Anti-ICE Hunger Strike Leader’s Sob Story Unravels As Details Of Domestic Violence Arrest Surface

The illegal immigrant who claimed to have been nabbed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while buying diapers — and whose sob story fueled an anti-ICE hunger strike in a detention center — was actually taken into ICE custody after being arrested for a violent domestic assault, The Daily Wire has learned.

Gabriela Soto claimed that her husband, Martin Soto, 31, of Peru, “was abducted” by ICE and that he was “a loving father, husband, son, church member, worker” when he was taken to Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility. Media outlets ran with the story as the hunger strike carried on, leading to weeks of violent riots outside the facility.

But a police report and sources who spoke with The Daily Wire tell a very different story.

Martin Soto “purposely” caused “bodily injury” to an unnamed female 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,” a copy of the police report obtained by the Oversight Project and shared with The Daily Wire reads.

Soto then allegedly “placed a hand over” her “mouth so she could not scream for help,” according to the report.

After her husband’s arrest, Gabriela Soto led protests outside Delaney Hall for days in May and June, claiming that the conditions inside were inhumane and that the stress would cause her to miscarry.

“Martin has committed no harm,” Gabriela — whose GoFundMe for her husband that has raised more than $67,000 — wrote in a column last month.

Scott Mechkowski, a visiting fellow for deportation studies at the Oversight Project, told The Daily Wire that her entire story unraveled after a police report surfaced showing that Martin was actually arrested by local police for a domestic assault.

“The public was told a good man was grabbed by ICE while buying diapers. The record says he was arrested by Kearny police, handed to Hudson County, taken into ICE custody, and detained at Delaney Hall while charged with assaulting the very woman who then made him a headline,” Mechkowski, who formerly served as the ICE New York field office deputy director, said.

The Daily Wire could not immediately confirm the identity of the assault victim.

“This is the pattern: a sympathetic claim built to go viral, while the facts sit unread in a file. Delaney Hall was inspected and cleared, its officers branded jailers of the innocent on stories that collapse the moment you check the record. This is one example; there are many,” he added.

Martin Soto crossed the Arizona border illegally in January 2024 and was processed to be deported immediately under what’s known as expedited removal, law enforcement sources told The Daily Wire. He was allowed to stay after he presented a fear of returning to his home country and was released from custody by April 2024.

Police in Kearny, New Jersey, arrested Soto on February 1, 2026, for simple assault stemming from a domestic violence incident, according to records obtained by The Daily Wire. ICE officers paid a visit to the Hudson County Correctional Center on February 2, whereupon they swiftly took Soto into custody.

While leading a May protest aimed at blocking ICE vans from driving in and out of the facility, Gabriela told NJ.com that she started the protest “to close Delaney Hall and free every detainee” inside the facility, claiming that her husband was being retaliated against for her activism.

“If I have a miscarriage because of this pressure, I will sue them,” she said. “I am tired of them controlling the situation. He is in that van. I saw him resisting to get in the van; they forced him in there, two big ass guards. He was handcuffed. They were trying to move him.”

Media outlets largely embraced Martin and Gabriela Soto as sympathetic figures, accepting without question Gabriela’s account of Martin’s arrest. She claimed that she “suddenly got a phone call from a number listed as ‘prison/jail'” on February 1, “after Martin stepped out to get diapers for our 11-month-old son.”

“My heart dropped,” she wrote. “When I answered, I was terrified about what had happened. As soon as the call ended, I raced over to Delaney Hall to get some answers. A guard there told me Martin was in ‘good hands’ and once he was processed, he would be able to see me during visiting hours. I was relieved to hear he was safe, but when I started hearing about the conditions inside Delaney — rotten food, medical neglect, and more — I began to doubt the guard’s words.”

In fact, at that time, her husband was still in local custody after having been arrested in Kearny for the domestic incident. He was only later moved to Delaney Hall, where inmates who claimed to be “starving” during their hunger strike were actually purchasing snacks — including sushi and clams — from the commissary, as The Daily Wire reported.