After federal agents raided an apartment building in Chicago to arrest Tren de Aragua gang members, MSNBC personalities repeatedly spread the fake news that agents zip-tied children. And, even though no one died in the raid, they also promoted hyperbolic comparisons to the Gestapo, the Tulsa killings of 1921, and the MOVE Philadelphia bombing of 1985.
Fox News not only highlighted DHS's fact check that debunks Democrat misinformation on the subject, but Fox reporters also informed viewers that most of those living in the building were illegal squatters.
On the Thursday after the September 30 raid, MSNBC's Chris Hayes called it "the province of tyrants," and declared it "the most egregious abuse of our basic rights in America I've seen in a long time -- maybe in my lifetime."
The fallowing day on Deadline: White House, New York Times columnist Mara Gay called it "lawlessness," and proclaimed that "the effort to dehumanize immigrants was never going to end there," and that Trump "is actively engaged in trying to dehumanize transgender Americans, gay Americans, black Americans."
Host Nicolle Wallace quoted a witness to the raid: "We're under siege. We're being invaded by our own military."
On the Saturday, October 4, The Weekend: Primetime, co-host Antonia Hylton and Emma Viegland of The Majority Report compared the raid in which no lives were lost to mass killings from the past:
ANTONIA HYLTON: I mean, what can we even compare this to, in your view? I mean, for me, one of the first thoughts that I had was the MOVE bombing in Philadelphia in 1985 when you just think of a completely disproportionate -- and insane-seeming use of, you know, power against a residential American community, but did this bring up anything for you?
EMMA VIGELAND, THE MAJORITY REPORT: I mean, you think of disproportionate -- other disproportionate uses of violence like, oh, gosh, I mean, the Tulsa race massacre. I know it's not completely analogous, or, say, like COINTELPRO and the FBI going after black and civil rights activists and things like that. But, not really, I mean, the comparisons that I make are the Gestapo.
On the same day, MSNBC's The Weekend show also promoted the "Gestapo" smear.
Many MSNBC shows repeated the claims about children being zip-tied that have been disputed by DHS. The Weekend: Primetime co-host Elise Jordan declared that "I don't think we can do justice almost to how horrible it was," referring to the raid, and called it "insane" that children were zip-tied.
But, on the same day, Fox reporter Bill Melugin reported that there was a hoax on TikTok that showed small children being zip-tied, which was cited by DHS in an October 6 statement disputing claims made by Democrats.
On the October 8 Fox & Friends, co-host Ainsley Earhardt picked up on the fact check:
In Illinois, the governor is saying all of this crazy stuff about they're raiding homes, they're putting children in zip ties. DHA has had enough about it. This is what the governor said, "They're raising neighborhoods where, instead of going after the bad guys, they're just picking up people who were brown and black and then checking their credentials." But then DHS has a fact check. They have listed everything that the governor has said, and then they have fact checked it.
She soon added: "They say children were never zip-tied, and, 'This is a shameful and disgusting lie.'"
As recently as Wednesday, the claim was still being repeated on MSNBC.
As for who lived in the building, Fox reporter Mike Tobin reported on the October 2 The Faulkner Focus:
There were six specific targets in the raid believed to be members of that Venezuelan criminal gang, Tren de Aragua -- also believed to involved in dealing in drugs and weapons. But the building was filled with squatters. In fact, the federal agents only went into apartments that were supposed to be vacant or weren't paying rent.
So it sounds like the people who were forced out by federal agents did not even have a legal right to be there.
Transcript follows:
Fox's America's Newsroom
October 1, 2025
9:26 a.m. Eastern
TODD LYONS, ACTING ICE DIRECTOR: That was a known, empty apartment complex that the city knew of that it was known TDA members were in that building. You know, they've arrested several TDA members with criminal histories. We knew there were going to be weapons in that location. There were people living in squatting and vacant apartments.
You know, just recently, we arrested a sex offender -- first-degree sex offender of a child in Chicago. So there are definitely public safety threats. We thanked the border patrol for helping us with our interior enforcement, but it's important that we go ahead and we take care of these public safety threats, especially in abandoned apartment buildings like that.
(...)
Fox's Faulkner Focus
October 2, 2025
11:17 a.m.
MIKE TOBIN: There were six specific targets in the raid believed to be members of that Venezuelan criminal gang, Tren de Aragua -- also believed to involved in dealing in drugs and weapons. But the building was filled with squatters. In fact, the federal agents only went into apartments that were supposed to be vacant or weren't paying rent. Federal agents picked up some 37 undocumented people. The investigation to determine their gang affiliation is not yet complete, but Chicago alderman Ray Lopez says South Shore residents will be happy over time because that neighborhood needs some law and order.
RAYMOND LOPEZ (D-CHICAGO ALDERMAN): I'm sure that the residents that had to live with all of the drug activity, human trafficking, prostitution are very thankful from around that building, finally seeing some results from their calls for action.
(...)
MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes
October 2, 2025
8:41 p.m.
CHRIS HAYES: We're getting new reports about a chilling and downright shocking escalation of ICE tactics against the residents of Chicago. In the middle of the night, hundreds of armed federal agents and police, backed up by riot trucks, smoke grenades and helicopters, breached fences and busted doors in an immigration raid on an entire apartment building on the city's South Side. They pulled dozens of residents from their homes in zip ties, including children.
(...)
UNIENTIFIED WOMAN: -- was bringing the kids out, too. Had them zip-tied to each other. (editing jump) One of them literally laughed -- he was standing right here. He said, "F*** them kids."
HAYES: They zip-tied the kids together. ICE put out a statement saying they were pursuing Tren de Aragua gang members (Hayes has a skeptical facial expression). But U.S. citizens living in the building say they were detained, too. The cops told them that if they had any unrelated warrants they wouldn't be going back home. Thirty-seven people were ultimately arrested after agents separated children from their parents on the street. And if you're looking at this and asking yourself, "How is this legal?" that is the right question to ask.
(...)
The consequence of all this is what we're seeing now in the dead of night in Chicago, dozens of federal agents raiding an entire apartment building with kids in it just to see what they can find. It's the most egregious abuse of our basic rights in America I've seen in a long time -- maybe in my lifetime.
(...)
You know, there's a reason the American founders put the right to be free from unlawful searches and seizures in the Bill of Rights from the start. Masked secret police profiling people and now targeting entire apartment buildings making everyone prove they're not guilty of something is the province of tyrants. It is the opposite of American, and I don't think Americans will stand for it, nor should they.
(...)
MSNBC's Deadline: White House
October 3, 2025
5:01 p.m.
UNIENTIFIED WOMAN: -- was bringing the kids out, too. Had them zip-tied to each other. (editing jump) One of them literally laughed -- he was standing right here. He said, "F*** them kids."
NICOLLE WALLACE: F*** the kids. Federal officials say 37 people were arrested in the raid, which they said they performed because the neighborhood was a, quote, "location known to be frequented by Tren to Aragua members and their associates. But, as the Chicago Sun Times reports, "DHS gave no evidence to support that assertion, and authorities did not confirm that any of the people arrested were members of a Venezuelan gang." An unbelievable show of force that looks to the naked, untrained eye very unAmerican -- sweeping up women, children and U.S. citizens. Darrell Ballard, who witnessed the raid, said this: Quote, "We're under siege. We're being invaded by our own military," end quote.
(...)
MARA GAY, NEW YORK TIMES OPINION WRITER: It was always clear to us that the effort to dehumanize immigrants was never going to end there. We know that because this administration -- this White House is actively engaged in trying to dehumanize transgender Americans, gay Americans, black Americans, people who live in cities or think differently or who are willing to oppose them. And so now this raid says, "Actually, we're not just targeting immigrants. So what if in the collateral damage there are small children zip-tied in the middle of the night?"
WALLACE: Yeah, I mean, the witness said,"F the kids."
GAY: That's right, and I think -- and, of course, this is a low-income community from what we can tell, and what sounds like to me is that attitude is, "We can come in and do anything we want." Repelling (propelling?) into a community like that, just that kind of lawlessness sends a message about what the administration thinks about the value of those Americans, and there's no respect for those American citizens.
And, I'm sorry, whether -- whether the pretext of the Venezuelan gang they say was there -- whether that is the case or not, there is no excuse. But of course we've seen no evidence of this. So I think this is extremely chilling. And, by the way, it's not only serving to disrespect these Americans and terrorize them, it's also a warning to governors and mayors that "Hey, we can do anything we want, so you better behave.
(..,.)
MSNBC's The Weekend: Primetime
October 4, 2025
8:06 p.m.
ELISE JORDAN: I don't think we can do justice almost to how horrible it was the other night. Let's -- I just want to go back to Governor Pritzker's statement. He had a statement just about children, and he said, "Following widespread reports of children being zip-tied, separated from their parents, and detained for several hours at an apartment building in South Central Chicago" -- that is insane, and this is happening in the middle of the night. Some of the reports said that the children were unclothed. How is this happening? And how can Donald Trump think that there is any electoral benefit to this whatsoever?
(..,.)
ANTONIA HYLTON: I mean, what can we even compare this to, in your view? I mean, for me, one of the first thoughts that I had was the MOVE bombing in Philadelphia in 1985 when you just think of a completely disproportionate -- and insane-seeming use of, you know, power against a residential American community, but did this bring up anything for you?
EMMA VIGELAND, THE MAJORITY REPORT: I mean, you think of disproportionate -- other disproportionate uses of violence like, oh, gosh, I mean, the Tulsa race massacre. I know it's not completely analogous, or, say, like COINTELPRO and the FBI going after black and civil rights activists and things like that. But, not really, I mean, the comparisons that I make are the Gestapo.
(...)
Fox & Friends
October 6, 2025
8:40 a.m.
LYONS: Now, to the controversy about that raid on a seized apartment complex that TDA -- Tren de Aragua -- took over, right, that the city didn't take any action on -- of course when we go to a scene we have to secure everyone at the scene till we make sure it's safe for all law enforcement. But we've seen so many AI fake photos of supposed ICE and border patrol agents zip-tying small children. That is just not the case.
(...)
Fox & Friends
October 8, 2025
7:07 a.m.
AINSLEY EARHARDT: In Illinois, the governor is saying all of this crazy stuff about they're raiding homes, they're putting children in zip ties. DHA has had enough about it. This is what the governor said, "They're raising neighborhoods where, instead of going after the bad guys, they're just picking up people who were brown and black and then checking their credentials." But then DHS has a fact check. They have listed everything that the governor has said, and then they have fact checked it.
(...)
They talk about people getting detained -- they're getting arrested, U.S. citizens -- 130 people are being emptied out of this building. Well, they fact check it. DHS says this operation resulted in the arrest of 37 illegal aliens from such countries as Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and Nigeria -- among them Tren de Aragua gang members and violent criminals. They say children were never zip-tied, and, "This is a shameful and disgusting lie."
