A media outlet in Pennsylvania ran a story about an elderly Pennsylvania man being secretly deported to Guatemala by ICE. It got picked up and pushed by other media outlets which are more interested in confirming their anti-ICE bias than confirming a story.
The whole thing was a hoax.
The Post Millennial reports:
DHS refutes media ‘hoax’ that Trump admin deported ‘Allentown Grandpa’The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a statement refuting that immigration authorities ever deported an “Allentown Grandfather,” or that he died in ICE custody, a claim that has been spread in the media.A press release from DHS stated on the case of the “grandfather,” Luis Leon, 82, “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) set the record straight on misleading and false reporting that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ‘secretly deported’ a so-called ‘Allentown grandfather’ to Guatemala. Additionally, reporting claimed he ‘died’ in ICE custody.”DHS cited a report from The Morning Call, which was titled, “Allentown grandfather’s family was told he died in ICE custody. Then they learned he’s alive—in a hospital in Guatemala, they say.”The report cited comments from family members who claimed that Leon was thought to be dead by the family and “disappeared without a trace into the American immigration system” about a month ago.The family claimed that the 82-year-old had been handcuffed and taken away by ICE in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. DHS said in the release that the claim was “completely false,” and that “there is no record of the man appearing at any green card appointment in or around the area of Philadelphia on June 20, 2025.”
The tweet below, which helped to perpetuate this hoax, has been viewed 8.6 million times:
BREAKING: ICE secretly deported Luis Leon, an 82-year-old torture survivor and U.S. legal resident of nearly 40 years, after he walked into an immigration office to replace a lost green card.Instead of processing the request, ICE handcuffed him, detained his wife for 10 hours, and later told the family; through a fake “lawyer,” that he was dead.Turns out, ICE quietly transferred him through a Minnesota detention center and dumped him in Guatemala, a country he has zero ties to. There’s no deportation paperwork, no public record. His family only found him alive after relatives in Chile tracked him to a Guatemalan hospital.Leon suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart issues. The DOJ is now under fire, but this is the Trump-era immigration machine still in motion—cruel, unaccountable, and lawless.If they can disappear an elderly, law-abiding U.S. resident…They can disappear anyone.
Bill Melugin of FOX News reported this on Twitter/X:
The Department of Homeland Security addressed this in a press release:
DHS Sets the Record Straight: ICE Never Deported Media’s “Allentown Grandfather”Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) set the record straight on misleading and false reporting that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “secretly deported” a so-called “Allentown grandfather” to Guatemala. Additionally, reporting claimed he “died” in ICE custody.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.
Just days ago, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass pushed a similar story about ICE that turned out to be a hoax.
When it comes to this subject, Democrats and the media don’t care about the truth. They care about trying to advance a narrative.
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