Hoaxes about ICE ‘disappearing’ illegals are widespread, as disinformation seeps into the news

After another instance of misinformation or flat-out falsehoods regarding an illegal alien surfaced from The Morning Call, a disturbing pattern has emerged that misleads Americans and causes undue fear for immigrants, both legal and illegal, across the country.  

The article last week reported falsely that Luis Leon, an 82-year-old Chilean national living in Allentown, Pennsylvania, "disappeared" after visiting a Philadelphia immigration office in June to replace his lost green card, where he was allegedly handcuffed and taken away without explanation, officials said.

His family claimed that they were unable to locate him through immigration officials or Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) detainee database, and was falsely informed of his death, only to later learn he was in fact detained in Minnesota and then transferred to a hospital in Guatemala. 

Discrepancies emerged when the Guatemalan Institute of Migration denied receiving anyone matching Leon’s details, and a Chilean reporter, José María del Pino, claimed the real Luis Leon died in Chile in 2019, with the circulating photo belonging to another person altogether.

The narrative always runs ahead of the truth, but left-leaning media doesn't care

The Leon family’s narrative, amplified by left-leaning outlets like The Guardian and Daily Beast, included claims of a mysterious caller falsely reporting Leon’s death in ICE custody, but the family stopped communicating with the media after scrutiny.

In another hoax, Yuriana Julia “Juli” Pelaez Calderon, a 41-year-old illegal immigrant, was charged with conspiracy and making false statements for orchestrating a fake kidnapping by supposed ICE agents to scam donations and discredit federal law enforcement. 

On June 30, her family and attorneys claimed she was ambushed at a Los Angeles Jack in the Box, taken to San Ysidro, and pressured to self-deport, sparking a GoFundMe campaign that raised $80 before being shut down. The family and their attorneys held press conferences, where their claims were eagerly repeated by local media. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied the kidnapping claims, and surveillance footage and phone records confirmed the story was a hoax, showing Calderon freely leaving the restaurant. 

DHS criticized politicians and media for amplifying the false narrative, which diverted resources from legitimate enforcement efforts. Calderon faces up to five years in prison per charge if convicted, with potential additional charges for others involved.

Social media's appetite for disinformation

In another disturbing incident of disinformation, in a TikTok post with over 800,000 views, a woman says, "They're throwing the deportees out of the planes and into the ocean. [...] they're shackling people, flying out into open ocean and throwing them out. The flight patterns, there is people tracking them on this app, the flights going out with the deportees. Watching them go out to the open ocean and circle back. A family in Italy saw five shackled bodies wash up on the shore." 

These claims have surged on social media since the original posting, and got millions of views before others posted comments noting that the claims were wholly unsubstantiated.

Historians argue about whether the adage was coined by Mark Twain or not, but it is oft-repeated that "a lie will fly around the whole world while the truth is getting its boots on."