NBC News has once again been caught red-handed peddling a false narrative to smear law enforcement and score political points.
This time, the network pushed the outrageous claim that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents used a 5-year-old autistic girl as “bait” to pressure her criminal illegal alien father into surrendering in Massachusetts.
On Tuesday, NBC News pushed a sensational story alleging that ICE agents “grabbed” a little girl outside her Massachusetts home in a cruel bid to pressure her father, Edwards Hip Mejia, into surrendering.
The report, amplified by video from Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra, showed the child sitting next to a law enforcement SUV with officers nearby, the perfect image for NBC to spin as heartless Trump-era immigration enforcement.
According to NBC’s version, Mejia’s wife claimed her husband thought he was being followed, returned home, and agents seized their daughter. The story painted ICE officers as callous monsters traumatizing an innocent child.
According to the news outlet:
The girl’s mother told Telemundo — which is owned and operated by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News — that her husband called her while he was driving with their daughter shortly before the incident and told her he thought he was being followed.
and “managed to run back into the parking lot of my house,” she said, and her daughter as a result was left with the agents.
“They took my daughter, she’s 5 years old. She has autism spectrum,” the girl’s mother is heard telling agents in the video. “Give me my daughter back.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) blew the lid off NBC’s narrative. Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, slammed the report as an outright lie.
“Absolutely not. ICE agents NEVER used a 5-year-old girl as “bait”—what a disgusting smear. The criminal illegal alien target —with previous arrests for domestic abuse and strangulation, among other charges—ABANDONED his own child in a car.
The target, Edwards Hip Mejia, ignored law enforcement emergency lights to pull over and drove back to his house. He fled from the car, gave officers the double middle finger, and darted inside his house. He abandoned his 5-year-old daughter in the car. Officers helped rescue the child and called local police to report the abandonment.
Disgusting smears like these peddled by the media are leading to a 1000% increase in assaults against our brave law enforcement.”
Absolutely not. ICE agents NEVER used a 5-year-old girl as “bait”—what a disgusting smear. The criminal illegal alien target —with previous arrests for domestic abuse and strangulation, among other charges—ABANDONED his own child in a car.
The target, Edwards Hip Mejia,… https://t.co/8LIMlC92H5
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) September 23, 2025
Homeland Security’s official X account also released the following statement:
“NBC News — these smears are SICK.
Our ICE agents NEVER used a 5-year-old girl as ‘bait.’
The criminal illegal alien target of the operation—with previous arrests for domestic abuse, strangulation, and vandalizing property—ABANDONED HIS OWN CHILD in a car.
Edwards Hip Mejia, a criminal illegal alien from Guatemala, ignored law enforcement emergency lights and darted inside his house, abandoning his 5-year-old daughter in the car.
Officers helped rescue the child and called local police to report the abandonment.
Stop the smears. Stop the lies.”
.@NBCNews — these smears are SICK.
Our ICE agents NEVER used a 5-year-old girl as ‘bait.’
The criminal illegal alien target of the operation—with previous arrests for domestic abuse, strangulation, and vandalizing property—ABANDONED HIS OWN CHILD in a car.
Edwards Hip Mejia, a… pic.twitter.com/p0Bedk5p6Q
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) September 23, 2025
NBC was forced to backpedal almost immediately, retracting its false story and scrubbing the headline. The piece was quietly updated to read: “Video shows ICE with 5-year-old girl while agents attempt to arrest her father.”
At the very bottom, NBC slipped in a correction admitting its smear: “An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the activities of ICE agents in the video. The article has been updated.”
Shot.
Chaser.
Maybe @NBCNews should have asked @DHSgov before propagating these smears. pic.twitter.com/I92yzy7PJh
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) September 24, 2025
