“When the legend becomes fact…print the legend.” Those words from an editor to a young reporter in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” still appear to be the modus operandi of the media. That was demonstrated this week with the legend of Luis Leon after The Morning Call in Allentown, PA, printed yet another harrowing account of ICE agents “disappearing” an immigrant. According to a story quickly picked up by other eager outlets, the 82-year-old grandfather, a legal asylum holder, was roughed up and then deported to Guatemala. The problem is that there appears to be no proof supporting the story of the “family members” cited by the reporter.
According to The Morning Call, Luis Leon, a Chilean national, was trying to replace his lost green card at a local USCIS office when he was suddenly deported to the wrong country, Guatemala, and he ended up in a hospital with pneumonia. The story further recounted how Leon’s wife was kept in custody in brutal conditions for 10 hours before she was released.
Media, including The Guardian, eagerly picked up the story of another “disappearing” of an immigrant. As the story went viral, a few people decided actually to look into the case and found that it not only made no sense but there is no evidence of such a deportation. For its part, The Morning Call changed key facts but did not withdraw the story as a hoax.
Guatemala states that there is no record of Leon entering the country. While the granddaughter claimed he was sick in a Guatemalan hospital with pneumonia, a doctor at the hospital claimed that there is no record of him being there. At the same time, Chilean authorities are saying that a man with the name Luis Leon with the same birth date as the Luis Leon died in their country in 2019.
Then the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) became involved and stated that there was no record of any such arrest or deportation. It also mentioned that there was no green card appointment in Philadelphia or arrest at the location cited by the family. It clarified that the only record of this man is from 2015 under a waiver program, not an asylum program, as alleged.
Chilean journalist Jose Del Pino confirmed that there is no record to support the U.S. media’s claims and that a man by the same name and date of birth died in Santiago, Chile, in 2019.
Nevertheless, The Morning Call continued to run claims by “Nataly,” the supposed granddaughter.
The DHS issued a statement slamming the media for another hoax without a modicum of effort to confirm the facts:
The Morning Call, an Allentown, Pennsylvania, newspaper published the following headline on July 20, 2025, without any facts from DHS about major allegations made against law enforcement:
The family of the individual allegedly told reporters he was handcuffed and taken by federal officers at a green card appointment in Philadelphia. This claim is completely false. There is no record of the man appearing at any green card appointment in or around the area of Philadelphia on June 20, 2025.
Furthermore, ICE has not deported Luis Leon—a Chilean national—to Guatemala, as his family members have said. ICE’s only record of this individual entering the U.S. is in 2015 from Chile under the visa waiver program.
According to reporting by the Associated Press, the Guatemalan Institute of Migration—which coordinates with ICE on all deportations from the U.S. to Guatemala—claims they have not received anyone matching the name, age or nationality of Luis Leon back into Guatemala.
According to the report, the family alleges a woman claiming to be an immigration lawyer called and offered to help them but did not disclose how she knew about the case. The family claims this individual also told them Leon died in ICE custody.
“ICE never arrested or deported Luis Leon to Guatemala. Nor does ICE ‘disappear’ people—this is a categorical lie being peddled to demonize ICE agents who are already facing an 830% increase in assaults against them. This was a hoax peddled by the media who rushed to press without pausing to corroborate the facts with DHS. This was journalistic malpractice,” said Assistant Secretary McLaughlin.
The story had the same feel as the widely reported whipping of migrants by border agents. The media went into a frenzy over a false story accusing mounted officers of whipping undocumented migrants near Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 19, 2021. Reporters like CNN’s April Ryan continued to peddle the false story for years despite being debunked.
Like this story, it could have been immediately refuted by any reporter. Indeed, the photographer captured the scene, which showed agents using bridle reins to guide their skittish horses. The entire videotape clearly shows the agents using the reins on their mounts, not on the migrants. Not only did the photographer quickly deny seeing any officers whip migrants, but the videotape clearly refuted that allegation. However, for many in politics and the media, it did not matter because it played into a racial-justice claim of the “whipping (of) Haitian asylum seekers.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) condemned “the inappropriate use of what appear to be whips by Border Patrol officers on horseback to intimidate migrants.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) decried “images of inhumane treatment of Haitian migrants by Border Patrol — including the use of whips.” Vice President Kamala Harris emoted on “The View” about how the brutality “invoked images of some of the worst moments of our history, where that kind of behavior has been used against the Indigenous people of our country, it has been used against African Americans during times of slavery.” Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) described the incident as “worse than what we witnessed in slavery” and “white supremacist behavior.”
President Biden rushed to express his own revulsion and rage, too: “It was horrible what — to see, as you saw — to see people treated like they did: horses nearly running them over and people being strapped. It’s outrageous. I promise you, those people will pay.”
The Administration delayed the results of the findings but eventually admitted that there was no such whipping. It still said it would punish the agents for other violations in what some of us viewed as a face-saving measure for President Biden.
In reading the original story, there was little support outside of the claims of the family and key elements of the story appeared to change as others challenged the account.
Frankly, I am still mystified by this controversy. It is hard for me to believe that a family would fabricate such facts while supplying pictures and details of this kind. Yet, the changes in the story and the fact of corroborating material undermine the account. Perhaps the family can produce further evidence in the coming days but, at a minimum, the newspaper ran with a story that lacked such foundation.
In the end, it does not matter that the story may be false. After all, you can get a Pulitzer prize for a debunked story funded by a political campaign. It fits the preferred narrative of many in the media. It is the scourge of “advocacy journalism” where reporters pursue social or political agendas in framing the news.
If there is support for its story, The Morning Call needs to publish those facts. If not, there is a story in all of this on how a hoax went viral, but it is not the one that most reporters would relish.
A story too good to fact-check.
This news should get george spinning.
_____________________
The court that AG Pam Bondi asked to unseal the Epstein grand jury files needs more specifics, including the transcripts Bondi wants to unseal. The court also needs statements from the victims who would be impacted by the release.
Judge Paul Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York says the government’s motion was too vague and lacked necessary legal justifications. The court ordered Bondi to submit a detailed memorandum of law by July 29.
Guess who picked this judge.
Yep that be O-dumber.
Naw, Georgina will just move the goal posts. Or simply never talk about the issue again. Remember, Georgina is not capable of independent though, she just regurgitates the latest garbage talking points.
Why would I be spinnin? It’s just the process. Trump would be thrilled about the delay. Plus it also means that Trump’s DOJ is still incompetent.
Trump doesn’t want the files to get out. I’m pretty sure he won’t be bad-mouthing the judge for the technical delays.
It was MAGA and Trump who were promoting the Epstein files being released. Now they don’t want to release them because it’s very likely they will contain incriminating info on Trump. This is all because Trump and his supporters, the ones he called stupid, were talking up the Epstein files to keep MAGA satiated with their conspiracy theories. Now that it’s come to show receipts Trump welshed on his promise. Big surprise there.
george
because it’s very likely they will contain incriminating info on Trump.
__________________
HAHAHAHA. Yeah sure george. If the Biden DOJ had anything to hit Prez Trump with. They would have released it during the election cycle, yet they didn’t. I wonder why.
We all know the answer.
Seen the huge alert on CNN. We have pictures of Prez Trump and Epstein.
When Prez Trump got married. 1990’s. Jezzzzzz
Trump’s DOJ? What are you talking about Georgina, how could Trump possibly have a DOJ with President Harris in the White House. You’d better get on that quick, she obviously doesn’t know about this, and you’re smart, so they’ll let you right in.
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500
Get going!
It is odd, though, how video and un-redacted classified documents can expose the truth, no matter how outrageous and righteous the fake story is.
What else do you expect from the so called I HATE TRUMP/ICE Media. They can’t wait to jump on the next I hate Trump or ICE story. Makes no difference if it is true or not. As long as they publish it so their friends and Left Wing Radical DEMS read it and push the narrative. Meanwhile DEM’s approval rating is under 20%??
I want to go to war against Spain, but the public doesn’t give a damn. What do I do?
What’s that? A cruel accident on one of our naval vessels? Oh, why don’t I ring up my boys in the Times and drum up some controversy!
Yes, by jove, that’s what we’ll do! Brilliant, Percy! We’ll blame the Maine on Spain!
-Rabble
With regard to the story of Haitians being whipped: “President Biden rushed to express his own revulsion and rage, too…It’s outrageous. I promise you, those people will pay.”
That was the secret of the Bidens’ success. They could always find someone who would pay.
On these facts the reporter stumbled into mindless entertainment. The stuff of Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Travel Channel’s Osbornes: I want to Believe. It invites a movement to establish Forrest Gump Awards: Stupid Is As Stupid Does.
My email and name didn’t come up when sending the above comment. ??
Lucky us.
I’m no fan of undocumented immigration but deporting illegals who have been here for 30 years will also seriously damage our communities.
Limited amnesty may be the best answer. The deal would require the Dems to support several constitutional amendments such as:
No birthright citizenship, future refugees stay in Mexico until processed, English as the official language, only citizens can vote, and only citizens
are counted in the census for the purpose of government support.
Yes, that is what Reagan preached too. How did that work out? The Democrats will never honor their promises and will never give up making the USA a socialist/communist dictatorship. It is their only focus.
The Republicans get a few wins and then relax. It never works.
Jake.
I so remember that deal. What a mess it created.
AN
Limited amnesty may be the best answer
******************
NO!
They are illegal.
Stop making excuses for people who break the law. They knew what they we doing.
“The political left has shown its pattern of propaganda lies within their narratives so many times since 2016 that it’s beyond me why anyone would blindly accept any narrative that the political left and their lapdog media actively push?” Steve Witherspoon
Steve Witherspoon, isn’t that what the right does all the time? It’s Turley’s bread and butter. Heck, Fox News does it every hour.
George asked, “…isn’t that what the right does all the time?”
The answer to your question is, nope, but that was a nice try at an “everyone does it” deflection.
George asked, “It’s Turley’s bread and butter.”
Are you actually accusing Turley of spreading propaganda lies? Really? Are we talking about the same Jonathan Turley that writes this blog? If you posted that kind of flagrantly false accusation on my blog, I’d ban you in a heart beat for intentional trolling.
George asked, “Fox News does it every hour.”
I honestly think you’re extrapolating to absurdity as part of your unethical rationalization to deflect, but, you’re welcomed to your biased opinion regarding Fox News.
Well Georgina, you’d better call up the Harris DOJ and get them on this obvious crime!
202-456-1414
Be sure to ask for the Attorney General directly. You’re really smart, so they should connect you immediately.
The Morning Call must be getting lots of clicks.
I wanted to read the story for myself so I clicked on the hyperlink to the story provided in Turley’s post. After my browser directed me to the story on The Morning Call website, a box appeared blocking me from the story that said something to the effect that I’ve exceeded my limit to access “free” stories. Except I had never clicked on that website before. Heck, I had never even heard of The Morning Call until today.
Lucky me, though, all I have to do is buy a paid subscription and then I get to read the disputed story. HaHaHa.
Their USAID money ran out, and now they have to charge for access every time.
Yes it drives me crazy too. You want to read one article, not join them for life, but they all want you to subscribe to read anything and the pay wall sites are usually in the top results. Yet if you take their headline, and plug it in the search engine you can find the same story without paying. Yandex, the Russian country does the best job of giving you both sides, all the American sites de-rank anything conservative in the searches.
This almost sounds like the Jessie Smollett affair but writ on a larger canvas. I have followed this story almost from the 1st reports and it sounded outright crazy virtually from the first. Especially since it was reported by the family with nothing from official sources. Each subsequent report only sounded crazier.
My experience dealing with families, in certain circumstances, is that they will do anything and say anything to achieve a secondary gain. They will lie to each other, lie to their doctor, lie to their insurers, lie to their attorneys and their acts will follow their lies. It is really disgusting and yet depressing to see people do that. You just need to figure out their angle and their secondary gain.
95% plus of the people I saw as a physician were truthful and wanted help themselves or were there offering help and giving help to a loved family member, and also helped family members who were not the best of people or were quite difficult to care for or love.
It tends to lull you into thinking all people are good and helpful and then you run into an unscrupulous family who will do anything to achieve their aim. What makes it worse is the occasional good person in the family is duped by the rest and gets lumped into morass of lies and deceit. It’s truly a mess.
There is something in this story we are missing. A payoff, or theft of identity (like who assumed the identity of the man who died in Chile in 2019). Something still missing to make sense of this whole charade. Official sources seem to have a clear process but even there occasional errors are made. Waiting for the next chapter.
What a heap of B$.
Truth hurts…. need a tissue
The responses of GEB and Turley should be heeded. These are matters of truthfulness to be sure but they are also matter of precision. As a physician GEB would be sensitive to the requirements of precision; a misstep can cause significant setbacks. Turley would also be sensitive to this. He deals in facts that contain probative force and properly rejects those that do not. This article is a matter of the precision or rather the lack of precision that attends the Morning Call article. We live , among other things, in a technocracy and this kind of culture presupposes precision. The casual (undisciplined ) minds of those engaged in pretextual behavior need to be retrained. Misstatements are dissolved by the facts. Rhetoric is exposed by the facts. Political deceit is dissolved by the facts. The comfort that the mendacious exhibit is concerning, particularly in the political arena when public figures (large office holders) behaviorally resort to pretext and deceit rather than thoughtful and truthful answers. The secondary gain concept is valid. It should be an accepted analytical process in evaluating misstatements. If the mendacious are going to continue to contaminate the markets of information then the denial process should be heightened and inferior logics should be revealed. As to the readers, some skepticism is recommended. To the mendacious and the lazy, precision is coming for you.
Yes, the assumed identity was slacked off as unnecessary information. The person’s identity didn’t affect that he was “disappeared”.
He faded away or he has a new identity and may undisappeared at any time. That’s how I feel like.
This is hilarious. Apparently Turley is not aware that he has done this too. Par for the course, Turley makes mountains out of mole hills to make a point about something that is typically true about ICE and Trump’s immigration policies.
ICE does snatch people off the streets. Tom Homan proudly admits it. It should be no surprise that stories like the ones Turley mentions are bound to appear. Turley has always made case that media only reports what it is being said. Heck Fox News does it, everyone does it almost reflexively.
In the two previous articles Turley complains about the media NOT reporting on stories that are clearly meant to deflect or distract including exaggerations of old news. Now he’s complaining about media publishing stories that are based on rumor? In this day and age rumors and opinion are seen as fact by the right and that’s how we end up with these crazy conspiracy theories and rabbit hole arguments that never end.
What is truly interesting is how Turley continues to ignore the growing Epstein scandal. It’s obvious Republicans are desperately trying to protect Trump from his self inflicted scandal. FBI director Kash Patel has remained pretty quiet about it after years of claiming there was more to the Epstein files than Trump is letting on.
Trump is terrified of any connection to Epstein and because Trump is well known be buddies with Epstein he is more likely to be one of his “clients”. After all we know Trump has bragged about wandering into beauty pageant changing rooms and grabbing women by the hoo ha. Trump is a pervert and a felon to boot. How is does that reconcile with the family values of the right? Apparently they are just fine with it.
Georgina, any word from President Harris? Did you try 202-456-1414 yet? Maybe they could connect you to Vice President Walz, and he could set you right with all of your misconceptions. It’s early enough in DC, I bet you could catch them before the Presidential Daily Briefing.
What does Harris have to do with Trump’s desperation to avoid the Epstein files being released?
Deflect much?
I don’t know George, you put such stock in crap pollsters that predicted her “win” last year, surely they weren’t wrong, otherwise they’d obviously have folded due to such an embarrassment, and someone as obviously smart as you wouldn’t reference crap pollsters who blew an election in such an obvious manner.
Funny that the pollsters who actually got election right still show Trump at or over 50%, but those don’t count, right?
So get on it Georgie, ask President Harris why she won’t release the files.
george, why didn’t Biden’s DOJ release them?
Hmmmm so called Mr smart guy
Community notes: 53% of Hispanic Americans want ICE to deport illegal aliens. The numbers are even higher in other demographics.
I wonder if Georgie here knows the difference between cotton and asparagus. Apparently Senator “Spartacus” Booker doesn’t, so maybe it’s a Democrat thing.
George always makes me laugh. Thanks, George!
A parody of Georgie’s above post^^^^
“This is hilarious. Apparently georgie is not aware that he has done this too. Par for the course, georgie makes mountains out of mole hills.
In the two previous articles georgie complains about Turley and then shows us how much smarter georgie is than Turley. Now he’s complaining that Turley has shown georgie to be such a little twit trying to assert superiority.
What is truly interesting is how georgie continues to ignore the growing Epstein scandal created by media, and how media ignores the Intelligence memo release 0f declassified information implicating the Obama administration.
Georgie is terrified of any connection to the truth, or any exposure as a needy person bent on manipulating Turley’s blog.”
Poor george
ICE does snatch people off the streets.
********************
It’s called illegals. Learn to read and not use your pathetic emotions.
“ICE does snatch people off the streets. “
George is an aficionado of horror movies and is unable to separate the movie from real life. In this case, George is thinking of a 1950s movie, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Someone, take George away from his television.
Some stories fall into the “too good to check” category.
“The problem is that there appears to be no proof supporting the story . . .” (JT)
The Duke lacrosse hoax. The UVA hoax. The Jussie Smollett hoax . . .
You’d think that by now, the media would’ve learned a valuable lesson: First, get the facts right.
That assumes, of course, that they are motivated by a desire for the truth.
The fine people hoax, the suckers and losers hoax, the RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA hoax. COVID came from a bat, that’s my #1 favorite hoax.
Everyone, add your own hoax to the list! It’s fun!
The George is a lawyer hoax. The George is a doctor hoax. The George is not a total moron hoax.
COVID came indirectly from a bat, via Pangolin 0. CNN covered it five years ago.
A random guy no one had known of shot JFK for no reason other than being president.
Obama is a citizen of the USA.
People want strong independent wahmen in media.
-Rabble
Sam, the hoax reporters sell papers or clicks by reporting on these hoax, which keeps their revenue up and that’s what it’s all about revenue
Sam-Well said. The media has no memory are not salvageable and they think the readers and consumers have no memory either. That may be why so few people pay attention to them anymore. So they lie more to get more attention. I think in many industries it’s called a “Death Spiral”
Title 25, U.S. Code of Federal Regulations § 11.431 (False reports) states:
(a) A person who knowingly gives false information to any law enforcement officer with the purpose to implicate another commits a misdemeanor.
(b) A person commits a petty misdemeanor if he or she:
(1) Reports to law enforcement authorities an offense or other incident within their concern knowing that it did not occur; or
(2) Pretends to furnish such authorities with information relating to an offense or incident when he or she knows he or she has no information relating to such offense or incident.
So, the family reported this false story to the media, not a law enforcement officer, and so this law may not apply. But DHS and ICE should have a TV crew standing by for these kinds of things so they can move quickly to ask the person or persons making the accusations to officially report their complaint to DHS. If they do and fib, it’s a law violation. Chances are that they are well lawyered to avoid saying anything to the police or DHS, lest they be exposed and prosecuted as frauds. This was a common practice in law enforcement and was used for years in NYC, for example, to harass the NYPD when it was just doing its job. The practice was stopped only after the city began locking up the liars. The story from PA is a variation but essentially has the same objective.
jjc-interesting information.
Sounds like a felony to me:
18 USC Sec 1001
(a)Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—
(1)falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2)makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3)makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both. If the matter relates to an offense under chapter 109A, 109B, 110, or 117, or section 1591, then the term of imprisonment imposed under this section shall be not more than 8 years.
“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. … I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors.” -Thomas Jefferson, 1807
The press would cry foul if anyone made it seem like a crime that they were
broadcasting the drivel that they broadcast. But they make it seem like a crime if
don’t like the content of your greeting cards.
And people wonder why the media is distrusted almost as much as Congress.
The MSM and their few followers are Progressively Stupid
The free press is usually against censorship, yet here they are acting like members
of a censorship bureau, picking apart the free expressions inside of a greeting card. How embarrassing.
You mean that FAKE greeting card. Right!
It’s not fake if you want it to be real. Fake but accurate, remember.
Allentown, PA’s The Morning Call, serving dupes after the death of truth. Yearly subscription is currently $155.48. Will they give additional discounts for card carrying stooges?
I heard some left winger recite this trash over the weekend, and it immediately set off my skepticism detector. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, yet this story has precisely zero proof. The paper should publicly retract the story and apologize for even publishing it.