For the record: Fresno man deported by ICE had previous illegal crossings

A deported immigrant who was profiled in a CalMatters story earlier this week misled the news organization about his criminal record and deportation history. 

CalMatters learned of the deception through a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement social media post attacking the news organization Thursday.

ICE’s X (Twitter) account said Luis Arreguin had been deported five times and had “a criminal history including aggravated assault with a weapon, firearms offenses, and DUI,” and said that CalMatters failed to include that context in its story published Wednesday. 

CalMatters editor in chief Kristen Go said the nonprofit news outlet’s reporter tried, twice, to reach ICE’s media team over a period of six days, with no response. The reporter also looked into Arreguin’s background in a court database and a public records database, neither of which turned up the records ICE described.

“We always want to believe what our sources tell us, but as journalists, we also take steps to verify that information,” Go said. “In this case, we did a background check and reached out to ICE two times. It wasn’t until after our story ran that ICE decided to provide the information we had requested.

“We believe in transparency from the people we cover and extend that standard to our reporting as well.”

Arreguin was arrested on an assault charge in Fresno County one year ago. The District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute him and did not press charges, a spokesperson said.

The reporter, Wendy Fry, sent ICE’s media team seven questions about Arreguin’s immigration history on the evening of Oct. 21 seeking the legal basis for Arreguin’s deportation and the basic facts of his detention. 

“We did not find any recent criminal history for Mr. Arreguin, did ICE or the federal government consider him a threat to public safety. If so, why?” Fry asked in the email. 

The rest of the questions sought to confirm elements of Arreguin’s account of his detention and deportation flight. 

Fry sent a follow-up email to ICE the following Tuesday “Circling this back on top. Our story is publishing tomorrow.” 

Go said Fry received no response to those questions. 

In her story, Fry quoted Arreguin family members, who repeated his account. CalMatters has reached out to them, and to Arreguin, for comment but has received no response. 

On Thursday, a day after Fry’s story published, a Fox News reporter wrote on social media that he was told by sources in the federal government that Arreguin has been deported five times. 

Exactly 30 minutes later, ICE quoted the Fox News reporter’s message in its own social media post. 

“We’d like to believe that government agencies operate in good faith — but there is a valid question as to why ICE waited until after publication and even so, (did) not contact the reporter directly,” Go said. 

ICE did not immediately respond to questions about its response from CalMatters, or whether the social media team has access to records that are unavailable to the media team responding to reporter requests. 

The agency has still not responded to Fry’s initial questions. 

Edward Wasserman, a journalism professor and former dean of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, said it’s impossible to know whether an agency as large as ICE “deliberately stonewalled.” 

“It’s dangerous to speculate whether they had a motive,” Wasserman said. 

From a “hard-nosed PR perspective,” Wasserman said, the strategy of releasing information after a story published doesn’t help an agency’s cause. 

“It doesn’t really serve their own purposes,” he said.