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Did a Reporter Prompt an ICE Sweep?

by richard0485

Most in Media Say ‘MAGA Influencer,’ Not ‘Journalist’

 

Homepage photo:  ICE agents arrest a man who became involved in a raid in New York’s Chinatown on Tuesday. (Credit: Dean Moses/amNewYork)

World Star Hip-Hop captioned its video, “SHE REALLY CALLED ICE?! Latina Reporter Sparks ICE Raid On Canal Street
 African Street Vendors Explode After She Exposes ‘Illegal Market’ In NYC Chinatown.”

Most in Media Say ‘MAGA Influencer,’ Not ‘Journalist’

Hundreds of protesters filled a swath of Lower Manhattan this week after a federal sweep targeting African street vendors, with nine of them arrested – and the action was said to be prompted by a woman variously called a reporter or a MAGA influencer.

“A senior Homeland Security official told CBS News nine immigrants from Africa suspected of being in the U.S. illegally were taken into federal immigration custody. DHS said at least one protester was arrested for allegedly assaulting a federal officer,” WCBS in New York reported Wednesday, referring to the Department of Homeland Security.

Luis FerrĂ©-SadurnĂ­ and Olivia Bensimon added for The New York Times, “By Tuesday evening, following the raid, a crowd of protesters outside the ICE offices in Lower Manhattan, about 100 strong, was slowly growing, as local Democratic elected officials showed up to denounce the arrests. D.H.S. said four people were arrested for ‘assaulting law enforcement’ and another person for obstruction, though the agency did not provide additional details.”

“The federal operation provided dramatic visuals,” Jeff Capellini, Adi Guajardo and Tim McNicholas reported for WCBS.

“Chopper 2 flew over the scene as DHS investigators drove military-style trucks through Lower Manhattan escorted by armed federal agents.

“That, in part, prompted protesters to make their way to 26 Federal Plaza, where the nine men were taken. The demonstration was peaceful, but those in attendance were clearly unnerved about what they saw earlier in the day.”

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul messaged, “[Donald Trump] claims he’s targeting the ‘worst of the worst.’ Today his agents used batons and pepper spray on street vendors and bystanders on Canal Street. You don’t make New York safer by attacking New Yorkers.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James asked the public for videos of ICE activity in New York, “Every New Yorker has the right to live without fear or intimidation,” James said in a press release on Wednesday, linking to a portal to submit reports of federal law enforcement activity.

The woman at the center of all this activity says she’s a genuine reporter, though many in the media identified her as a “MAGA influencer.”  The labeling raised once again the question of who is a journalist in a nation that, on constitutional principle, does not license the press.

“Multiple news outlets have reached out now stating that ‘at least one elected official’ thinks that my video is responsible for the Canal Street raid and I am now being labeled a ‘MAGA influencer’ despite covering this issue extensively since 2022. Hilarious.,” Hernandez wrote on X.

“I’ve been covering the illegal immigration crisis in New York City since 2023 and have watched the number of illegals climb from 65,000 to 250,000+ Here is a thread of my reporting on how bad NYC has gotten, starting with Canal street.”

Fox News identified Hernandez as “a field reporter for Turning Point USA’s Frontlines and a contributor to the organization, “ referring to the organization headed by the late Charlie Kirk. She described being targeted with racial comments from what she characterized as a predominantly older White crowd while covering the protest.”

Fox’s Elizabeth Heckman continued, “Hernandez  was also at the ‘No Kings’ protest Oct. 18. “At this protest, Hernandez said she experienced racist remarks.

“When she was trying to ‘rationalize’ with an older White male protester who made the claim that Charlie Kirk was ‘this horrible racist antisemite,’ she shared what happened next.

“I tried to, you know, rationalize with him and say, ‘hey, I’m an Asian-Hispanic woman. Charlie has hired me to represent his organization. How does that make him a racist?’ He then called me a token and said that everybody needs one, apparently.’ Then the protester went on to call everyone associated with Turning Point a ‘fascist,’ according to Hernandez.

“She said most of the protesters were older and white. ‘I don’t even like the label . . . I’m a Hispanic Asian woman myself. Like I said, I brought that up to this individual because he himself thinks that Charlie is some White supremacist racist, and to give him a real world example, you know, I’m a living one.”

Hernandez is not the only one blurring the occupational lines.

“In recent weeks, pro-Trump social media influencers have recorded videos of African vendors on Canal Street that spread widely online, and led to calls from some users for ICE to deport the vendors,” FerrĂ©-SadurnĂ­ and Bensimon wrote in the Times.

“Nick Shirley, who identifies himself as an independent journalist and who met with President Trump at the White House this month for a round table on Antifa, posted a video from Canal Street on Sept. 25 titled: ‘I Confronted Dangerous Migrant Scammers in NYC.’

But are Hernandez, Shirley and their counterparts reporters?

“You’re not doing journalism,” one X subscriber wrote to Hernandez. “A journalist would have asked folks questions. Customers, vendors. Tried to understand various perspectives, looking into what they want. Discussed the history of this phenomenon. You are just a tattletale.”

Who’s right?

Michael Days, News DEI Leader, Dies Suddenly

Oct. 19, 2025

Spontaneous Applause When He Was Named Editor

 

Homepage photo: Michael Days at Oct. 8 meeting of NABJ-Philadelphia (Credit: NABJ Philadelphia)

The National Association of Black Journalists prepared ths video when Michael Days was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2017. (Credit: YouTube)

Spontaneous Applause When He Was Named Editor

Michael Days, a leader in the newspaper business but especially in his Philadelphia hometown, died Saturday after falling ill suddenly in his Trenton, N.J., home, Melanie Burney, vice president of the NABJ-Philadelphia chapter of which Days was president, confirmed Sunday. He was 72.

Days was taken to the Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton early Saturday, said his wife, journalist Angela P. Dodson. Doctors treated him there until he died about 7 p.m.

Days was a retired news executive at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News; former president of the News Leaders Association, which disbanded last year, and longtime diversity advocate.

He and Dodson were partners in her Editors on Call business, which works with freelancers to develop their content. They also worked briefly as co-managing editors of Marcom Weekly, a multiplatform media business, where Days covered an Essence Music Festival. Separately, Days authored the 2017 book, “Obama’s Legacy: What He Accompished as President.”

On. Aug. 21, the couple wrote on Facebook, “We are completing a clear-eyed examination of U.S. history as we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We much appreciate Broadleaf Books for embracing this book. The title is ‘We’ve Been Here Before: How Rebellion and Activism Have Always Sustained America.’ ” The book is almost complete, Dodson said.

They became parents of four and grandparents of another four and celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary in April.

NABJ-Philadelphia said of Days in a statement Sunday, “He was our inaugural president, agreeing to lead us during the past two years as we carved out our own space as the only affiliate chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists in the Philadelphia region. In our first year, Mike accepted the NABJ President’s Award on behalf of the organization.

“He loved and believed in NABJ-Philadelphia as much as he did NABJ, where he was a Life member and an inductee in 2017 into its Hall of Fame for his outstanding contributions.

“Mike brought to NABJ-Philadelphia the same determination that he had shown as vice president for diversity and inclusion at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, from which he retired in 2020. Ten years before, he was editor of the Daily News when it won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism.”

When Days won the Robert G. McGruder Award for Diversity Leadership in 2014 from the Associated Press Managing Editors and the American Society of News Editors, his colleagues had written that diversity “is deeply embedded in our DNA, and Michael ensures that it remains critical and relevant.

“Under Michael, the Daily News has become what may be one of the most diverse newsrooms in the industry, and both our day-to-day coverage and our daily discussions bear this out.”

Philadelphia Daily News reporters Barbara Laker, left, Wendy Ruderman and Daily News Editor Michael Days react as they hear the news that the two reporters won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. (Credit: Sarah J. Glover/Philadelphia Inquirer)

At Days’ 2020 retirement, Yvette Ousley, an Inquirer editor, wrote, “Mike has been in the business for 42 years — 30 of them at the Daily News and four at the Inquirer.

“A kind, generous, soft-spoken gentleman, he helped create a fun and crazy environment at the Daily News where our dysfunctional family thrived, work never felt like work, and people like me couldn’t wait to get there each day.

“During his career, he’s built relationships and trust, supported journalists, networked, earned respect in the community and the industry, garnered all sorts of awards along the way and ensured that Black and Brown journalists got their due too. . . .”

Columnist Will Bunch wrote in 2011, “Daily News staffers burst into spontaneous applause when publisher Bob Hall announced that Days — who in the interim had been managing editor of the Inquirer — would be returning to the tabloid.“

Herbert Lowe, then NABJ president, told Journal-isms at the time, “My phone has been ringing off the hook. Folks are really excited. It’s a proud day for every NABJ member. We all want the opportunity to advance to the highest levels in our newsroom, and to be able to do it in your hometown is just fantastic.”

Days graduated from College of the Holy Cross and the University of Missouri, and then worked on several papers, including the Wall Street Journal, the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., and the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., before coming to the Daily News as a reporter in 2016.

When Days was asked at 2023 Journal-isms Roundtable whether there were issues particular to Philadelphia that he wanted the new NABJ-Philadelphia to address, he mentioned a Pew Research Center study that found “that Black folks, I mean, Black Republicans, Black Democrats, Black old folks, Black young people, say that the media does not portray us adequately, accurately,” in Days’ words.

It’s an issue “I’ve been obsessed with personally and I’m going to push it and push it ahead if I can get the membership to agree with me,” Days continued.

“One of the things I want us to [do] was sort of a holistic look at, and not a one-term, not a one-meeting thing or two-meeting thing, but begin to work with our various communities. And allow people to see that journalists are like everybody else. And what does that mean?

“We’re going to have to be involved in volunteering for things in the community. We’re going to have to start putting together town hall meetings, not one town hall meeting, but repeatedly doing town hall meetings with the community so they can see we are just like everybody else, so that when we’re out there on a story or working on a story or I need to talk somebody, we know who to talk to. We know that we’re just not people sitting in a office most of the day, or I guess many of us sit home.

“And then have a mic in their face or a phone in their face or notebook in their face when the story is needed. So that for me . . . really developing a much better connection with our community is essential.”

The chapter did indeed follow up.

As a Black journalist, Days brought to newsroom leadership the perspectives of others whose life experiences might not be part of the discussion in the daily news meetings.

Days wrote on Facebook in April 2024, “Love this photograph. It was taken almost a year ago at the conclusion of a regional gathering of the Knights of St. John and Ladies’ Auxiliary. Folks were arriving from across New York and Central/North New Jersey for a weekend of activities. Both Angela Dodson and I had key roles in making the weekend gathering a success.”

Days told of one such episode at a June 2024 Journal-isms Roundtable on Dodson’s anthology, “We Refuse to Be Silent: Women’s Voices for Justice for Black Men.”

The conversation took Days “back to when we were living in Princeton. I don’t know, 40, 40 years ago maybe.

“And we had one car and a little Volkswagen Rabbit. And I was working — we moved to Princeton [N.J.] largely because I was working in Philly.”

Dodson “was working in New York at the Times and people said, ‘Oh, you should probably live in Princeton.’
Well, living in Princeton was a bit of a nightmare for a Black man trying to pick up his wife at 1:30-2 o’clock in the morning at the Princeton Junction, Princeton, train station.

“And some of y’all on this call appear to be old enough to remember when we did not have cell phones.

“And so, there I am living . . . in a town where everybody had sort of high-end cars and we did not. . . .

“So one evening, this cop pulls me over.

“And it wasn’t the first time I was pulled over, because I was traveling in all kinds of hours.

“He says, ‘you stole this car’. That’s an officer. And you know, I always tried to use wit, a bit of humor to try to keep myself alive.

“I said, ‘Officer, this is Princeton, N.J. Who steals a Rabbit in Princeton? And he looked at me, I said, ‘Well, my wife is at the train station.

” ‘And she’s there alone. You see what time it is. You can do with me what you want, but let me, would you please follow me to the train station? So she can take the car and then you can do what you want with me.’

“So he does follow me to the train station. That’s gotta be five, seven miles.”

“Which is out of his jurisdiction,” Dodson interjected.

“Yeah, that’s a good point. Out of his jurisdiction,” Days replied. “Thank you. Angela gets in the car and he just takes off.

“And that wasn’t the first time that happened, but that was about the time where we decided we need to move someplace else.”

Burney said she becomes president of the NABJ chapter for the next two months.

10/21 update: Services are scheduled for noon Saturday Oct. 25, at: Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 343 Broad St.,, Trenton, N.J, 08608. Viewing from 10 to noon.

Social media posts:

Richard Aregood, Sheila Dean Brooks, Damichael Cole, Josh Cornfield, Djibril Diallo,Sarah Glover,Rhett Hackett,Annette John-Hall,Yanick Rice Lamb,Kevin Merida,Shaheed M. Morris, Elizabeth Wellington,Vanessa Williams

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