TXT's Soobin allegedly gets reported to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in fan war

Fights and rivalries between K-pop fandoms happen often and can get rather feisty.

However, some fans took it too far when they claimed to have reported Soobin, the leader of K-pop boy group Tomorrow X Together (TXT), to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), claiming he was an "illegal immigrant".

The 24-year-old South Korean, together with Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Taehyun and HueningKai, is currently touring the US as part of the group's fourth world tour, Act: Tomorrow, which kicked off in August.

An alleged fan of another K-pop boy group shared their report to ICE in an X post on Tuesday (Sept 9) captioned: "Enjoy your concert @soobin".

A few hours later, an alleged fan of a different K-pop boy group posted a separate report made to ICE on X.

One of the photos showed a screenshot of the supposed report and the caption read: "Got word that Soobin from TXT was in California. Let's just say... the situation will be dealt with accordingly."

It's not known if the reports were indeed submitted to ICE.

Netizens were appalled by the posts and many condemned their actions.

One netizen wrote: "Y'all are so weird and disgusting. It was never that f***ing serious and I hope people who are doing this get help because why are we bringing fan wars into real life-threatening events?"

"So what we're not going to do is turn a literal hate crime into a petty fan war. That's a deranged individual that has issues completely separate from what dancing and singing men they're a fan of," said another.

Two months ago, Lara Raj from global girl group Katseye was also allegedly reported to ICE by a netizen. The report allegedly stated Lara was an "illegal alien in LA" and that she "has not obtained the necessary visa or legal status required to remain in the US". 

The 19-year-old was born in the US and is an American.

On Sept 4, ICE conducted an immigration raid at a Hyundai facility in Georgia which saw the arrest of over 300 South Koreans. The incident has since strained relations between the the two countries.

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esther.lam@asiaone.com