The recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the Administration’s initial statements about what happened  have forced much-needed scrutiny of Trump’s deportation program. These deaths, captured in public video and widely shared, exposed stark contradictions between official claims and what actually occurred, fueling national outrage and deepening questions about federal immigration enforcement.

In today’s post, I lay out how the lies about Good and Pretti are not isolated missteps, but are built on a scaffolding of exaggerated or false claims that have shaped the cruelty, chaos, and escalation of the deportation program;  from overstated crime waves to invented gang threats to irrational enforcement surges.