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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Alaina Demopoulos

The womanosphere urges dubious followers to back ICE: ‘Don’t let compassion cloud you’

A woman wearing a cowboy hat feeds her baby with a bottle while sitting on stage
Riley Gaines feeds her baby on stage at a "Policy Celebration" at the US Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington DC on 8 January 2026. Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/UPI/Shutterstock

Riley Gaines, the former collegiate swimmer turned anti-transgender activist, makes motherhood and femininity a core part of her brand. Her husband, Louis Barker, is a naturalized US citizen who moved to this country from the UK. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Margot, in September; Gaines said there was “nothing” she would not do to protect her baby. But do not think that Gaines is at all sympathetic to families targeted by ICE.

This weekend, Gaines spoke on her podcast about Liam Ramos, the five-year-old boy taken by ICE agents from his driveway in Minneapolis. Images of Liam, clad in snowpants and wearing a blue hat with bunny ears, being held by a federal agent prompted widespread disgust in the US. How could a preschooler be considered one of the “dangerous” criminals Trump’s administration rails against?

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