Mainstream Media Fuels ICE Hoaxes

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.

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.