagram is all about showing grocery store shelves stocked full of Coke products and comparing them to emptier Pepsi sections while commenters declare their intentions to boycott en masse.
Did Coca-Cola call ICE on its employees?
So far, the idea that the company reported its workers to ICE for arrest remains an unconfirmed rumor. It's been circulating on social media platforms for days, but Coca-Cola has yet to respond and no one has come forward to confirm that they were fired or arrested at a bottling plant.
The company might want to act fast, as the rumors have spread from TikTok to Instagram to X to Reddit and beyond, and Pepsi has been gaining new followers by the thousands as former Coke fans announce their intention to switch.
"So, allegedly Coke fired some immigrants AND called ICE on them and now they're being boycotted from America to Mexico and even Ireland," reports X user @mamachell. "And I remember learning that during segregation it was PEPSI who advertised to black ppl & had them in their ads."
"Team Pepsi," declared @Tropicxs_media. "A Latino boycott began to stop consuming Coca-Cola for not defending its employees in deportations, unlike Pepsi, which is doing so."
Did Coca-Cola cut ties with Taylor Swift?
The new boycott is dredging up an old rumor that Coke broke up with Taylor Swift over her endorsement of Harris in September 2024. Fact-checkers confirmed this was false after they traced the idea back to a satirical Facebook page called "SpaceX Fanclub."
According to PolitiFact, the page claimed that Coca-Cola had dropped Swift because her endorsement "clashes with the brand’s values of ‘unity and neutrality.'" This statement raised suspicions among those aware that celebrities often endorse political candidates and any company would be extremely foolish to activate the Swifties.
@thecasualbrian Is Coca Cola calling ICE on its employees! What do you think about this? #cocacola #taylorswift #boycott #fyp ♬ original sound - Brian casually watches anime
Unfortunately for Coke, some social accounts are still spreading the old, debunked headlines as fact alongside the new rumors, increasing consumer ire against them.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.
The post ‘Team Pepsi’: Rumors of Coca-Cola calling ICE on their workers ignites Latino boycott appeared first on The Daily Dot.