The Rupert Murdoch–owned Wall Street Journal has blasted Stephen Miller’s immigration policies as having spiraled out of control.
The newspaper’s editorial board wrote that the Trump administration is no longer following through on its vow to target only criminals in its hardline deportation push, warning that enforcement has devolved into an “undisciplined” mess under the White House deputy chief of staff.
“Ending migrant chaos at the border was necessary after the Biden administration. But White House aide Stephen Miller’s undisciplined mass deportation and zero-immigration policy is building distrust, and the White House pitch that public safety justifies its enforcement is losing credibility,” the Journal wrote.
Condemnation of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies—and the aggressive tactics of ICE agents—has reached a boiling point in Minneapolis following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents.
On Monday, Trump said he had a “very good call” with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz about how to calm growing tensions between anti-ICE protesters and federal law enforcement after the two U.S. citizens were shot and killed on Minneapolis streets within weeks of each other.
Miller, widely seen as the architect of Trump’s most severe immigration policies during both of his terms, further fueled outrage after baselessly claiming that 37-year-old Pretti was a “would-be assassin” who intended to kill Customs and Border Protection agents. Videos of the shooting show that Pretti never drew the handgun he was legally allowed to carry and appeared to have been disarmed by agents during a pile-on before he was killed.
The editorial board added that distrust is growing over whether the Trump administration is honoring its promise to deport only “the worst of the worst” criminal migrants as part of its mass deportation campaign.
According to the Deportation Data Project, 87 percent of ICE arrests in early 2025 involved immigrants with either a prior conviction or a pending criminal charge, while just 13 percent had neither.
However, a follow-up review of ICE data by the Cato Institute found that as of October 2025, 73 percent of people booked into ICE custody had no criminal conviction, while nearly half had neither a conviction nor pending charges.
Despite Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem’s claim that the administration is targeting only “murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists,” just 5 percent of detained migrants had a violent conviction, according to the Cato Institute.
Last week, ICE caused outrage by detaining a 5-year-old boy during an immigration raid in Minnesota.
“All of which means that the Trump Administration’s rhetoric about deporting criminals doesn’t match its current, much broader policy of mass deportation,” the Journal’s editorial board wrote.
“As ICE agents target businesses, schools, and homes, scenes of arrest involving mothers, children, and long-time U.S. residents are becoming more common. This explains why immigration enforcement is becoming a political liability for Republicans.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
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