Immigration scholars have demonstrated that immigrants, particularly unauthorized immigrants, are less likely to commit crimes than US citizens and that there is no relationship between so-called sanctuary policies and increased crime. Despite these findings, immigrants’ relation to crime remains a predominant frame in the news among the public and in partisan debates over immigration. This paper explores national, state, and local news sources from 2001 to 2021 to capture variation in how immigrants themselves are framed within immigration enforcement-related policy coverage, including variation across progressive (e.g., California, New York, and Illinois) and restrictive (e.g., Arizona, Texas, and Georgia) jurisdictions on immigrant policy, and variation over time. Building on the existing scholarship in immigration, the primary frames our paper captures are concepts of immigrant criminality and threat, and immigrant belonging and deservingness of legal protection. In addition to contrasting these frames across federated jurisdictions, we explore the relation between the framing of immigrants in the news and the passage of restrictive or progressive policies relating to enforcement and detention. The paper ends by reflecting on the broader importance of traditional news coverage in shaping policy and identity politics in immigration federalism.