Politics
NEW: CNN Embroiled In Scandal After Stephen Miller Catches Network Pushing Anti-ICE App
A groundswell of pro-illegal immigration activity has interfered with operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but CNN took the disruption to a whole new level on Monday — and may have even broken the law, Trump advisor Stephen Miller declared on Monday.
Miller, a border hawk who serves as President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, called out the struggling cable news network over recent coverage it devoted to a new app from developers hoping to help illegal immigrants avoid detection by ICE. The software essentially operates as an “early warning system,” in the words of the founder, who said he simply hopes to provide more innocuous information about ICE activities.
“He does not want people interfering with ICE activity, but he does want people to be able to avoid them altogether if they want,” explained CNN correspondent Clare Duffy.
The app doesn’t break new ground compared to other community sighting platforms, but its focus on ICE team presences has not yet been channeled into one of its own. Users who spot ICE agents in the field may report their activity to the larger community, who may then stay away from the targeted area.
The free and anonymous system lets users report an ICE sighting to any other users within 5 miles in the form of a “free push alert.”
Joshua Aaron, the app’s creator, is one of the rare “voices within the tech community who are resistant” to ICE in an age where major figures like Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg are fighting for influence with the president,” Duffy observed.
That’s a curious turn of phrase for breaking the law, Miller responded after watching the segment.
“CNN is openly helping invaders and insurrectionists sabotage ICE,” he wrote on X.
Despite a willingness by CNN’s new CEO, Mark Thompson, to rebalance its previously negative coverage of Trump, the network has been reverting to its old ways in recent weeks.
CNN cited a preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment that Trump’s bombing of Iran was largely ineffective, a news report that prompted fierce pushback from the administration. Trump has used the opportunity to roast correspondents like Kaitlan Collins for allegedly disrespecting the troops with her reporting.
Within days, the network began hosting guests who contradicted its initial report, a sign that Thompson is still struggling to strike a balance between newsroom autonomy and editorial control.
Illegal immigration has emerged as a flashpoint between the Trump administration and news outlets like CNN that regularly offer glowing coverage of suspected illegal immigrants arrested by ICE. The network was one among countless to suggest that “Maryland man” Kilmar Abrego Garcia was an otherwise innocent, hardworking illegal immigrant before his arrest.
Today, the network is reporting on Garcia’s ongoing human trafficking trial in Tennessee.
Miller has made a point of clarifying that the administration will not hit its goal of mass deportation without targeting individuals who have no history of violence or criminality apart from entering the country illegally. He has instructed ICE authorities to maintain a daily quota of 3,000 arrests or risk losing their jobs, according to sources who have been present at meetings with Trump’s immigration advisor in recent months.
