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BROADCAST BIAS: Media portrays illegal immigrants as heroes, ICE as dangerous lawbreakers


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When the Biden administration opened the border to millions of illegal immigrants, the broadcast networks ignored the numbers and aired officials like Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calmly insisting, “There is no border crisis.”

This wasn’t treated as controversial. What drew criticism instead were Republican “stunts” — when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent migrants who entered their states illegally to Chicago, Martha’s Vineyard, or Washington, D.C. “It’s inhumane,” said “CBS Mornings” host Gayle King.

So when the Trump administration moved to launch mass deportations and deployed the National Guard to protect ICE facilities under siege by violent protesters, the networks painted the effort as cruel and authoritarian. Attacks on ICE offices — including several shootings in Texas — didn’t make the protesters controversial. Enforcing immigration law did.

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The networks rarely highlight immigration polls, but a recent New York Times survey found that 54% of registered voters favor deporting illegal immigrants — a figure unchanged from earlier polls. More than 90% of Republicans, 52% of independents, and nearly 20% of Democrats broadly support mass deportation.

Democrats remain on the wrong side of public opinion, even as their governors and senators do friendly network interviews comparing Trump to Hitler and ICE to his Gestapo. CBS’s Margaret Brennan, who hosted Illinois Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth, as she denounced “Gestapo tactics” on “Face the Nation,” didn’t fact-check the claim or suggest that such rhetoric could encourage violence against ICE agents and facilities.

This is the same moderator who fact-checked JD Vance over migrant numbers during last year’s vice presidential debate — and then cut his microphone when he objected.

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Since an immigration crackdown began last month in the Chicago area, more than 1,000 immigrants have been arrested. Yet Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker went on NPR and other outlets to accuse Trump of turning cities into “war zones” with ICE and the National Guard — and even dropped a Hitler comparison.

After the Texas National Guard arrived in Chicago, “CBS Mornings” quoted Pritzker’s post on social media: “Donald Trump is not a king, and his administration is not above the law.” In other words, illegal immigrants are above the law — and Trump isn’t. Democrats increasingly sound opposed to any deportations, suggesting every removal is unjust.

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Judges blocking Trump from using the National Guard faced no criticism, even as NBC quoted Biden appointee Judge April Perry, who argued that deploying the Guard would only “add fuel to the fire.” 

CBS anchor John Dickerson accused Trump of acting unconstitutionally in a commentary on “CBS Evening News Plus,” saying: “A constitutional president worries not only about public safety but liberty. Can he picture dissenters as citizens with rights, or only as enemies? Does he reach for force only after all else has failed, or as his first response? … What if the president is the author of disorder?”

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They blame violence against Trump on Trump himself. But can Dickerson grasp that some of these “dissenters” aren’t citizens at all? On the streets, every illegal immigrant protesting Trump is portrayed as a hero.

Texas National Guard troops assemble in Illinois on October 7, 2025.

Members of the Texas National Guard assemble in Elwood, Illinois, at the Army Reserve Training Center in the southwest suburb of Chicago, on Oct. 7. 2025.  (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

On ABC’s “The View,” co-host Joy Behar pushed a conspiracy theory that Trump’s National Guard deployment was “a pretext to stop the next election.” She wasn’t joking. Yet suggesting Trump plans to end elections is never labeled an incitement to violence — even though such talk may have inspired two assassination attempts last year.

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Not every outlet joined in the hostility. NBC News surprised viewers with a rarely positive report noting that the border is quiet. Reporter Julia Ainsley contrasted conditions: “In Eagle Pass, Texas, during the Biden administration, more than 2,000 migrants crossed into the U.S. in a single day. But now, under President Trump’s policies, officers encounter just 20 migrants a day here. Tonight, DHS [is] touting the lowest number of illegal border crossings since 1970.” Ainsley even featured two Latino Texans happy they voted for Trump because of the border turnaround.

But these broadcast programs aren’t made for Trump voters. They’re produced to please loyal Democrats and sway low-information swing voters. The audience is expected to accept the Orwellian idea that illegal immigrants are your peaceful “neighbors,” and that the true lawbreakers are the Trump administration and the National Guard.

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