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On Friday, a local newspaper in Allentown, PA, published a story making a salacious claim against the Trump administration. According to “family members,” ICE had arrested and roughed up their 82-year-old grandfather, a legal asylum holder, before deporting him to Guatemala.
The Morning Call claimed that Luis Leon was trying to replace his lost green card at a local USCIS office when the Chilean national was deported to the wrong country, where he ended up in a hospital recovering from pneumonia. Further, the family said Leon’s wife was kept in custody, in terrible conditions, for 10 hours before being released.
Multiple international news outlets, including The Guardian, ran with the story, giving it an air of credibility, to the point where AI engines like Google and Grok were claiming it was confirmed. But by Sunday, holes started to appear.
For example, why did the family first claim Leon had died in custody before changing the story to him being deported to Guatemala? Why could the Guatemalan authorities find no record of Leon being admitted into their country? Why was the granddaughter, who was the primary source for the press, claiming that Leon had “no plans” to return to the United States if he was illegally deported to a country he’s not even from?
Instead of pressing those inconsistencies, though, The Morning Call doubled down. According to their first update of the story, the granddaughter flew to Guatemala and relayed information from Leon himself, including a series of new or altered claims. Immigration lawyer Nicolette Glazer, who has been chronicling this story from the beginning, was immediately skeptical given her expertise.
