Conservative influencers Riley Gaines and Allie Beth Stuckey are urging their followers to resist empathy for victims of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, as public outrage grows over the agency's actions in Minneapolis.
Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer and anti-transgender activist, defended ICE's detention of five-year-old Liam Ramos, who was taken from his driveway. On her podcast, she said, 'I will say thank you to our ICE agents … Thank you for not abandoning that five-year-old boy like his father did.' She urged listeners not to let 'compassion cloud you from thinking critically.'
Stuckey, a conservative podcaster, claimed that 'emotionally evocative messaging and images' are duping Christian women into opposing ICE. She repeated this on Megyn Kelly's podcast, saying 'the propaganda … starts to chip away at their conscience.' Stuckey's 2024 book Toxic Empathy argues that empathy can make Christians weak and vulnerable to progressive manipulation.
Despite their efforts, some followers have expressed doubt. One Instagram user asked, 'Where do we as Christians draw the line when the law of the land is no longer viable?' Another wrote, 'Conservative here … I feel ICE made a huge mistake on this one.'
