You know what I loved doing when I was sixteen? Stupid stuff. Glorious, beautiful, pointless teenage stuff. Fishing. Chasing girls who were way out of my league. Arguing with my buddies about whether Montana was a real state or just a government conspiracy. You know — being a kid.
You know what I was not doing? Running counter-surveillance operations against federal law enforcement.
But here come Sam and Ben Luhmann of Chicago, Illinois, two homeschooled brothers who apparently decided algebra and American literature weren’t cutting it. So they traded in their textbooks for binoculars and started tailing ICE agents around the city like budget Jason Bournes in hoodies.
Mini Stasi, Big Dreams
These two aren’t just casually “observing.” They’re tracking federal vehicles. Writing down license plate numbers. Blasting horns and whistles at agents trying to do their jobs. And — here’s the kicker — broadcasting agent locations to activist group chats in real time.
Read that again.
Two minors are doxxing the real-time positions of federal officers conducting law enforcement operations. And CNN wrote about it the way your local paper covers the kid who won the spelling bee.
“Trained ICE watchers,” CNN called them. Trained. Like they graduated from some underground liberal boot camp between geometry sessions. Who trained them? What curriculum is this? Is there a diploma? A merit badge?
The CNN Makeover
CNN didn’t just cover this story. They produced it. This wasn’t journalism — it was a casting call. They gave us the whole character arc. Sam likes fly fishing and tying his own ties. Ben’s writing his college essays. They’re thoughtful. They’re principled. They’re dreamers who just care so much.
Spare me.
What CNN actually did was take two radicalized teenagers, dress them up in a heartwarming human-interest wrapper, and serve them to their audience like a Hallmark movie with a political agenda. The message was clear: Look at these brave boys standing up to the fascist deportation machine.
No mention of the danger. No mention that interfering with federal officers is, you know, a crime. No adult in the room asking the obvious question — where are the parents?
Where Are the Parents?
I’m not here to drag two teenagers. Kids do dumb stuff. That’s the whole point of being a kid — you’re supposed to be dumb so you can learn from it before the stakes get real.
But somebody put these boys up to this. Somebody looked at two minors and said, “Yeah, go follow the federal agents around. Take down their plates. Blow horns in their faces. That’s a great use of your Tuesday.”
And that somebody should be getting a visit — not a CNN profile.
These kids are being used. Period. They’re props in a political theater production funded by the same machine that turns every immigration enforcement action into a horror movie. The boys think they’re saving the world. The adults behind them know they’re creating content.
Activism Isn’t a Childhood
Here’s what gets me. One of these kids actually said, “There’s a lot of things I’d rather be doing.” And yeah, no kidding. You’re sixteen. You should be doing all of those things.
The original Daily Caller piece made a sharp point that I’ll echo louder: it doesn’t matter if the activism is left or right. When I see a thirteen-year-old on Fox News warning about socialism at the middle school lunch table, it makes me just as uncomfortable. Go ride your bike. Go fail your driver’s test. Go ask that girl to prom and get hilariously rejected. You’ve got the rest of your miserable adult life to be angry about politics.
But here’s the difference. When a teenager shows up on Fox, nobody’s sending them to tail federal agents. Nobody’s putting them in a position to physically interfere with armed law enforcement. The left isn’t just stealing these kids’ childhoods — they’re putting them in real danger.
Playing With Fire
Let’s not dance around this. Federal immigration agents carry guns. They operate in high-stress environments. They deal with people who sometimes fight back violently. And now you’ve got two suburban teenagers running around these operations blasting air horns.
What happens when an agent, mid-arrest, hears a sudden loud noise behind him? What happens when a situation goes sideways and two kids with iPhones are standing ten feet away?
CNN won’t be there to write the follow-up. Or worse — they will, and they’ll blame ICE.
The College Essay Angle
And can we talk about the college application thing? CNN casually mentioned that Ben’s writing his college essays. Gee, I wonder what topic he’s choosing. “How I Spent My Senior Year Stalking Federal Officers and Got a CNN Feature.” That’s Ivy League catnip right there.
This is how the pipeline works now. Radicalize a teenager, give them a camera, point them at law enforcement, get them media coverage, and watch the acceptance letters roll in. It’s not activism — it’s a résumé builder with a body camera.
The Real Story CNN Won’t Tell
The agents these boys are stalking? They’re removing criminals. They’re enforcing laws passed by Congress and signed by presidents of both parties. They’re doing the job that the city of Chicago refuses to do because Mayor Brandon Johnson would rather run a sanctuary city than a safe one.
But CNN doesn’t want you thinking about that. They want you thinking about two photogenic teenagers with great hobbies and big hearts. They want you feeling warm and fuzzy while two minors obstruct federal law enforcement.
That’s not journalism. That’s recruitment advertising.
Bottom Line
Somewhere in Chicago, two kids who should be learning calculus and chasing their dreams are instead burning their youth on someone else’s political crusade. And the adults who should be protecting them are handing them bullhorns and pointing them at danger.
CNN didn’t expose a story. They built a trap — with two boys as the bait.
And if anything happens to those kids, every single adult who cheered this on should have to look in the mirror and explain what the hell they were thinking.
But they won’t. They never do.