ICE Arrest Video Sparks Scrutiny in New Jersey
Left 50%
Center 0%
Right 50%
1 left · 0 center · 1 right
What happened
On October 13, 2026, ABC News aired video of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents pulling a man from his car in New Jersey in front of his young children. In a separate New Jersey case, Kearny Police Department records obtained by The Daily Wire state that Peruvian national Martin Soto was arrested at his Kearny home on February 1 after a domestic-violence call; the records say he "purposely" caused "bodily injury" by using his hands, "both opened and closed to strike" the victim — identified in one passage as "Ms. Soto" — in the face, with children in the room. Soto was transferred from Hudson County jail into ICE custody on February 2, later led a hunger strike at ICE's Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark, and was released on October 6, 2026, from an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, after a Biden-appointed judge granted his habeas petition, stating he was wrongfully detained and had mental-health concerns. Gabriela Soto had publicly described that February encounter as ICE having "abducted" or "kidnapped" him while he was buying diapers for their infant son; in messages to The Daily Wire she said her husband "NEVER hit me," "never got arrested by Kearny PD," and left the house at 5:30 p.m. on February 1. A Town of Kearny official told The Daily Wire the assault case was later expunged; Soto's lawyer, Selenia DeStefani, said he "is the victim of a crime, not he perpetrator of one."
Sourcing check · Rests on documents, no one quoted · 2 articles
No article quotes anyone; the reporting rests on arrest records. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 0 of 1
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: No article does.
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 1 of 1
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: arrest records
- Credits another outlet 0 of 1
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
- Unnamed sources 0 of 1
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Oct 14, 15:30 UTC by Daily Wire, naming its source. First document in the first report, from Daily Wire (arrest records).
- Not counted 1
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
The two sides are covering different New Jersey ICE incidents rather than one shared arrest. Left-leaning coverage at ABC News shows agents pulling an unnamed man from his car in front of his young children and never identifies him or states a charge. Right-leaning coverage at The Daily Wire omits that video entirely and reports instead that Martin Soto was moved into ICE custody from jail after Kearny police arrested him for domestic abuse.
Left-leaning coverage leads with ICE tactics under scrutiny and the children watching. Right-leaning coverage leads with police records of a beating and the label "Wife Beater."
Who is the man ICE pulled from the car in New Jersey, and what warrant or charge authorized that stop?
Bottom line
A viewer of ABC News cannot name the New Jersey detainee or his charge; a reader of The Daily Wire never learns that a video of a car stop even exists.
The receipts — 3 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Kearny records state Soto struck the victim in the face, causing scratches and cuts
- The assault case was later expunged, a Town of Kearny official said
- ICE said it took Soto into custody after he was charged with assault
The Left View
ABC News framed the New Jersey footage as a reason "ICE's tactics are facing increased scrutiny," spotlighting agents pulling a man from his car "in front of his young children." The coverage treats the arrest as a tactics story: what viewers can see — force used in a family setting — is presented as the news, without naming the man or discussing why ICE was there.
The Right View
The Daily Wire used the Soto file to argue that a nationally circulated anti-ICE "sob story" collapsed once police records were obtained, saying the "illegal" who became "the face of the anti-ICE crusade" "only landed in federal custody after being arrested for brutally beating his wife," and that the records "paint a different picture" from a kidnapping-on-a-diaper-run narrative promoted by "media outlets and Democratic politicians." Quoting former ICE official Scott Mechkowski, it said the documents "prove" Gabriela Soto "is a pathological liar," that "It wasn't an abduction," and that journalists and lawmakers "took one person's word because it fit what they already wanted to say about ICE" and "owe ICE's officers an apology and owe the public a correction." The outlet treated Democratic representatives' welcome at Soto's release, her GoFundMe, and the couple's denials as evidence that ICE was cast as kidnapper without anyone requesting the Kearny report.
Our Take (balanced)
The left's strongest argument is the tape: video of ICE agents pulling a man from a car in front of young children is independently checkable evidence that enforcement can unfold as a public, family-disrupting scene, which is the basis for ABC News's claim that ICE's tactics "are facing increased scrutiny." The right's strongest argument is the paper trail: Kearny records of a domestic-violence arrest the day before ICE took custody, paired with Gabriela Soto's later insistence that Kearny police never arrested her husband, give The Daily Wire its claim that a widely promoted abduction story omitted how Soto actually entered the system. The central unresolved tension is that the two sides are not litigating the same incident — one asks the public to judge ICE by visible tactics around children, the other by whether sympathetic detention narratives survive local arrest records — so the debate never meets on a shared set of facts about a single arrest.
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