Ripped from the headlines is this heartbreaking tale by NBC News of a nursing mother who was swept up by ICE during the execution of a warrant.
Cue the outrage by the anti-ICE and pro-open borders activists. At least 10 other media outlets had some variation of this headline, and none of them mentioned that 1) the "asylum seeker" and nursing mother is in the country illegally, and 2) she has charges against her for falsifying U.S. citizenship.
Granted, that's a lot to include in a headline, but still...
NBC's coverage is crafted to tug at the heart strings:
A nursing mother and Guatemalan asylum-seeker who was preparing to take her two young children to the doctor was arrested by ICE in Tennessee and is now being detained nearly 700 miles away from her family, according to advocacy groups that filed a civil rights complaint on her behalf.
The woman, who is referred to by the pseudonym Maria Pérez, fled “extreme domestic violence” in Guatemala and was seeking asylum in the U.S. when she was arrested in Nashville in May, said Katie Blankenship, the founder and managing attorney of Sanctuary of the South, an immigration and LGBTQ civil rights cooperative. Pérez is using a pseudonym out of fear of immigration retaliation.
Fear of immigration retaliation? What exactly does that mean? Will the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spend time hunting down the wife-beating Guatemalan husband? This is nonsense.
Pérez has a 10-month-old baby, whom she had been nursing when she was arrested, and a 2-year-old with Down syndrome. She does not have a criminal history, advocates said.
“A mother getting her children into car seats to go to a doctor’s appointment is just ripped away from her children,” she said. “It’s just living an absolute nightmare. It’s a mother’s worst fear.”
The advocacy group, along with the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, filed a complaint calling for Pérez’s immediate release with the Depart (sic) of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General and other agencies Wednesday. The complaint is supported by the ACLU of Louisiana, the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center and Amnesty International.
Since pe’s (sic) detention, “her daughters have been in the care of a neighbor, as the family has no other support network in the area,” according to the complaint.
Notice the laundry list of human rights organizations on this one case? Not exactly an organic occurrence; almost as though they were on speed dial in the event this would happen.
Of course, buried several paragraphs down, the writer lets us know that U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) was there to arrest Pérez's baby daddy, who had a federal criminal warrant against him. As the baby mama, Pérez was discovered to also be in the country illegally, so as Border Czar Tom Homan has consistently asserted, because she wasn't in the country legally, she was swept up and detained.
From the beginning of his appointment by President Donald Trump, in every interview, Homan reiterates that while the immigration enforcement plan prioritizes the pursuit of the worst illegals first, if other non-criminal illegals are in the company of said criminals, they get to come too.
Here is Homan in January 2025:
WATCH:
Boom! Tom Homan announces that ICE has already arrested 308 violent criminal illegals. Homan is targeting the "worst first" but if you're in the country illegally, you are eligible for deportation. Leave now. pic.twitter.com/jVlzVlIa0H
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 22, 2025
And January 2026:
WATCH:
🚨TOM HOMAN CONFIRMS FULL IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT.
— Red Eagle Updates 🦅🇺🇸 (@RedEagleUpdates) July 29, 2026
Border Czar Tom Homan reaffirmed the administration's uncompromising stance, making it clear that federal agents will enforce mass deportation orders for anyone encountered without legal status.
"If you're in the country… pic.twitter.com/GEqzHXd84K
So, these charges that ICE is not following its own regulations continue to fall flat. These human rights and immigration advocates know full well what time it is; they simply want to push the envelope.
Also buried at the bottom of the article is the fact that Pérez was detained at the Southern border in 2022, then released into the U.S., never to be seen again. The reporter clearly didn't want to discuss who was president during that time period, or the fact that instead of trying to get her life in order, Perez made false claims of U.S. citizenship, then shacked up with an alleged criminal and had what appears to be two babies in the space of four years, compounding her legal troubles.
Fox News Congressional Correspondent Bill Melugin made note of the discrepancies in NBC's coverage and detailed the reality of Pérez's situation:
What's buried in the story and not included in this headline:
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 31, 2026
- She entered the U.S. illegally.
- She previously faced federal charges for falsely claiming U.S. citizenship.
- She was detained while a federal warrant was being served at her home (targeting her husband who is… https://t.co/NdovS2wMKV
What's buried in the story and not included in this headline:
- She entered the U.S. illegally.
- She previously faced federal charges for falsely claiming U.S. citizenship.
- She was detained while a federal warrant was being served at her home (targeting her husband who is facing federal charges).
NBC also made a convoluted mish-mash of the DHS statement for the sole purpose of diluting the facts and blunting DHS' directness. One local outlet did the work of journalism, printing the un-editorialized DHS statement.
But DHS told FOX 17 News that there's more to the story.
The agency said, "On May 19, ICE detained a criminal illegal alien from Guatemala while serving a federal warrant at her residence in Nashville, TN. The illegal alien, with previous charges for falsely claiming US citizenship, chose to leave her two children with an adult at the home."
They could not provide details as to what the federal warrant was because they said it's tied to an investigation.
DHS also told FOX 17 News the woman entered the country illegally on May 18th, 2022, through the southern border and was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
"Under the Biden Administration, she was released into the country, completely unvetted," said DHS.
The agency argues they are following protocol.
“Pregnant and nursing women in ICE detention are exceedingly rare. When this occurs, the women receive regular prenatal visits, mental health services, nutritional support, and accommodations aligned with community standards of care. This includes medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to necessary medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. This is the best healthcare many of these individuals have received in their entire lives," said DHS in a statement
One can also make a case on why Pérez was still breast-feeding a 10-month-old baby, but that's a discussion for another time.
Pérez's attorneys have filed a habeas corpus petition in Louisiana district court, to request Pérez's release. But the die has been cast: activists are working hard to use this case to ramp up a fresh wave of ICE outrage from the usual corners and gin up sympathy for their cause.
Editor’s Note: Democrats continue to put our nation's national security at risk simply because they want to keep illegal aliens from being deported.
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