Arrest records obtained by The Daily Wire raise new questions about the case of Martin Soto, a Peruvian national who became the face of an anti-ICE protest movement after his wife said he was abducted while buying diapers for the couple’s infant son. According to a report published Monday by the outlet, the Kearny Police Department documents show Soto was taken into custody for domestic abuse on February 1 — the same day his wife, Gabriela, has said federal immigration agents seized him.
A narrative that drew national attention
Soto’s story traveled fast. After his detention, Gabriela Soto launched a public campaign alleging that ICE had “kidnapped” her husband, testifying to his character as a devoted father and churchgoer in an op-ed titled “ICE Kidnapped My Husband On His Way to Buy Diapers For Our Infant Son.” She also led protests outside Delaney Hall, the Newark detention center where he was initially held, and organized a hunger strike that drew support from activists and elected officials. A GoFundMe effort raised more than $67,000.
Democratic New Jersey Reps. Rob Menendez and Analilia Mejia were on hand when Soto walked free on October 6 from an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, after a Biden-appointed judge granted his habeas petition, finding he had been wrongfully detained and citing mental health concerns. Video from that day showed Soto, wearing an ankle monitor, collapsing into his wife’s arms.
What the police documents say
The Kearny records, obtained through a public records request, state that Soto was arrested by local officers on February 1 for “domestic abuse.” The victim’s name is redacted in most places, but one portion identifies her as “Ms. Soto” and the report elsewhere names her father as “Mr. Gabriel Osores” — Osores being Gabriela Soto’s maiden name.
An earlier Daily Wire report based on records gathered by the Oversight Project had described the alleged assault in detail, stating that Soto “purposely” caused bodily injury to the victim “specifically by using his hands, both opened and closed to strike” her “in her face, causing minor scratches and cuts to her face and neck.” That report also said he placed a hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming for help. Those earlier records did not identify the victim beyond her gender.
The newly obtained report adds further detail: officers responded to a domestic violence call at the couple’s address, and the alleged assault occurred with children in the room. At some point during the encounter, Soto “tried to push” Gabriela’s father off of him, and the father told him he had to leave the house. Gabriela then contacted police, and a subsequent action by Soto — the details of which are redacted — prompted her father to pull him away. Responding officers summoned EMS; Soto was bleeding from his nose, had a laceration on his lip and scratches on his abdomen, and refused medical treatment.
The report states that Soto was transferred to ICE custody from the Hudson County jail on February 2. ICE confirmed federal immigration officers took him into custody that day after he was charged with assault, and said he had “participated in inciting unrest and causing property damage” while held at Delaney Hall. A Town of Kearny official told The Daily Wire the assault case was later expunged.
Pushback from Soto’s supporters
Gabriela Soto did not respond to requests for comment on the newly obtained records, according to the outlet. In a July Instagram exchange with The Daily Wire, she denied ever being assaulted, saying she had photos and selfies from that week showing no injuries. “My husband NEVER hit me,” she wrote. “My husband never hit anyone.” She also said he was “never got arrested by Kearny PD” and maintained he left the house at 5:30 p.m. on February 1, providing what she described as location data and messages as proof.
Soto’s attorney, Selenia DeStefani, denied he has a criminal record, telling the outlet that “he is the victim of a crime, not the perpetrator of one.” DeStefani has filed an application for Soto to receive a U-visa, which is available to victims of certain crimes, based on his treatment in immigration detention. The New Jersey Department of Labor confirmed it certified the application on October 3.
Scott Mechkowski, a visiting fellow at the Oversight Project and Mass Deportation Coalition and a former deputy director of ICE’s New York field office, told The Daily Wire the documents demonstrate that the abduction narrative was false. “It wasn’t an abduction, and nobody grabbed him off a Kearny street on a diaper run or in a store shopping at all,” he said, adding that reporters and lawmakers who championed the case “had the same access to the facts I did” and “let federal officers be called kidnappers for months.”
Mechkowski said officials who promoted the story “owe ICE’s officers an apology and owe the public a correction.”
The episode adds to a broader partisan fight over ICE detention conditions and the government’s handling of immigration cases, with the Sotos’ story having become a rallying point for critics of the agency. The Daily Wire’s reporting now presents a competing account of how Soto entered federal custody — one that his wife and lawyer dispute.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-arrest-records-show-illegal-whose-sob-story-captured-the-nation-is-a-wife-beater