DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin separates fact from fiction on stories about ICE, arrests

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin on Monday countered some recent news stories that have angered the left, including allegations that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers used pepper spray on children. 

McLaughlin has been working hard to counter some of the claims that legacy and left-leaning media outlets have reported since the Trump administration took office in January, which have resulted in an 8,000% increase in death threats on ICE officers, per DHS.

The assistant secretary highlighted reports in Los Angeles and Chicago, where stories claimed federal agents kidnapped children, when the parents were allegedly attacking immigration officers and federal law enforcement officers were allegedly taking the children out of dangerous situations instead. Other news stories claimed that ICE agents used pepper spray on children, and "abducted" illegal immigrants from courthouses where they were allegedly attending immigration hearings.

Lies in Los Angeles, chicanery in Chicago

One such case in Los Angeles saw reports that an ICE officer allegedly took a child from her parents and allegedly gave her to relatives with a rash, bruise and dirty diaper.

McLaughlin said that what actually happened was a U.S. citizen wielded a hammer at law enforcement and threw rocks at law enforcement while he had a child in his car. He also illegally had a gun.

"These are just continuous smears against our law enforcement, and that's what really gets our blood boiling, is that we continually have the sanctuary city politicians, the media, going after our law enforcement as they're facing a historic number of assaults against them," McLaughlin said on the "John Solomon Reports" Podcast.  

Another case from Chicago claimed that ICE officers used pepper spray on a child in a Sam's Club parking lot, which McLaughlin denied and claimed people had attacked the federal officers instead.

"Here are the FACTS: During an operation, rioters began throwing objects at agents and blocking the road," DHS said in a statement. "This did NOT occur in a Sam’s Club parking lot. Border Patrol deployed crowd control measures, and safely cleared the area. When rioters impede law enforcement operations they are putting officers, themselves, and others in danger."

DHS condemns state officials who encourage attacks on ICE agents

The assistant secretary also condemned Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for peddling "lies" about the child and their parents, and Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker for being silent on the wave of attacks against immigration officers.

"Where is Brandon Johnson, the mayor of Chicago?" McLaughlin said. "Where is JB Pritzker, the governor condemning this? Why is it that we see time and time again when there's violence against law enforcement, either the sanctuary city politicians like Pritzker either make excuses for it or fall completely silent. When did the Democrat Party become a party that was okay with assault and attack on law enforcement? Where do they go so wrong?"

After a Dallas, Texas ICE facility was the subject of an armed attack in September of this year, the White House issued a statement calling out the politicians — mostly far-left — titled, "Democrats’ Unhinged Crusade Against ICE Fuels Bloodshed." 

The statement claims that "Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., smeared ICE as the 'modern-day Gestapo,' Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called ICE agents 'deranged,' accused them of 'kidnapping,' and said 'resistance' to ICE is 'inspiring.'”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass went as far as telling citizens that ICE “kidnapped” a woman on her way to work. It turned out, according to the Washington Free Beacon, that Bass fell for "an elaborate hoax" perpetrated by an illegal immigrant who sought to "generate public sympathy and solicit donations" by falsely claiming to have been kidnapped by masked ICE agents.

On July 1, Bass touted the claims of Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, a 41-year-old Mexican national whose family claimed she was abducted in a Jack in the Box parking lot on her way to work days earlier. At a press conference on June 30, Calderon’s family said "she was taken … to the border and pressured to sign self-deportation paperwork." She was later charged by federal prosecutors with conspiracy and making false statements to federal officers. Calderon pleaded not guilty.

Dems silent when ICE agents threatened or attacked

McLaughlin noted that the silence from Democratic officials is particularly noticeable given the increase in doxxing of federal agents and the bounties that have supposedly been placed on the heads of federal law enforcement.

"They're being stalked where their children go to school. Where their spouses work are being put on the dark web so that they can be targeted," she said. "That is just staggering. The fact that these Democrat politicians [are silent]. They have foreign terrorist organizations putting targets on our law enforcement's heads, and yet you hear nothing from the likes of JB Pritzker or mayor Brandon Johnson. That should not be a partisan issue, that should be an American issue, to back our law enforcement and protect them against foreign terrorists."

The assistant secretary indicated that despite the misinformation from liberal and mainstream media that is injected into the narrative via social media, one area that is improving is the support and approval ratings for DHS and federal immigration officers. 

"President Trump has finally allowed our law enforcement agents to do their job, to actually enforce the rules that Congress passed, and that's what the American people mandated in the election of 2024," she said.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.