Below is my column in The Hill on the false “bait boy” story that went viral last week, the latest concoction of the left and an enabling media. It was an all-too-familiar pattern. Even after it was debunked, Gov. Tim Walz was still raising it late last week to paint ICE as soulless, depraved thugs. It simply does not matter that it is untrue in our post-truth political environment.
Here is the opinion:
“I am outraged, and you should be too.” That message from former Vice President Kamala Harris has been a virtual mantra of the Democratic Party for years. For several months, this has meant decrying the imminent death of democracy and our descent into authoritarianism. Now, it means falsely claiming that ICE “kidnapped” or “arrested” a five-year-old boy and used him as “bait” to catch someone.
The “bait boy” story is actually the latest clickbait hoax in our “Age of Rage.”
Five years ago, Harris was expressing the same call for outrage over the false story of Border agents whipping migrants in Texas. She expressed disgust over the “horrible and deeply troubling” scenes reminiscent of the slave period.
It quickly became a pile-on, with the media spreading the false account. 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 threw the agents under the bus, publicly expressing disgust over their conduct and promising punishment before any investigation had occurred: “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 media continued to repeat the false account, even as many of us pointed out that the publicly available video showed the story was demonstrably untrue. It did not matter. It fit the narrative on the left, and the agents were left under investigation for more than a year before being cleared of the “whipping” charges.
After the false story was exposed, the media just shrugged and went on to the next gotcha story.
As for this new hoax, Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) declared the incident to be “the worst of the damn worst” in a video on X. Craig, a candidate for Senate, accused federal officers of taking the boy to “use him to lure his father out.”
That is false. According to reports, the father was spotted in public and fled, abandoning the boy. Like Harris, Craig reminded citizens that “this is a time where we should all be outraged. If this doesn’t pierce through your humanity, as a Republican member of Congress, if you can’t speak out about this, then you’ve got no humanity left.”
The key, again, is the requisite outrage. If you are not outraged, you are not human.
It is often said that we are living in a “post-truth” political environment. The term rose to favor due to the 2016 election of President Trump. Oxford Dictionaries specifically cited Trump when it selected the term as word of the year. The irony is that the proof of post-truth politics is often found among those who use it the most on the left, in the media and academia.
The bait boy hoax is particularly disgraceful. It is common to have minor children present during arrests of all kinds. Officers will often try to get family members to take a child rather than put him into child services.
In this case, ICE officers were trying to detain Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, an undocumented Ecuadorian national, when he bolted and left behind his five-year-old child, Liam Conejo Ramos.
Rather than leave the child in the freezing cold on the street, the officers took the child to his home to get his mother to take him in. She refused to open the door despite agents reportedly saying that she would not be detained. They proceeded to take the boy to McDonald’s, play his favorite music, and take care of him. He was never arrested. They also did not send him into detention. According to ICE, his father asked for the boy to be allowed to stay with him at a detention facility, and ICE agreed.
One can have good-faith objections to immigration enforcement policies. The Trump administration has made it a priority to deport the millions of undocumented migrants allowed into the country under the Biden administration. That is what Trump pledged to do in his campaign.
Post-truth politics and post-truth journalism are designed to fuel rage — to give people license to say and do things that they would not ordinarily say or do.
Even nurses this week have joined in the hate-fest against ICE and the administration. In New York, an injured NYPD officer and his colleagues were treated rudely by nurses when they were mistaken for ICE officers.
In Florida, a nurse named Lexie Lawler at the Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital directed her rage at White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, who is expecting her second child. Lawler posted that “As a labor and delivery nurse, it gives me great joy to wish Karoline Leavitt a fourth-degree tear. I hope you f——- rip from bow to stern and never s— normally again, you c—.” Like the ICE agents, Leavitt is not treated as a person but some Golem who can be joyfully and righteously harmed.
There is a strange aspect to rage addictions. Many on the left will use false stories to virtue signal, then unleash the most unvirtuous attacks. The greatest irony is that these individuals are doing precisely what they accuse ICE of doing. They are using this five-year-old as bait — clickbait — to fuel protests and outrage.
The call for outrage is meant to strip away the humanity of ICE agents, who are portrayed as having no sympathy or concern for a child. Indeed, the use of this child by protesters strips him of his humanity. He was as much of a prop as the ICE agents were.
The bait boy hoax does show that Harris and Craig may be right about one thing: “This is a time where we should all be outraged.”
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the author of the forthcoming “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution,” which will be released on Feb. 3 as part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The Democrats trying to be the National Socialist Party 1920-30’s
Question…will Republican finally put a STOP to their Civil War?
Under a Republican president, ICE agents are the ones acting like Brownshirts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung
Using Wiki as real reporting… What a gas.
You do know, they are a open website.
Professor Turley griping about a “hoax” from the left and the media not believing the DHS narrative? Color me shocked. It’s really rich to point this out in the midst of a full on DHS lying and gaslighting even Fox News is not buying.
DHS and ICE have been lying nonstop. Lying to judges, the public and the media when everyone knows they are lying, even some MAGAs are noticing the glaring amount of lying. John Say often stated that you cannot trust government, but here we are DHS outright lying to your face in the midst of another shooting with clear evidence ICE or CBP assaulted a protester.
Yesterday Kash Patel, the incompetent FBI director managed to enrage 2nd amendment supporters by stating even legal gun owners should not be carrying firearms at protests. Which is funny because 2nd amendment supporters have protested openly carrying rifles, firearms, tactical gear, and plenty of ammo. Apparently all those folks were committing some crime Patel seems to insinuate there is.
Professor Turley should be ashamed of himself for prostituting his talents to gaslight and smear others while ignoring far greater misdeeds and malfeasance.
Bovino and Noem started lying about the events leading to the shooting almost immediately and Turley is not even making a peep about the glaring inconsistency between their narrative and the truth in plain sight on the videos.
When DHS is already in trouble with the courts for outright lying to judges and the public it’s clear their credibility and trust has degraded to the point not even Fox News is buying it.
In this article Turley, in naïveté or deliberate ignorance, tries to point out how ICE tried to take the boy home to his mother, but given the tactics and outright lying ICE has engaged in there is absolutely no reason to trust the agent saying the mother won’t be apprehended. None. There is evidence of agents using kids as bait, and pretending to be utility workers to fool people out of their homes and apprehend them.
DHS has lost nearly all credibility and trust among everyone. Nobody trusts any of them to be honest even regular police chiefs and sheriff offices. That is how bad it has gotten and here we have Turley enabling the same BS.
This article, column or whatever you want to call it is about making excuses for DHS cruel and overreaching tactics that are degrading their credibility and trust, even among some MAGAs now. Only the real zealots, racists, bigots, and the extremists among them are the only ones supporting DHS, ICE, and CBP. Turley is at risk if not already being associated with that part of MAGA and that is truly sad.
george
DHS and ICE have been lying nonstop. Lying to judges,
___________________________
proof?
Dustoff if you want proof all you have to do is look it up. It’s not difficult unless you are a bit squeamish about venturing out of your information bubble. You should try it sometimes.
Yeah george. Now you libs support the right to carry. Right!!!
No, you made the allegations you provide the proof. That’s how it works. Otherwise the only conclusion is that you are lying, just like Waltz and all the others.
Please clarify what superpower you have to discern all this information you say is real. Ah, another talking point post providing no more than “I say it’s true and Mr. Turley is an idiot because he is not supporting my delusions”. Please, post to BlueSky where no-thought group think is all the rage.
Superpower? More like common sense and pure observation. It’s not difficult to see the obvious disconnect reality and Turley’s narrative.
Provide proof, otherwise you’re a liar.
Good luck with that, Maj.
It makes arbitrary claims, which are routinely refuted. It lies pathologically, and is exposed.
It has no conscience; no self-respect. It blithely drops those lies, to concoct fresh ones tomorrow.
If you don’t read Professor Turley’s e-letters. you won’t spend time writing long-winded drivel such as this that do no more than display TDS. And … we won’t need to scroll through the replies to avoid wasting time on yours.
Remember the chants of “YOU WORK FOR US!”
Well, if ICE works for us, then we have a right to know the names and faces of our employees.
Why? So you can go target their children?
So I guess we now have the answer as to why ICE has to wear masks.
One must assume the “we have a right to know the names and faces of our employees” by 26/01/2026 8:23 AM means we need to attack their homes, families, and murder their children in front of their mothers while they watch (see the opinions stated by Jay Jones, the chief judicial officer of the Commonwealth of VA, with 53% of the Virginian votes).
Or as the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives Jeffries implied: The Night of the Long Knives is coming. We are prepared?
Dressing like terrorists emboldens them to act like terrorists, something they shouldn’t be doing towards American civilians. Is this what you want?
Antifa does it all the time.
Hyperbole by stupid people who like death, destruction, and mayhem. I wonder what they would say if their loved ones were killed by known murderers, whether legal or illegal.
Then tell us who you are first as you go by Anonymous, at least as stage name, I would suggest “Class Clown”.
That is happening in Minneapolis is far beyond state law fraud and picking up illegals. Let’s not miss the forest for the trees. This is a non-functioning state. Walz is a Marxist, he has been his entire life. So is Frey. This is a state that has no law and order. The police are either incompetent or complicit in this. Autonomous zones cannot exist in a city. Judges and prosecutors are also involved. If the Signal story is accurate, radical leftists are far better organized here than anyone realized. They appear to have access to non public data that is reserved for law enforcement. Trump cannot allow this to continue. He cannot allow radical leftists to take over a city. Walz and Frey are not going to suddenly change and start enforcing the law. Does anyone believe that they will suddenly start cooperating with ICE deportations or start investigating Somali fraud? They haven’t even said they would, they just want the feds out.
In my humble opinion Walz is a Marxist and Frey is Antifa.
Ad hominem. Not an argument. If a Marxist is someone who would like to see workers and tenants treated in a fair and just manner, then so what? What’s so bad about that? Watch out for your precious bodily fluids:
Pray to whichever God you want, just enforce the laws. When Walz does that he be whatever he wants to be.
They didn’t need any help from Walz to paint themselves as soulless and depraved.
They painted themselves as soulless and depraved.
Six armed agents on their feet versus one unarmed man on his knees.
If anyone was in need of acting in self-defense, it was Alex.
It is depraved to defend and make excuses for this depravity.
Why was Pretti interfering with a law enforcement activity?
Why was he carrying two extra magazines?
Whe did he feel the need to xarry 64 rounds of ammunition to a political protest?
Why did he not attempt to negotiate with ICE before intervening?
Why did he not submit to their lawful authority?
There were all sorts of scenarios where ICE lets him render first aid.
Even Preeti family told him not to go. I wonder why?
There is absolutely NOTHING new about this type of “post-truth” propaganda.
“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is” – Grand Jury testimony regarding his relationship with an Intern in the Oval office.
The Jack Smith cadre on RussiaGate.
The progressive oligarchy/Department of Indoctrination education system.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2023/10/06/hillary-clinton-suggests-formal-deprogramming-for-maga-extremists-who-still-support-trump/
. . .
The only difficulty is discerning who is using it. In this case, my eyesight is failing because I can’t tell if this is Walz or Frey:
https://www.worldhistory.org/image/19521/hitler-beer-hall-putsch-memorial/
Just got a huge amount of snow. Now it’s 14 degrees. For the next few days it’s supposed to go below zero. Man, I long for the days of global warming.
Actually, these events are exactly what is predicted to happen as a result of climate change.
The average temperature in the Arctic was 20 degrees above normal last year. It is still very cold but not nearly as cold as it should be. The increased temperature causes the Arctic air mass to expand. This expansion slows the Arctic jet stream and pushes it much further south so that cold Arctic air that is normally confined to high northern latitudes is able to dip into the US. Every now and again naturally occurring Rossby waves in the atmosphere bring the Arctic air to very low latitudes. Rossby waves occur naturally in the atmosphere due to the Coriolis effect of the Earth’s rotation and pressure gradients that form.
“. . . as a result of climate change.”
Now do how “climate change” causes mass migration, bunions, and hiccups.
Pure BS!
This is just another example of the smokescreen put up by Democrats and the media to divert attention from the massive fraud in Minnesota and the rest of the country. The real story in Minneapolis besides the fraud is this is an insurrection
Two important issues are supreme in Minnesota: Fraud and Illegals deportation. It seems to me the Feds ought to up the fraud prosecutions. That is, change the narrative. Here the people really do care. It is about their money, and many care about the money a lot more than an organized bunch of protestors-for-hire and gangs of illegal criminals ruining Minneapolis.
BTW, please read my blog “Problem-Solving – AI and the Law” at https://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2026/01/problem-solving-ai-and-law.html
The Biden crime family is running a colors type revolution against the USA. The Bidens were a front for the deep state and a partner to it.
I don’t think the Bidens can think and chew gum at the same time. They were never ideologs, they’re just corrupt, useful idiots. Unfortunately, I think these people exist in both parties. The deep state has always been Obama and his agents. Obama has been studying leftist community organizing his entire life.
“It is often said that we are living in a ‘post-truth’ political environment. The term rose to favor due to the 2016 . . .”
Which started, guess where.
In academia, decades earlier — with postmodernism and deconstruction. Those two academic theories assert that there is no inherent meaning of anything, no absolute truth, no facts independent of feelings, that reason is impotent and arguments are useless.
Given time, academic ideas go mainstream — and you get the Left’s mad assertions that flout reality.
I see Bill. Clinton is now putting his 2 cents in on the chaos in Minneapolis. The democrats want to take the focus off the massive fraud and Bill wants you to forget about Epstein. Nothing to see here folks, just move along.
Odd that the media has ensured we all know the names of Good and Pretti, but nobody can tell you how many innocent citizens have been killed by illegal in MN, let alone the names of any of those killed.
I’ve been saying well before Trump entered politics. The MSM not only heralds the demise of democracy but hastens it as well. Rather than provide a skeptical voice they have taken a side and become allied with the party that is assaulting the foundational institutions of our democracy.
If Trump cured cancer, the left would be out in the streets protesting the cure.
“Trump Puts 10,,000 Physicians Out Of Work” would be the headline.
michael — There is a great shortages of medical practitioners in the USA. They would just have to move to find work.
David, I don’t know how your statement fits into the discussion, but the shortage of physicians is in great part due to your government making many so fed up, they prematurely retire. There are many other ways the government has caused the need for more medical practitioners: churning, rules and regulations, electronic records ( a good idea, but created for many different purposes but considered to be more important than the physician or the patient).
That’s because for every one doctor there are ten lawyers to sue him.
Fat little billionaire ambulance chasers.
What is surprising is that anyone at all beleives these people any more.
We have a long long log list of deliberate lies by democrats.
It is not surprising that democrats are polling in the teens.
John you are right about how unpopular the Dems are…but unfortunately we lost the ICE War. It is over. Trump needs to call in the army under the Insurrection Act, go nuclear on charging Walz, Ellison and anyone else for the rampant fraud and arrest any and all “protesters” that interfere.
We lost the PR war, might as well clean up the state and hope the PR disaster goes away before the midterms. Be strong, be lawful and be effective. Right now we aren’t any of these things.
Violent armed leftists have largely taken over a city. The police, prosecutors, and judges are all complicit with this. What is happening here has never been lawful protest. Following and blocking police, blowing whistles, confronting police, and alerting people via secured communication is not lawful protest. Intervening during an arrest in not lawful protest. Just because everyone isn’t being arrested for obstruction doesn’t mean that what they are doing is even remotely legal. If you throw in bringing a gun to this, it might be the last thing you ever do. Carry permit or not, no one in LE is going to let you stand there, while you are interfering with an arrest, while carrying a gun in a holster.
John Say, what is surprising is that DHS is doing exactly what you accuse the left of doing. Outright lying and undermining their credibility. They are even lying to judges. So are we supposed to trust DHS to be telling the truth after lying almost constantly? DHS claims Pretti brandished a gun. The evidence clearly points to “no”. Pretti never assaulted the ICE agents. They assaulted him for trying to help the woman who was shoved to the ground. And now legally carrying a concealed weapon is justification for shooting anyone who does at a protest? So much for the self defense argument the right is always peddling about those who are legally allowed to carry.
What was Pretti doing there to begin with? Please don’t tell me it isn’t relevant. Was he following or harassing the ICE agents during an arrest, in any way at all? Was he there on a shift through the Signal app? What is happening is long past legal protest. Just because people aren’t being arrested for obstruction, doesn’t mean they aren’t breaking the law. Do you believe that LE is going to allow armed protesters to stand around while arrests are being made? A carry permit has many restrictions attached to it.
He was not “legally carrying a concealed weapon.” He did not have his CCL or ANY ID, which is required by law in MN.
We must finally dispense with the media generated false notion that “progressives” are driven by empathy. The reality is they are the most openly hateful people on the planet. One of the hateful clowns typed yesterday on this blog that Ashli Babbit was sharing a cell in hell with Charlie Kirk. The only point to that comment is to express hatred.
They are lost. Immoral, hateful, mean-spirited, nasty.
Those peddling a narrative that they know, or should know, is diametrically opposed to the truth, are sacrificing their integrity on the altar of a lie. In this case, the ICE agents showed more compassion for, and did more to assist, this five year old boy than his own mother. If you feel you must compromise your integrity to prove your point, it’s probably time to reassess your point.
Integrity? What’s that?
Republicans using children for political purposes is outrageous and they should be in jail for that.
We can speculate about that after you express delight in the accomplishment of the sentencing and jailing of Kamala Harris, Angie Craig, and every media member who has done used lies about this boy or any child to score illegitimate political points – that is, if you can cite the appropriate statute. I don’t think there is one.
Let’s ask Elian Gonzalez about that. Oh wait, he is still in Cuba after the Clinton mob had him returned to his prison.
If it wasn’t for lies, the right would have nothing to say. Fixed it.
If it wasn’t for lies, the left would have nothing to say.