White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller lashed out at journalists Thursday for the way they’ve covered illegal immigration, saying they had to be shamed into reporting on rapes and slayings of Americans.
Mr. Miller said the media was reluctant to cover crimes attributed to illegal immigrants during the Biden years, and now has taken a too-soft approach to reporting on illegal immigrants deported on President Trump’s watch.
“It is a sad reflection on the state of our media and many of the outlets represented in this room that you obsessively try to shill for these MS-13 terrorists,” Mr. Miller said during a briefing Thursday in response to a question about whether the administration is trying to un-deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador.
Mr. Abrego Garcia, deported in March after the U.S. accused him of being a member of MS-13, has become the focal point of legal and political battles.
Democrats, who label him a “Maryland dad” because that’s where he was living at the time of his arrest, say he was “abducted” by deportation officers and was illegally removed without due process.
Mr. Miller said due process was a two-way street.
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He pointed to what he called the “extensive due process” the Biden administration gave to two members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, who were apprehended at the border a couple of years ago.
Mr. Miller said they were quickly released so they could “go through a lengthy legal, judicial determination as to whether these illegal aliens who had just set foot on US soil might want to live the United States for the rest of their lives.”
“What was the result of that decision? What was the result of that choice that was made? Those two men kidnapped a young girl named Jocelyn Nungaray,” Mr. Miller said.
“They beat her. They sexually assaulted her. They tortured her. They stripped her. They murdered her, and they dumped her body.”
Two suspects, Johan José Martínez-Rangel and Franklin José Peña Ramos, have been charged with capital murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault in that case.
Mr. Miller told reporters it was Mr. Trump’s focus on Jocelyn’s case that “forced you to cover it.”
“He had to shame you into covering it. And each and every one of you decides over and over again with these MS-13 terrorists, to the extent that you have the financial means to do so, you all choose to live in condos or homes or houses as far away from these kinds of gangbangers as you possibly can,” Mr. Miller said.
Homeland Security has chided several news outlets, including The New York Times and Reuters, for reporting in recent weeks on illegal immigrants targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Times published a massive article on Nascimento Blair, deported in February back to Jamaica after drug and kidnapping accusations. The paper suggested he was a “changed man” who was “seeking redemption” in the U.S. but was sent back to a country he hadn’t known in more than 20 years.
But Homeland Security said Mr. Blair had been lawfully ordered deported in 2008 and should have been ousted in 2020 when he was released after serving time for a kidnapping conviction.
Reuters this week also drew condemnation from Homeland Security after reporting on Venezuelan migrants who said they fear being deported to El Salvador’s notorious terrorist prison. Reuters said the men denied being members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang the U.S. has now labeled a terrorist organization.
Homeland Security, though, said one man highlighted in the report was a “self-admitted” TdA member and the other was a “documented member.”
“Why do they continue to peddle the sob stories of these gang members but ignore their American victims?” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
