Led by Fox, Journalists Embed With DHS Amid Media Crackdown

https://prospect.org/justice/2025-09-24-fox-journalists-embed-dhs-media-crackdown/



On August 6, journalists from Fox News embedded with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents for the now infamous “Trojan Horse” raid on a Home Depot in Los Angeles. Their exclusive report opens from inside a Penske truck (rented against company policy) as agents burst out and detain 16 undocumented immigrants lured there by the offer of work. Two days later, a different set of journalists were injured and arrested by Los Angeles law enforcement officers while reporting on protests against that and other immigration raids in the area.

The contrast illustrates the dilemma media organizations face as the Trump administration escalates its crackdown on a free press: get safe access to events as they’re happening but run the risk of compromising basic standards of journalistic integrity, or do the challenging work of reporting—potentially putting one’s body on the line. The report from Fox follows a trend. Journalists from that network, NBC, ABC, CBS, The New York Times, the New York Post, and Newsmax have all embedded with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CBP operations over the past nine months under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), giving the operations a publicity boost while leaving key claims about DHS enforcement policies unquestioned.

At the same time, the government has violently cracked down on journalists covering ICE raids and protests against DHS operations, with federal agents and local law enforcement officers seriously injuring reporters in Los Angeles as the Trump administration has pursued a broad-based immigration and civil liberties assault in and around the city. In mid-July, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that videotaping ICE officers doing their work is an act of “violence,” and in August a spokesperson for DHS told the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) that making videos of ICE agents at work and posting them online is “doxing” and will be prosecuted.

Using embedded reporters has allowed DHS to shape its own narrative about what it wants Americans to hear—that the department is only targeting the “worst of the worst” immigrants who have committed violent crimes, even though they rarely provide supporting evidence. Among recent examples of embedded reporting on ICE by these major news outlets:

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