ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ fails to mention Minnesota church arrests during ICE segment

ABC’s “World News Tonight” on Thursday failed to report that three anti-ICE agitators were arrested after a mob stormed a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota — instead focusing on the alleged detainment of a five-year-old child by ICE in the same state.

ABC anchor David Muir opened the roughly two-and-a-half-minute segment on ICE by addressing the “growing outrage” over reports that a five-year-old boy in Minnesota was detained by ICE and used as “bait” to apprehend his father, an illegal immigrant.

While the segment focused almost entirely on the alleged detention of the Minnesota boy, it omitted another major ICE-related development from the same week — the arrests of several anti-ICE agitators who disrupted a church service.

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ABC’s omission of the Minnesota church protest arrests was first noted by NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck, who called out the network on X Thursday for not featuring “a single word” concerning the arrests.

ABC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Other evening broadcasts, such as NBC’s “Nightly News” and CBS’ “Evening News,” briefly covered the arrest of the St. Paul church agitators. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Thursday that Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen and William Kelly were arrested in connection with the protest.

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Despite widespread reports that the Minnesota child was “detained” by federal immigration officers, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rejected that characterization.

According to DHS, the five-year-old child was not detained by ICE, but rather, was “abandoned” during an immigration enforcement operation. 

After Democrats — including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. — shared an image of a five-year-old boy online and claimed he was arrested by ICE while coming home from pre-school, the White House fired back in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson condemned what the Trump administration views as the mainstream media working “hand-in-glove with Democrats to spread malicious lies about ICE operations.” 

“It’s shameful that the media so quickly runs with the fake Democrat narrative without first getting the facts,” Jackson said. “Here’s the reality: ICE officers work heroically with the utmost professionalism to make American communities safer. In this instance, they stayed with a child who was abandoned by his father — an illegal alien from Ecuador.”

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On ABC News’ website, the outlet published an article titled “5-year-old asylum seeker detained as ICE expands enforcement in Minnesota,” framing the headline in a way which states the boy was “detained” as fact, despite DHS disputing this claim.

Although the outlet later included DHS’s statement — “ICE did NOT target a child. The child was ABANDONED.” — that clarification was buried below the fold rather than in the headline.

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As noted by American Compass managing editor Drew Holden on X, the Daily Beast published a similar headline: “ICE Detains 5-Year-Old Child After School,” also presenting the claim as fact.