Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem called out NBC on Wednesday during Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” after NBC falsely claimed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained a 5-year-old autistic girl in Massachusetts to pressure her illegal immigrant father to turn himself in.
NBC originally ran the story Tuesday under the headline,”ICE held 5-year-old autistic girl in Massachusetts to pressure father to surrender, family says,” but later updated it with a correction. Fox’s Laura Ingraham highlighted the repeated labeling of ICE by Democrats and asked Noem to respond to the corrected report. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Trump Administration Claims NYT Report On Migrant Children Has More Holes Than Swiss Cheese)
“What they [NBC] did was absolutely lie to the American public. What happened in that situation with that autistic little girl is that her father was a criminal. He was a criminal who had endangered children in the past, and then he abandoned her in the vehicle and ran off to protect his own freedom and abandoned his daughter behind. So those officers protected that little girl,” Noem said.
According to NBC, the outlet obtained video from Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra showing ICE agents near a 5-year-old girl. The child’s mother told Telemundo that her husband Edward Hip Mejia called her while driving with the girl, saying he believed he was being followed.
When he arrived home, Mejia’s wife said he “managed to run back into the parking lot of my house,” leaving the child behind. After initially publishing the headline, NBC updated it to: “Video shows ICE with 5-year-old girl while agents attempt to arrest her father,” adding a correction at the bottom stating, “An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the activities of ICE agents in the video. The article has been updated.”
Noem added that the DHS has repeatedly issued press statements responding to false reports from legacy media, criticizing the networks for being “sold out for a lawless country.”
“Then we have MSNBC lying about the story, using it to try to demonize these officers who were the ones who stood beside that little girl when her father ran away to protect himself,” Noem said. “So those stories — I think the Department of Homeland Security has to put out five or six press releases a day just saying, ‘This report, this article that you read is absolutely false. This did not happen. We did not deport U.S. citizens. We did not separate children from their families. No, this individual was arrested because they murdered somebody.'”
“Over and over and over again, we have to keep putting out press releases just to make sure that people know the truth. The problem is that these networks are so sold out for a lawless country and a borderless country, and they’re so opposed to President Trump and what he’s trying to do to help America be successful and free and safe again, that they will do anything,” Noem added. “So, what we’re going to do is continue to be strong. We’re going to continue to enforce the law. We’re going to hire more law enforcement officers, and we’re going to bring peace to our streets.”
Trump administration officials, including border czar Tom Homan and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, have criticized Democrats for their rhetoric against ICE agents. Some, like Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have labeled ICE a “modern-day Gestapo,” while Democrat Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett compared ICE agents to “slave patrols.”
Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has also pushed back against the administration’s efforts, creating a video in January advising illegal migrants how to handle encounters with ICE officers at home or work.
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