This is why we can't trust the legacy media. On Monday, NBC News, on its X account, posted the breathtaking story of a young man who was in the custody of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) when he reportedly had a stroke. NBC described the stroke patient as a "North Carolina pastor" and ran with a photo of a smiling young man in a graduation gown and cap, along with an image of him with (presumably) his family. Here, have a look:
North Carolina pastor taken by ICE had a stroke in detention, family says. https://t.co/Hrdf6S7Arf
— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 10, 2026
They promptly got Community Noted, with the DHS reply to NBC linked in that note. And DHS brought, as the late Paul Harvey would have said, the rest of the story. Here, have a look:
This “North Carolina pastor” is Gabriel Johnson, a criminal illegal alien from Liberia whose lengthy rap sheet includes convictions for drug possession, fraud, mail theft, use of unauthorized access devices, false citizenship, and multiple traffic offenses, and charges for… https://t.co/5tAS8h3BF2
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 11, 2026
DHS reports:
This “North Carolina pastor” is Gabriel Johnson, a criminal illegal alien from Liberia whose lengthy rap sheet includes convictions for drug possession, fraud, mail theft, use of unauthorized access devices, false citizenship, and multiple traffic offenses, and charges for harassing communication and simple assault.
Johnson was taken to the hospital on July 30 with stroke-like symptoms and is currently being monitored for high blood pressure.
He is in stable condition.
He entered the country on December 30, 1987, on a visa that allowed him to remain in the U.S. for six months. In violation of our nation’s laws, he overstayed his visa. An immigration judge issued him a final order of removal in January 1991.
He will remain in ICE custody pending removal.
Good. He should be deported the moment he is medically cleared to travel.
Look, we keep seeing this kind of thing, where the legacy media opens up with the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth over some illegal alien who has been in the United States for years and never made the slightest effort to normalize their status. It doesn't matter a jot if Gabriel Johnson has been in the United States illegally for an hour or a decade. He is here illegally; he knowingly remained in our country illegally, and he should be repatriated. That would be true even if Johnson had not broken any other laws while here in the United States, but what makes NBC's brief and misleading report all the more egregious is that Johnson did break other laws, including for drug possession, fraud, mail theft, assault, harassing communications, and more - including false citizenship.
We have no place here, in the United States, for people like this. We have enough home-grown criminals as it is, without importing more. Furthermore, it doesn't make one iota of difference even if Johnson later cleaned up his act and is now actually a pastor, which seems doubtful. He is in the country illegally. He broke our immigration laws, and he has broken a host of other laws, and in the years he was here after his visa expired in 1988, when Ronald Reagan was president, for crying out loud, he apparently made no effort to change his immigration status.
So now, he's being sent back to Liberia. Good. That is where he should have been all along.
NBC's perfunctory X post about Gabriel Johnson is misleading and irresponsible. They should retract it, but we all know they won't.
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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