A police chief has revealed that no gun was found on a 13-year-old boy who was detained last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement—exposing a second serious falsehood pushed by a top Department of Homeland Security official this week.
Reports that a seventh-grader had been arrested by federal agents and taken to a juvenile detention center more than 500 miles away from his family sparked widespread outrage on Monday.
Amid the social media furore, Tricia McLaughlin, who, as Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s top communications official, went into bat for ICE on her official social media account.
She posted on X: “Here are the facts: he posed a public safety threat with an extensive rap sheet including violent assault with a dangerous weapon, battery, breaking and entering, destruction of property. He was in possession of a firearm and 5-7 inch knife when arrested.”
DHS then followed suit, posting: “Not only was this individual in possession of a firearm and a 5-7 inch knife when arrested, he also had an EXTENSIVE rap sheet.”
However, according to officials, McLaughlin’s “facts” around the ICE detention weren’t entirely true—for the second time in as many days.
At a City Hall news conference on Tuesday in Everett, Massachusetts, city mayor Carlo DeMaria said officers had recovered a 6–7 inch double-edged knife from the boy during the arrest last Thursday at Albert N. Parlin School, but “no firearm,” a detail confirmed by Everett Police Chief Paul Strong, and reported by The Boston Globe.
The boy was booked at the station and then taken into ICE custody. He is now being held at the 32-bed Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Virginia.
During the presser, DeMaria also said the cops did not contact ICE about the juvenile: “Everett police does not make arrests based on immigration status,” the Globe reported.
Despite McLaughlin’s claim that the child had an “extensive rap sheet,” journalist Marisa Kabas reported that neither the mayor nor the police chief made any mention of him having a criminal history.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Everett Police Department to confirm whether the boy has a criminal history, as alleged by McLaughlin and DHS.
On Tuesday evening, Kabas posted on Bluesky that she had asked ICE if they stood by McLaughlin’s post. She said a spokesperson said DHS “was working on a response. Five hours later, still nothing.”
McLaughlin is a regular mouthpiece for DHS on network television news channels, and her X account features a clip of her arguing with an ABC News presenter, in which she boasts, “I can do this all day”. This is the second time in two days that she has been caught peddling mistruths.
As the Daily Beast reported on Tuesday, McLaughlin made a completely false claim about the violent arrest of an American teen girl in a clip that went viral.
With community anger swelling on Tuesday night, and with classmates and immigrant-rights groups packing Everett’s council chamber and demanding the child’s return to Massachusetts, there was also anger directed toward the DHS and McLaughlin’s false claims.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said on X: “Yet another sign @DHSgov and [McLaughlin]’s ‘fact checks’ are not trustworthy.”
McLaughlin and the DHS are getting a reputation for peddling mistruths. Last month, the Beast reported that a “fact check” McLaughlin had posted on the DHS website about a mom who miscarried a baby in ICE custody had falsely smeared her as a wanted killer.
Despite these posts having been proven to contain false information that misleads the public, all three remain online at the time of publication.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS, McLaughlin, and the Everett Police Department for comment.
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