Anytime President Trump or Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says there are criminals crossing from Mexico into the U.S. illegally, major media outlets eye them with the most severe suspicion, as though it can't possibly be true.

A Washington Post report in November said Nielsen "suggest[ed] without evidence" that women and children had been used as "human shields" when U.S. authorities, overwhelmed by hundreds of migrants rushing the border, fired tear gas to keep them at bay.

Perhaps there's no proof that women and children are being used as human shields to make their way into the country, increasing their odds of getting to stay, but there's plenty of evidence. U.S. Border Patrol just this week put out more of it, stating that they apprehended 45-year-old Guatemalan Lauro Garcia-Perez near the border in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 24. He was crossing the Rio Grande, a spokesperson for DHS told me, along with his son.

Oh, and Garcia-Perez had previously been deported and was also convicted in 2005 of aggravated assault, burglary, aggravated sexual assault during robbery, and criminal sexual contact.

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The only other news outlets I could find to also cover Garcia-Perez's apprehension were local TV stations in El Paso and Breitbart.com.

That Washington Post report that was unable to cite any "evidence" of the human shields was published Nov. 26. Just three days before, the very same paper ran the headline, "For Central Americans, children open a path to the U.S. — and bring a discount."

The report said, "This is happening because Central Americans know they will have a better chance of avoiding deportation, at least temporarily, if they are processed along with children."

That sounds a lot like "human shields." You might even call it "evidence."