Trump's Staunch Chief Of Staff Is Cashing In On ICE Raids & Detention

Despite the rhetoric from people like Stephen Miller claiming that ICE is targeting the worst of the worst, murderers and so forth, the data does not support this. In fact, the group making up the majority of the ICE detainees are people who have never been convicted of a crime. Recent financial disclosure forms from Stephen Miller shows him owning between 101,000 and 250,000 in shares from a tech company used by ICE and other federal agencies.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

At least 56,000 immigrants were being held in ICE detention as of July 3rd, 2025. This represents a roughly 42% increase in detained individuals since January of this year. Despite the rhetoric from people like Stephen Miller claiming that ICE is targeting the worst of the worst, murderers and so forth, the data does not support this. In fact, the group making up the majority of the ICE detainees are people who have never been convicted of a crime, 71.7% as of this report. Forget the worst of the worst. Almost three quarters of everyone in ICE custody have no criminal record at all. Many more have only minor offenses, such as traffic violations. Less than 1.6% had a conviction for sexual assault or homicide. Thus, the great and overwhelming majority are not criminals of any sort. Much less the worst of the worst. The talking point Trump officials like to toss around so often.

With so much in the news of corruption from the Trump administration it can be no surprise that ICE is no different. So many of the administration members either have direct stock options in for-profit companies who are benefiting from this exaggerated ICE enforcement, or are investing in it currently. For instance, with the Alligator Alcatraz story developing in Florida, DeSantis has awarded the no bid contract to a large campaign donor. So either they are personally benefiting or they are benefiting their benefactors. This is yet another cash grab, but this time it is being used with suffering people who came to this country with no other purpose than to seek the American dream. People who have been in this country for decades and lifetimes are being rounded up at Starbucks, 7-Eleven and parks around this country by local law enforcement and by ICE officials.

The recent passage of Trump's signature legislation, the big beautiful bill, allocates $45 billion, $45 billion for ICE detention space. That is a 265% increase over the current budget ICE has been operating with. It is a 62% larger budget than the entire federal prison system. To put it another way, the detention budget for ICE alone, not counting the money allocated for enforcement is larger than the annual military budget for every country outside the top 10 spenders in the world. With a massive increase in arrests and detention, there's also been an increase in deaths. Isidro Pérez, a 75-year-old Cuban immigrant in poor health, who had been in the US for 60 years, died in ICE detention on June 26th. Pérez was arrested in a park by ICE agents. He complained to his wife that he had been sleeping on the floor of the detention facility as it was overcrowded. Mr. Pérez died from an apparent heart attack in ICE custody. When asked about Mr. Pérez's death, border czar Tom Homan said, he was unaware of that, I mean, people die in ICE custody. Homan went on to state that ICE had the highest detention standards in the industry.

I'm unaware of that. I'm not aware of that. I mean, people die in ICE custody. People die in county jails. People die in state prisons. I mean, if you look at, you know, when I was ICE director and we drilled down that, the question should be how many lives did I save because when they go in detention, we find many with diseases and stuff that we deal with right away to prevent death.