• DHS has made several unproven or false claims about the agency’s conduct as it continues to detain and deport people. In some cases, video footage has contradicted DHS statements, while other DHS claims have fallen apart in court. As NPR noted, “The administration’s mischaracterizations have also spilled over to courtrooms, where federal judges in dozens of cases have admonished federal officials for providing false, contradictory or unreliable statements in court.” DHS has also pushed unverifiable claims on rising rates of assaults on officers. [NPR, 1/31/26; MSNOW, 1/9/26]
• Right-wing media have helped DHS build a narrative by repeating false claims and parroting the Trump administration’s talking points. Many right-wing talking heads have uncritically repeated the administration’s claim that ICE is going after the “worst of the worst” or have cited the inflated statistic that 70% of people in ICE custody supposedly have “criminal histories.” In reality, only about 7% of people in ICE custody have been convicted for a violent criminal offense, and in Trump’s first year, nearly 40% of those arrested by ICE had no criminal record at all. Additionally, Fox News began highlighting specific individuals seized by ICE, characterizing detained migrants as criminals in an effort to boost the agency’s credibility. [Media Matters, 1/23/26, 1/23/26, 1/23/26; CBS News, 2/9/26]

True: Immigration agents killed Alex Pretti, who was lawfully carrying a gun on his body, as he filmed them

• Alex Pretti was killed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers as he filmed agents engaging with other civilians. Pretti, who was reportedly carrying a legal firearm at the time, was wrestled to the ground and shot by Border Patrol agents on January 24. According to The New York Times, Chief Brian O’Hara of the Minneapolis Police Department confirmed that Pretti “was an American citizen with no criminal record and that he had a valid firearms permit.” Additionally, video evidence suggests that Pretti was disarmed prior to being shot. [The New York Times, 1/24/26]

False: DHS said Pretti was “brandishing” a gun and wanted to “massacre law enforcement”

• Shortly after the shooting, DHS claimed it “look[ed] like” Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Pretti was “brandishing” a gun. Noem also told reporters, “This individual impeded the law enforcement officers and attacked them.” [CNN, 1/25/26]
• Video footage and a subsequent internal review by DHS appear to show Noem’s prior claims to be false. The DHS review “did not indicate that he brandished a weapon during the encounter,” The New York Times reported. Additionally, a New York Times video review of the incident found that Pretti had approached officers with his phone in his hands and was tackled to the ground and disarmed before being shot. [The New York Times, 1/27/26, 1/26/26]

Right-wing media repeated DHS claim and said Pretti “literally” pulled a gun on an ICE agent 

• Fox contributor Nicole Parker defended DHS officers, saying, “When you’re seeing a gun in your face and you’re in the scuffle, then you have to, again, assume that is a gun.” [Fox News, 1/24/26]
• Fox contributor Paul Mauro claimed that Pretti was shot because he “tried to involve himself somehow and at some point during the scuffle when they were trying to subdue him without using deadly force, he pulls out that 9mm.” Mauro continued, “That’s an expensive gun. That doesn’t look like a funny-gun kind of thing that you very often see among the perps.” [Fox News, 1/24/26]
• The Heritage Foundation’s Lora Ries also repeatedly suggested Pretti may have drawn his gun on the agents. She denounced him as a “radical goon” and suggested that he and other “protesters are paid.” [Fox News, Fox Report with Jon Scott, 1/24/26]
• Fox contributor Joe Concha described Pretti’s shooting, saying that “literally, a guy pulls a gun on an ICE officer” and that the agent “defends himself.” [Fox News, The Big Weekend Show, 1/24/26]
• Newsmax host Rob Astorino said,“If we’re to believe the DHS side of this, the 37-year-old may have been brandishing this weapon.” He then asked his guest, “If you’re confronted with somebody who, you know, takes out of his holster a weapon, you don’t know if that guy has a permit or not or what he’s going to do with that gun. And if he’s not listening to commands, what does the law say the agents can do?” [Newsmax, The Saturday Agenda, 1/24/26]

True: ICE officers killed Renee Good on video

• Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by ICE officers during operations in Minneapolis. Good was reportedly on the scene in her car as a “legal observer.” Bystanders captured the incident on video. According to ABC News’ analysis of the video taken by the agent who allegedly shot Good, “Good can be seen turning her vehicle’s steering wheel to the right, away from the agent, just over one second before the first shot is fired.” [BBC, 1/13/26; ABC News, 1/9/26]

False: DHS said Good “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over" officers

• Kristi Noem initially claimed Good “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed, “Rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism.” [The Associated Press, 1/7/26; The Atlantic, 1/8/26]
• A New York Times analysis of the incident stated that “the vehicle appear[ed] to be turning away” from the officer involved and that he was “standing … to the left of the SUV” at the time he opened fire, while the SUV’s wheels were “pointing to the right, away from the agent.” The New York Times noted that video evidence “appears to conflict with allegations that the SUV was ramming or about to ram the officer.” [The New York Times, 1/8/26]

Right-wing media pushed DHS’ unverified claims and suggested Good acted out of “unbridled rage”

• Shortly after news of the shooting broke, Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin said there “is some discussion that it was triggered by a ramming incident that we see so often when ICE and Border Patrol agents are conducting their operations.” Tobin additionally noted that “no agents have been harmed.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 1/7/26]
• Parroting Noem’s claims, Fox News anchor John Roberts stated that ICE agents “were trying to push their car out of a snowbank when this person allegedly came at them.” He said: “Kristi Noem said politicians of all stripes should be able to come out very easily and condemn something like that, yet these protesters get it in their mind that it’s fine for them, in their own way of thinking, to use a vehicle as a weapon. And, as we heard the DHS secretary say, it looked like they weren’t, at that particular time, engaged in active ICE operations. They were trying to push their car out of a snowbank when this person allegedly came at them.” [Fox News, America Reports, 1/7/26]
• Fox News anchor Sandra Smith cited Noem while claiming, “A woman chose to ram the agents with her vehicle. The agent shot to protect himself and others with him.” [Fox News, America Reports, 1/7/26]
• Roberts suggested the victim used her “car as a deadly weapon” in an “act of rage” against officers trying to get their car out of a snowbank. In a question to Paul Mauro, Roberts asked, “Is there any other way to describe this than an act of rage? To see ICE agents, federal officials, federal law enforcement trying to get their car out of a snowbank and then using your car as a deadly weapon, just because you are upset about what the ICE officers are doing in your city. Can that be characterized — I mean, obviously domestic terrorism is one way, but also an act of rage, unbridled rage?” [Fox News, America Reports, 1/7/26]
• Newsmax host Bianca de la Garza described the shooting as a “vehicle ramming incident” while citing DHS. De la Garza added, “We saw video and reports that they were throwing objects at the ICE officers there, of course, trying to conduct a legal enforcement action.” [Newsmax, Newsline, 1/7/26]

True: Border Patrol agents shot two Venezuelan migrants who did not have prior criminal convictions

• On January 8, Border Patrol agents in Portland, Oregon shot two Venezuelan migrants, Luis Niño-Moncada and Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras, neither of whom had prior criminal convictions, according to their attorneys. [The Guardian, 1/9/26, 2/3/26]

False: DHS claimed agents shot two Tren de Aragua gang members who tried to run them over

• Immediately following the shooting, DHS claimed that Niño-Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. They also claimed Zambrano-Contreras was involved in a prior shooting. [The Guardian, 1/9/26, 2/3/26]
• In court, a Department of Justice prosecutor directly contradicted DHS’ claims, saying that they did not believe the two shooting victims were gang members. According to their attorneys, neither Niño-Moncada or Zambrano-Contreras have prior criminal convictions. The Guardian further reported that “an FBI affidavit” suggested “that in the previous shooting cited by DHS, Zambrano-Contreras was not a suspect, but rather a reported victim of a sexual assault and robbery.” [The Guardian, 2/3/26] 

Right-wing media parroted DHS’ unverified claims, arguing the victims were “gangsters” and “Venezuelan Gang Affiliates”

• Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said it’s “absolutely insane that the people of Portland—the government, leadership of Portland, would go to bat for TDA members that don’t belong here anyway.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/9/26]
• Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin confronted Rep. Maxine Dexter (OR-D) about a statement she released following the shooting, claiming she didn’t “wait for any facts to come out.” When Dexter told Melugin the victims were shot before having due process, Melugin responded, “Those folks were two Venezuelan gang members.” [The Daily Caller, 1/14/26]
• Podcaster Vince Coglianese referred to the shooting victims as “gangsters” while attacking the Portland police chief for crying during the press conference in which he announced they’d been shot. He said, “We have immigration law enforcers who are out doing their jobs, and under threat from Tren de Aragua gangsters, they opened fire, shooting two of these idiots. And the police chief of the city regrets that he has to share this news and then starts literally crying because he says he feels so bad for the Hispanic community. What the hell is he even talking about?” [Rumble, Vince, 1/12/26]
• Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones called the two victims “gangbangers” and attacked government officials for “crying” over the shooting. [Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 1/12/26]
• Fox News host Laura Ingraham argued that a “left-wing narrative collapsed” in the Portland shooting after citing DHS claims that the shooting victims were gang members. She stated, “Now to Portland, where another left-wing narrative collapsed today with something called facts. No, contrary to what the media spin was, federal agents yesterday didn’t shoot two innocent Oregonians who were simply strolling about exercising their First Amendment rights. But they did shoot two suspected Tren de Aragua gang members, both criminal illegals, after DHS says that they tried using their vehicle as a weapon against Border Patrol. And look at them. Aren’t they lovely?” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/9/26]
• Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner repeated DHS claims that the two were “criminal illegal immigrants” and members of Tren de Aragua. She stated, “The driver, allegedly a member of the violent Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. So they knew that. And the passenger was affiliated with a trans national prostitution ring. That’s who they were looking for.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 1/9/26]
• A headline from The Federalist read, “DHS: Portland Suspects Who ‘Weaponized’ Vehicle Against CBP Agent Are Venezuelan Gang Affiliates.” Federalist staff writer Shawn Fleetwood wrote, “When details of the case finally emerged, it clearly was not what Democrats — who had already rushed to falsely blame the immigration officials — were expecting.” [The Federalist, 1/9/26]

True: ICE raided an apartment building and arrested 37 people

• On September 30, immigration officials arrested 37 people at a Chicago apartment building the agency said was “frequented by Tren de Aragua members.” ICE reportedly detained a U.S. citizen during the raid. [CNN, 10/3/25]

False: DHS said the building was “frequented by Tren de Aragua” and ICE arrested TdA members

• Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the raid was based on intelligence that TdA members were “terrorizing” residents. He also said, “When law enforcement has any intelligence like that, when we’re facing known gang members that are now designated a foreign terrorist organization, of course we’re going to go in with our SWAT teams and our special operations teams.” [ProPublica, 11/13/25]
• But, as ProPublica noted, “officials have provided no evidence to back up the claim” that Tren de Aragua had taken over the building. According to ProPublica, “Even today, four months after the raid, federal prosecutors have not filed criminal charges against anyone who was arrested.” [ProPublica, 2/4/26]
• New reporting suggests DHS had no evidence gang members were in the building. ProPublica reported: “The U.S. Department of Homeland Security makes no mention in the records of Tren de Aragua, even though officials repeatedly cited the gang’s presence in the building as the motivation for the raid. Agents paraded immigrants in front of cameras and called their arrests a victory against terrorism. The government also claimed two of those arrested were gang members but never provided any proof.” The outlet further reported that the “landlord had given federal officials, who were already targeting immigrants in Chicago, the blessing to search the building,” and Mark Flemming of the National Immigrant Justice Center said the raid “was really about immigrants purportedly occupying apartments unlawfully, which is radically different than the story they told.” [ProPublica, 2/4/26]

Right-wing media spread the false narrative that the building was “taken over” by the gang.

• Harris Faulkner claimed the building was “taken over by members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 10/2/25]
• Jesse Watters asserted that “dozens of Tren de Aragua members are getting Kilmared,” apparently referencing the attempted deportation of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, before cutting to reporting on the September 30 raid. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/30/25; NPR, 2/3/26] 
• Fox News anchor Trace Gallagher said the operation led to “the arrest of more than a dozen suspected Tren de Aragua gang members.” [Fox News, Fox News @ Night, 10/1/25]
• Laura Ingraham claimed “Trump is actually fixing the criminal mess” in Chicago, saying that “TDA gang members in Chicago got a surprise this week” when ICE conducted an “unexpected drop-in that involved a Black Hawk helicopter and hundreds of federal agents.” Fox News reporter Mike Tobin reported, “More than a dozen were detained. At least one has a tattoo commonly associated with the Tren de Aragua gang.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 10/1/25]
• In an interview with acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, Newsmax host Emma Rechenberg claimed the apartment had been “seized by TDA gang members.” Lyons also pushed the claim, stating the building had been “taken over by Tren de Aragua gang members.” [Newsmax, The National Report, 10/8/25] 
• While displaying a chyron that read “Tren de Arrested,” Fox News anchor Dana Perino said ICE agents were “targeting suspected Tren de Aragua members” in the raid and “netted 37 illegal aliens, including those associated with the bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang.” [Fox News, The Five, 10/1/25]
• The Daily Wire’s Jennie Taer wrote that the building was “teeming with suspected Tren de Aragua gang members.” [The Daily Wire, 10/1/25]
• Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones complained that people are “more concerned about the children being temporarily detained, not the fact that they were around in the same apartment complex of Tren de Aragua, a known terrorist organization.” Jones’ comment came after Lyons claimed Tren de Aragua “took over” the building and that pictures of zip-tied children were “AI fake photos.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/6/25]
• Vince Coglianese claimed, “The feds have made an arrest in a raid on an apartment building in Chicago on a bunch of suspected Tren de Aragua members.” [Rumble, Vince, 10/1/25]