DHS Called It False. Then It Was Confirmed.

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Tim Rice (1:19)

Hello, I'm Tim Rice. Welcome to another edition of Behind the Story. We're joined today by a friend of the show, repeat guest, Daily Wire immigration reporter, Jennie Taer.

Jennie, it's so great to have you back, especially because we just can't keep you away. You keep breaking such incredible stories. So excited to have you here and dig into this one.

Jennie Taer (1:42)

Yeah, it's great to be here. I'm excited to talk about this one for sure.

Tim Rice (1:45)

And I just have to say before we even get into it, that just a few days ago, you were nominated for the Dao Prize, the Dao Awards for Excellence in Journal and Investigative Reporting. You were nominated for Best Multimedia Reporting for your coverage of the ICE raids in Minneapolis and your ride along with ICE and various other pieces that you did around then. So congratulations to that. I believe we talked about that on this show. If not, definitely in other places and everyone should go find those stories. But before they do, they should go read the story that we are going to talk about today, which came out over the last week. The headline is exclusive ICE officers say they were told to stop arresting non criminals.

So pretty descriptive from the headline there. But this really is one of those stories where so much went on behind the scenes. So walk us through what happened, starting, please, from how did you even hear about this?

Jennie Taer (2:45)

Yeah, a pretty wild story and crazy chain of events that occurred after we published. But to give you a short version of what happened is we received word from several of our sources within ICE that they were told that they should stop making arrests of non criminal illegal immigrants. So anyone who has a rap sheet is still up for the taking. But if someone is here illegally and they lack a criminal conviction or charge, they can't put hands on them. That's what they were told. And this is from multiple officers in multiple parts of the country. This isn't just one office. This isn't just one source.

This came from multiple sources. So what ended up happening is we immediately published on this. We reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and we just wrote that this is what they were being told and that it really came in contrast to the goal of mass deportations and what Trump has promised the American people. And so what ended up happening is DHS said that it was after we had published and that no one is off the table for arrests and deportation. And then they confirmed that there is an ongoing nationwide effort targeting criminal illegal immigrants.

Tim Rice (4:04)

Now, hold on.

I want to stop right there, just because already there's so much. So a couple of things to flag. The first is that this was what, Saturday night, Sunday night. It was late. It was a weekend. It was Saturday night.

You messaged me and a couple other editors and said, I just heard from two of my sources and this is happening. And we quickly discussed what to do. We realized that this was a pretty big scoop and not to out you. But Jennie texts us and says, all right, I'm bringing my laptop to the bar. And so Jennie's at the bar. I'm at home with my kids and we crank this story out. And of course, you know, Jennie's a pro. You had your facts right. You had your two good sources. You reached out to DHS for comment. They did not respond to your request for comment. I think that's a very important thing to flag, given what comes next. So that's how we got here. That's how we crank this out. Now let's slow down just really quick and unpack exactly what you just said, because you just said that DHS came out and said that this didn't happen, but also that it wasn't going to keep happening, which is a little bit of a contradiction.