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 January 22, referring to the detention of Ecuadorian illegal alien Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias with his son Liam Ramos, Wallace hyperbolically claimed:
Every single person being terrorized right now, today, Thursday, in America, 5:39 in the East, is living in such abject terror not just that they as adults will be shot, but that their children will not be spared because yesterday, in Minneapolis, Liam Conejo Ramos was used as bait by ICE officers to draw out and deport other people living in America.
The case has been mentioned on every episode of Deadline: White House since then.
On January 23, Wallace discussed the case several times and was dismissive of Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino's denial of the story.
On the January 30 show, while speaking with MSNOW legal analyst Melissa Murray, 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 latest 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."
On Wednesday, the MSNOW 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.
And it was also mentioned on Thursday's show by reporter Jacob Soboroff as Alicia Menendez was fill-in host.
But, back on January 23, Wallace's MSNOW colleague Chris Jansing did a better job of informing 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, 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, MSNOW contributor Eddie Glaude called ICE agents "moral monsters" as he talked up the accusation.
Transcripts follow:
MSNOW's Deadline: White House
January 22, 2026
5:01 p.m. Eastern
NICOLLE WALLACE: ICE has been ramping up the targeting of children, including the sickening practice of using children to arrest the adults in their lives. This is what the Washington Post reports about what ICE agents did to five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos. Quote, "After detaining his father, ICE officers then asked Liam to knock on the door to see if any other people were inside the home," quote, "'using a five-year-old as bait,' according to Liam's school district."
(...)
5:12 p.m.
CLAIRE McCASKILL, MSNOW CONTRIBUTOR: Just to think for a minute, that five-year-old, taken by people in scary outfits with masks over their faces telling him to go knock on the door, trying to bring people out of that house that they could whisk off to who knows where for what knows what reason. A five-year-old -- that's what we've come to.
(...)
5:30 p.m.
WALLACE: ...taking five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, and then not just taking him and separating him from his father and detaining him in a location no one in the government is either sharing or certain of, but how does he become collateral damage? How are we at a war against ourselves in America where a five-year-old is one of the weapons of Donald Trump's choosing?
(...)
5:39 p.m.
WALLACE: Every single person being terrorized right now, today, Thursday, in America, 5:39 in the East, is living in such abject terror not just that they as adults will be shot, but that their children will not be spared because yesterday, in Minneapolis, Liam Conejo Ramos was used as bait by ICE officers to draw out and deport other people living in America.
(...)
MSNOW's Chris Jansing Reports
January 23, 2026
12:04 p.m.
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, MSNOW 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.
(...)
MSNOW's Deadline: White House
January 23, 2026
4:03 p.m.
WALLACE: As we reported here yesterday, Liam's school officials say that federal agents used Liam as, quote, "bait," getting five-year-old Liam Ramos to knock on the front door of his own house so that ICE could go inside and arrest other people in his home.
(...)
WALLACE: Commander Gregory Bovino has blamed five-year-old Liam Ramo's family for the incident. When Greg was asked if he had any moral, legal, or ethical qualms about detaining a five-year-old child, he said this.
GREGORY BOVINO, BORDER PATROL: I didn't detain a five-year-old.
(...)
5:30 p.m.
WALLACE: Liam Ramos wasn't just detained and shipped off to Texas -- he was used as bait. I wonder what the legal process is? I mean, is that legal to you? Are there rules that govern what you can do with a five-year-old child in pursuit of someone who actually isn't here illegally. His father is not known to have committed any crimes, and they were both in a legal process. They were asylum seekers
(...)
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
Deadline: White House
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.'"
(...)
Deadline: White House
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.
(...)
Deadline: White 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.
. Ben Graham
