Domestic Violence Arrest Smacks Down Anti-ICE Hunger Strike Story

Sometimes it's interesting to watch a narrative collapse in real time.

Case in point: Martin Soto is a Peruvian national who is in the United States illegally. He's now in the custody of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and is being held in New Jersey's Delany Hall ICE detention center. His wife, Gabriela Soto, claims that Martin was "kidnapped" by ICE while he was buying diapers, sparking protests and, supposedly, a hunger strike. There's just one problem with the "kidnapping" story: It's utterly false. A Daily Wire exclusive story broke the truth on Friday.

The illegal immigrant who claimed to have been nabbed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while buying diapers — and whose sob story fueled an anti-ICE hunger strike in a detention center — was actually taken into ICE custody after being arrested for a violent domestic assault, The Daily Wire has learned.
Gabriela Soto claimed that her husband, Martin Soto, 31, of Peru, “was abducted” by ICE and that he was “a loving father, husband, son, church member, worker” when he was taken to Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility. Media outlets ran with the story as the hunger strike carried on, leading to weeks of violent riots outside the facility.

Here's where Gabriela Soto's story goes badly wrong:

But a police report and sources who spoke with The Daily Wire tell a very different story.
Martin Soto “purposely” caused “bodily injury” to an unnamed female victim “specifically by using his hands, both opened and closed to strike” her “in her face, causing minor scratches and cuts to her face and neck,” a copy of the police report obtained by the Oversight Project and shared with The Daily Wire reads.
Soto then allegedly “placed a hand over” her “mouth so she could not scream for help,” according to the report.

This is a guy that the anti-ICE protestors and Democrats want to keep in the country? Seems to me he should be sent back to Peru with a size 11EE speed-boost in the posterior, and we should be glad to be rid of him.

Rhode Island Democrat Issues ‘Reckoning’ Threat to ICE, Gets an Earful in Return

Here's what really happened:

Martin Soto crossed the Arizona border illegally in January 2024 and was processed to be deported immediately under what’s known as expedited removal, law enforcement sources told The Daily Wire. He was allowed to stay after he presented a fear of returning to his home country and was released from custody by April 2024.
Police in Kearny, New Jersey, arrested Soto on February 1, 2026, for simple assault stemming from a domestic violence incident, according to records obtained by The Daily Wire. ICE officers paid a visit to the Hudson County Correctional Center on February 2, whereupon they swiftly took Soto into custody.

In summary, Martin Soto attempted to sneak into the United States, but got caught. However, under the Biden administration's permissive border policies, he knew which phrases to use - that he was afraid to return to his home country - and was allowed to stay in the United States, no questions asked. He was arrested for physically abusing an unnamed woman, not by ICE, but by local law enforcement in Kearny, New Jersey, who handed him over to ICE. ICE did not arrest him while buying diapers or while buying anything else; no, Martin Soto was arrested on domestic violence charges and was later handed over to ICE when his immigration status (illegal alien) was determined. That's how this should work.

And, honestly, the faster he gets sent back to Peru, the better. Martin Soto has nothing to offer the United States.

But now we have protests based on the tale of a loving father being nabbed while buying diapers. That's an utter lie, but it's still being repeated. And it will, no doubt, go on being repeated. That's how these people operate; they are never ones to let the truth get in the way of a good narrative.

The truth here is that Martin Soto should be sent back to Peru, and the sooner, the better.

Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.

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