Even though DHS vehemently denied weeks ago that ICE agents tried to use a five-year-old child as bait to lure his mother out of her home, MSNOW's Nicolle Wallace repeatedly parrots the claim as if it were undisputed. In fact, she has made the charge on her Deadline: White House show every day since Friday, January 30.
On that show, while speaking with MSNOW legal analyst Melissa Murray about the detention of Ecuadorian illegal alien Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias with his son Liam Ramos, she posed:
When you let it sink in, what people who are living there are living through, the use of a five-year-old as bait -- as human bait to bait out someone by law enforcement; the killing of two U.S. citizens on the streets -- it doesn't feel like hyperbole anymore. This feels like a real "across the Rubicon" moment.
Murray notably made the nauseating over-the-top invocation of Nazi Germany in her response:
I think it is an "across the Rubicon" moment, Nicolle. It's worth noting, as that guest did, that there are real parallels between what we are seeing here and what we've seen at darker points in our history, not for nothing. The Nuremburg laws that essentially divided the Jewish populace in Europe into two different camps were based on laws.
On Monday's show, Wallace similarly recalled: "They were detained after ICE agents had attempted to use that five-year-old Liam as bait to arrest other people living in his home, including his pregnant mom."
And on Tuesday, speaking with Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-TX), she reiterated: "You're here to talk about efforts to return Liam Ramos to his family, a five-year-old boy used as bait to try to trap his mother who was inside his house."
And on Wednesday, the MS NOW host referred to the case again as she also misleadingly suggested that ICE has been raiding schools:
Schools are not considered on the other side of any of the lines for Donald Trump and ICE. Children are not considered on the other side of the line when it comes to using them as bait to lure out of homes other humans for arrest even if that human is their pregnant mom.
But, back on January 23, Wallace's MS NOW colleague Chris Jansing did at least inform her viewers that DHS had denied the claim as they asserted that agents were attempting to deliver the five-year-old to his mother after the boy's father left him behind while trying to escape.
The show played a clip of ICE official Marcos Charles:
My officers did everything they could to reunite him with his family. Tragically, when we approached the door of his residence, the people inside refused to take him in and open the door. Let me say it again: They saw the young boy, and they refused to open the door and take him back.
A bit later, while speaking with a witness who was not backing down from the claim, Jansing read a statement from DHS's Tricia McLaughlin declaring that the accusations were a "horrific smear."
And, for his part, on the same show, MS NOW contributor Eddie Glaude called ICE agents "moral monsters" as he talked up the accusation.
Transcripts follow:
MSNOW's Chris Jansing Reports
January 23, 2026
12:04 p.m. Eastern
ALEX TABET: And another allegation from this school district is that this ICE agent took little Liam Ramos -- this five-year-old -- to the front door of his family home and used him essentially as bait to try to lure family members out so they can also be detained by ICE. Now, of course, we're hearing a very competing narrative from Marcos Charles. He's the acting executive associate director of ICE. ... I want you to hear what he had to say just less than an hour ago.
MARCOS CHARLES, ICE: My officers did everything they could to reunite him with his family. Tragically, when we approached the door of his residence, the people inside refused to take him in and open the door. Let me say it again: They saw the young boy, and they refused to open the door and take him back.
TABET: So, of course, two very different competing narratives.
(...)
12:12 p.m.
JANSING: I want to read to you a DHS statement that was released. They call this whole idea a "horrific smear" that he was used as bait, saying, quote, "ICE did not target, arrest a child or use a child as bait. ICE law enforcement officers were the only people primarily concerned with the welfare of this child. The father and alleged mother abandoned the child. Agitators scared the child."
(...)
12:21 p.m.
EDDIE GLAUDE, MS NOW CONTRIBUTOR: And so what does it mean that someone could use a baby, five years old, as bait. There's only one things to conclude. They're moral monsters.
(...)
Deadline: White House
January 30, 2026
4:09 p.m.
NICOLLE WALLACE: When you let it sink in, what people who are living there are living through, the use of a five-year-old as bait -- as human bait to bait out someone by law enforcement; the killing of two U.S. citizens on the streets -- it doesn't feel like hyperbole anymore. This feels like a real "across the Rubicon" moment.
MELLISA MURRAY, MSNOW LEGAL ANALYST: I think it is an "across the Rubicon" moment, Nicolle. It's worth noting, as that guest did, that there are real parallels between what we are seeing here and what we've seen at darker points in our history, not for nothing. The Nuremburg laws that essentially divided the Jewish populace in Europe into two different camps were based on laws. They were codified -- they were written into laws in much the same way that this administration is harnessing existing legal structures in order to mount this surge in Minneapolis.
Again, ICE doesn't seem to be distinguishing between those who they believe to be undocumented migrants who have criminal records and those who are simply citizens or individuals who are lawfully here but happen to be brown or black. And that is essentially what happened. That is why you had people wearing markers or star on their clothing during those periods in the 1930s to denominate them as individuals who were disfavored by the state. We're seeing that happen in real time.
(...)
February 2, 2026
4:24 p.m.
WALLACE: It was a rare ray of pure light when news broke over the weekend that Liam Conejo Ramos, that five-year-old boy in the blue bunny hat and the little backpack who was arrested by ICE agents in Minneapolis, had been released from a Texas detention center alongside his dad, Adrian. They were detained after ICE agents had attempted to use that five-year-old Liam as bait to arrest other people living in his home, including his pregnant mom.
A judge ordered their release with a scathing rebuke to Donald Trump, writing this, quote, "The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas. Apparently, even if that requires traumatizing children, observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest knows no bounds and are bereft of human decency and the rule of law be damned."
The judge, including that indelible image of Liam and his blue bunny hat next to his signature on that order. Liam is right now home safe in Minnesota, but his story, tragically for our country and the people who write its history, is a drop in the bucket. According to the Marshall project, quote, "At least 3800 children under the age of 18, including 20 infants, have been booked since Donald Trump took office."
(...)
4:27 p.m.
ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER, THE ATLANTIC STAFF WRITER: ...the governor saying, "We have to be serious about certain enforcement questions, but our policy also has to be, 'No, we're not going to arrest a five-year-old in a Spiderman backpack and a, you know, furry blue hat after being picked up from pre-school.'"
(...)
February 3, 2026
4:22 p.m.
WALLACE (to Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-TX)): You're here to talk about efforts to return Liam Ramos to his family, a five-year-old boy used as bait to try to trap his mother who was inside his house.
(...)
February 4, 2026
4:08 p.m.
WALLACE: Schools are not considered on the other side of any of the lines for Donald Trump and ICE. Children are not considered on the other side of the line when it comes to using them as bait to lure out of homes other humans for arrest even if that human is their pregnant mom.
