Cory Booker tells heartbreaking ICE story — leaves out all the important facts

BS BULLETIN:

Sen. Cory Booker shared a video of 5-year-old Liam Tadeo crying as ICE agents arrested his father, Victor Martinez Nieto, describing the scene as “cruelty inflicted on a child.”
What Booker’s post didn’t mention: DHS says Martinez Nieto entered the country illegally, was arrested by immigration authorities in November 2025, accepted voluntary departure, was removed in February — and then illegally reentered the United States.
The father and son were subsequently deported together after Martinez Nieto chose to take Liam with him rather than designate someone in the United States to care for the child.

Sen. Cory Booker found a heartbreaking immigration video. The New Jersey Democrat shared footage this week showing 5-year-old Liam Tadeo crying while immigration agents led his handcuffed father away in Austin, Texas. Booker’s description was appropriately dramatic.

“5-year-old boy wanted to play soccer,” Booker wrote. “Instead, ICE pulled over his family, cuffed his father, took him away crying as he clung to his dad’s shackled hands.”

Booker concluded: “This is cruelty inflicted on a child. Kids should be in school, not in the back of an ICE van.”

It’s a powerful image. There’s also quite a bit more to the story.

Liam’s father, Victor Martinez Nieto, had already been through the immigration enforcement system. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Martinez Nieto entered the United States illegally in 2022. ICE arrested him in November 2025.

He then accepted voluntary departure and was removed from the United States in February 2026. At some point afterward, according to DHS, he illegally crossed back into the country. That’s the man immigration authorities encountered again in Austin on Aug. 16.

Liam and his father were reportedly headed to a soccer game when agents stopped them. Video of the arrest showed the little boy crying and holding his father’s hand while Martinez Nieto was handcuffed.

The images understandably generated outrage. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, demanded Liam’s release and called for the closure of the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, where father and son were held.

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico went further. “ICE kidnapped Liam Tadeo on his way to a soccer game with his dad,” Talarico wrote. “Liam should be in kindergarten. Instead, our government has thrown him in a prison camp hundreds of miles from home.”

DHS pushed back sharply.

The department said ICE does not require children to be deported with detained parents. Parents facing removal can choose to have their children placed with a safe person they designate in the United States, according to DHS. In this case, Martinez Nieto chose to have Liam remain with him. The two were deported together Aug. 25.

That doesn’t make the video of a crying 5-year-old any less painful to watch. It does make the underlying story considerably different from Booker’s 39-word version of events.

And people on X noticed.

Booker’s post was hit with a Community Note supplying the missing immigration history, while commenters piled on with the same basic objection: Whatever one thinks about Trump’s immigration policies, the father had previously been removed from the country and returned illegally.

Twitchy chronicled the ensuing ratio as critics accused Booker of presenting the most emotionally powerful portion of the story while omitting the facts that explained why ICE was arresting the father in the first place.

The dispute illustrates a familiar problem in the immigration debate. A photograph or 30-second video can be completely real. So can the heartbreak visible in it. But neither necessarily tells you what happened before the camera started rolling. In this case, there was a lot that happened before.

MY QUICK TAKE

Nobody enjoys watching a 5-year-old cry while his father is being handcuffed. That’s precisely why these images are so politically powerful.

But compassion for the child doesn’t require pretending the father’s immigration history doesn’t exist.

He was deported. He came back illegally. ICE encountered him again. Those facts don’t magically make a frightened little boy stop being frightened. They do explain why his father was being arrested.

Booker gave his followers the tears. The internet supplied the rest of the story.