Elon Musk reacted to a shocking confession about a “brutal assault” that conservative influencer Savanah Hernandez, a Turning Point USA contributor, allegedly endured outside a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility this past week. “Terrible,” the richest billionaire in the world responded to the far-right reporter’s tweet, urging her to “definitely press charges” against the suspects responsible for the violent attack.

‘Anti-India’ influencer Savanah Hernandez was brutally attacked’

Hernandez, who boasts in her official X bio of having been previously banned from the Elon Musk-led social media platform thrice, received backlash for triggering “anti-India” remarks with a video of her visit to Hindu God Hanuman’s temple in Texas about a week ago. Her post about being “brutally assaulted by multiple people outside of the Whipple ICE facility in Minneapolis” surfaced on X a few days after the aforementioned controversy.

Videos showing anti-ICE protesters confronting the Turning Point USA reporter outside the facility have since circulated on SNS. One such clip caught sight of demonstrators pushing her to the ground several times. “Multiple people swung on me, and a grown man pushed me to the ground. My glasses are broken. ANTIFA still alive and well,” Hernandez wrote in her tweet, adding that she was in touch with police about pressing charges.

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Another video captured people waving dildos in the influencer’s face, and a woman later shoved her into a fence. Hernandez, on the other hand, is seen pushing the woman and yelling back at her.

Turning Point USA contributor shares video of attack at Minneapolis ICE facility

In a subsequently posted tweet, Savanah claimed the recent ICE facility incident was “the second time” she had been “mobbed and assaulted for filming a protest on US streets.”

“Today these Minneapolis protesters were chanting that they were ‘ANTIFA’ and proved it, by mobbing and beating me for reporting on a public protest,” she added. Alongside the message, she also shared the video she had filmed at the scene. The clip, which appears to have been captured in selfie mode, showed ICE protesters blowing whistles and horns in the background.

One individual is seen coming up close to the conservative contributor and blowing the whistle near her ear. Urging the influencer to leave the premise, someone else is heard shouting behind her, “Get the f*** out of here.” The confrontation gets a bit ugly after that, as a person can be seen trying to tackle Savanah. She is ultimately pushed to the ground. As she gets up, another woman calmly tells her, “You gotta go.” However, the scene gets even more tense after that. Hernandez becomes embroiled in a brief altercation with another woman, who is repeatedly heard screaming at her, “You f***ing hit my daughter.”

The TPUSA influencer continues filming the scene, while some others appear to help her get out of trouble, as she repeatedly tells the protesters that she is trying to leave and doesn’t have a car at the protest. “Can we get her somewhere?” a voice is heard from behind the camera as others forced Hernandez to leave.

The video later cuts to a man talking to Savanah. “We tried to help you, though,” he says. “No, you didn’t,” Hernandez snaps back. “Yes, we did. We stopped people from hitting you,” the other person retorts. “I was standing here for an hour. Your people came up to me and started attacking me. I didn’t do anything,” Savanah continues. “We told them to stop…You’re trying to play victim so hard,” the man counters again.

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What happened after Savanah Hernandez and ICE protesters’ confrontation?

After Hernandez asked to press charges, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a statement that they arrested four people at the protest, including those involved in the attack, on April 11. According to the sheriff’s office, more than 100 people had gathered outside Whipple for the protest on Saturday.

Of the four people arrested, three were apprehended for the assault of a journalist and a deputy during the protest, and the fourth was nabbed for obstruction with force against a deputy. Official charges have yet to be filed against these people.

Breanna Morello, an independent journalist formerly with Fox and Newsmax, claimed on X that the FBU had opened a federal criminal investigation into the alleged assault on Hernandez, citing American lawyer, conservative political strategist, and lobbyist Mike Davis.

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon has since confirmed the report by quote retweeting the post and responding to it with a one-word message: “Correct.”

Savanah Hernandez’s ‘anti-India’ controversy explained

A few days before the incident at the ICE facility in Minneapolis, the American influencer posted a video regarding the Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple in Frisco, Texas. Pointing toward the “huge pile of shoes” at the place of worship, she claimed devotees were praying for visas. Amid the rising anti-immigration sentiment in the country, Hernandez also contributed to the same rhetoric.

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“This is Savannah Hernandez in Frisco, Texas and I have been hearing from quite a few Texans about the changing culture and demographic up in North Texas, so I wanted to come and check it out myself,” she said in the video.

“When you get inside you see people worshipping multiple deities and the one that did stick out to me was the area where people were going to pray for blessings of health and also for work visas.”

Referencing the changing demographic in the US, she continued, “Going back to that changing demographic back in 2010, you had about 10% Asian or Indian population in this area, which has since surged to over 30% and on top of that, Texans telling me as well that some of these school districts now primarily are made up of demographically Asian students.”

“You have multiple Hindu temples all over the DFW(Dallas Fort Worth) area. In McKinney, you have a baseball field that has since been converted to a major league cricket field. Across the street from this temple, I saw some men playing cricket. And then you also had the Holi festival that was happening here in McKinney. Pretty crazy to see such an intricate and large temple in the middle of this residential neighbourhood.”

Even before that, Indian-origin Texas State House candidate Pooja Sethi pushed back against what she called an attack on her heritage while responding to Hernandez’s post highlighting her campaign banner. “My heritage isn’t an insult. It’s my story. And like millions of Americans, it’s rooted in hard work, faith in this country, and service to our community. If that bothers you, that says more about you than it does about me,” wrote Sethi.