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MS NOW Lauds Comparison of ICE to KKK; Allows Lies About ICE Funding
During Monday’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski continued their crusade against ICE and DHS with more comparisons of ICE to the Ku Klux Klan from a Clinton-appointed judge, while also allowing Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) to push the false idea that ICE’s budget was higher than the United States Marine Corps.
In the lead to Gallego’s interview, Brzezinski was excited for a judge’s order to set up an ICE-bashing segment:
The judge wrote that the arrest of 21-year-old Salvadoran immigrant was, quote, “indistinguishable from lawbreakers and amounted to”, quote, “the elimination of constitutional accountability itself, invoking historical parallels to authoritarian regimes and the Ku Klux Klan”. He added, quote, “a regime of secret policing has no place in our society."
While ignoring the political leanings of the judge, a Clinton appointee and father of a former Democrat U.S. senator from West Virginia, Scarborough used the term ‘secret police’ to set up a Ruben Gallego monologue:
But the fact that we have a secret police in the United States of America, I'm sorry, I've been around long enough to be able to say this freely, I agree with most Americans. That is un-american, isn't it?
Gallego claimed ICE agents had a “blank check” in cities to “run rampant, violate civil rights, try to drag anybody in they can find, and hopefully find someone who's here in this country illegally.” Additionally, Gallego complained that ICE hurts the community's relationship with their local police, while ignoring that some Democrats literally wanted to defund police just six years ago.
Gallego then began his comparisons of budgets to the Marines:
They just want a check without any other type of accountability. And they already have $175 billion. They have more money than the United States Marine Corps has, and yet they want more without any, any, any accountability that the American people are asking for.
A compilation of the budgets of immigration related agencies under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE, CBP, USCIS, show their combined budgets to be around $40 billion, while the Marine Corps budget is around $57 billion.
Later on at the close of the segment, Scarborough recalled Gallego’s statement on budget. He asked Gallego, who said he was correct:
SCARBOROUGH: That’s grotesque. That is grotesque. That is grotesque.
BRZEZINSKI: And that’s right now, not even what they’re asking for.
SCARBOROUGH: Now I want to know, is there anything that Congress can do to claw some of that money back and actually give it to the United States Marines? Give it to members of the Navy. Give it to members of the Army. Give it to the VA. That is grotesque. We have people who have served -
BRZEZINSKI: And they’re not even that good.
The Senator and Morning Joe co-hosts continued their anti-ICE segment with various statements including: “They cut Medicaid to expand ICE,” “Terrorize communities,” and “they’re building internment camps.”
Gallego ended the segment by calling the Trump administration “the most anti-veteran administration in history.”
Gallego’s idea of a budget of DHS’s related Immigration funding contains the around $75 billion allocated through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that allowed for increased infrastructure for immigration agencies, especially ICE (which meant Gallego added $100 billion out of no where). Once again, the Marine Corp’s budget was around $57 billion, about five percent of the US Military’s budget.
Morning Joe and Gallego would do anything to misrepresent DHS funding to try and say there was too big of a focus on immigration enforcement while there happened to be a devastating surge of illegal immigration during the last administration.
The transcript is below. Click to expand:
MS NOW’s Morning Joe
February 23, 2026
7:46:15 AM
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Meanwhile, a federal judge in West Virginia issued a scathing ruling against ICE last week, finding that agents violated the constitutional rights of an immigrant they arrested last month. The judge wrote that the arrest of 21-year-old Salvadoran immigrant was, quote, “indistinguishable from lawbreakers and amounted to”, quote, “the elimination of constitutional accountability itself, invoking historical parallels to authoritarian regimes and the Ku Klux Klan”. He added, quote, “a regime of secret policing has no place in our society.”
The 21-year-old immigrant had a valid work permit when he was seized last month by a group of masked ICE agents who did not have badges and were in an unmarked Ford Explorer without a license plate. The judge ordered the 21-year-old's release, ruling that ICE’s conduct violated due process protections, and that the government failed to justify the use of masked agents in a routine civil immigration arrest.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Now a member of Homeland Security Committee, Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona. He's a Marine combat veteran of the war in Iraq. Senator, I can say this - and I can say this knowing that the overwhelming majority of Americans agree with me, agree with Mika, probably agree with you, that America - this is no place, as the judge said, federal judge said, for the secret police. This is no place for masked men in unmarked cars without license plates grabbing people off the streets.
That seems to me to invite illegal and unlawful behavior from those who may not be members of the secret police for the federal government. But the fact that we have a secret police in the United States of America, I'm sorry, I've been around long enough to be able to say this freely, I agree with most Americans. That is un-American, isn't it?\
SEN. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): Well, you know, people sense this too. You know, people have gotten very used to professional law enforcement. You know your police officers, you see them without masks. You could clearly identify them. In Phoenix, they actually have their name tags on their vests, so you actually talk to them. We know there's certain levels of accountability. We could discuss whether it's good enough or bad in some areas, but they're answering to somebody.
What we've seen and what we saw in Minnesota, and if you saw some of the questions I did to ICE - the head of ICE and the head of Border Patrols, there seems to be a blank check that's given to these, mostly, men in these cities for them to run rampant, violate civil rights, try to drag anybody in they can find, and hopefully find someone who's here in this country illegally.
As a matter of fact, there are several instances of police officers, sworn police officers that were pulled over by ICE agents, by CBP in Minnesota because they were black or Latino looking and essentially having to prove that they were U.S. citizens. That is racial profiling. That's the kind of thing that really ticks off Americans, especially Latino Americans, which you're seeing a big switch coming up in the votes because of these specific actions.
But more importantly too, just as important, when you do this kind of stuff, when you do this type of overt power grab without any respect to communities, you're also putting law enforcement in danger themselves. Because at that point, the relationship breaks down, the trust breaks down, and that makes the whole system a whole understanding of security, community security, just starts breaking down and everyone becomes less and less safe
JONATHAN LEMIRE: And senator, of course, ICE and their tactics and Department of Homeland Security at the heart of this partial government shutdown right now. So talk to us about where that stands. And Democrats who refuse to vote for this funding, what sort of negotiations or compromise, what sort of deal would be acceptable?
GALLEGO: Look, we've been very clear: What has happened is not acceptable. We can't just stand by and keep funding a system that killed two Americans in two and a half weeks. As a matter of fact, we just discovered that ICE actually covered up the murder of another American in Texas last year. We see overt, you know, racial discrimination that's happening, racial profiling, you know.
In Arizona, for example, they just bought a $70 million warehouse, did not even speak to the governor, did not speak to any of the local city council members, which in the Republicans, you know, they're setting up these internment camps. And yet, when we asked for very simple things, things that would actually bring trust, security to our communities, they refuse because they just want the check.
They just want a check without any other type of accountability. And they already have $175 billion. They have more money than the United States Marine Corps has, and yet they want more without any, any, any accountability that the American people are asking for. So what are we asking for? Simple things, right. Masks off, warrants only, stop racial profiling. These are the things that come to understand and expect from professional law enforcement, and that’s not what we’re seeing from ICE right now.
(...)
7:53:10 AM
SCARBOROUGH: So did I understand you correctly? You say that DHS’s budget is larger than the United States Marine Corps’ budget?
GALLEGO: That's right. Yes. I believe actually-
SCARBOROUGH: That’s grotesque. That is grotesque. That is grotesque.
BRZEZINSKI: And that’s right now, not even what they’re asking for.
SCARBOROUGH: Now I want to know, is there anything that Congress can do to claw some of that money back and actually give it to the United States Marines? Give it to members of the Navy. Give it to members of the Army. Give it to the VA. That is grotesque. We have people who have served -
BRZEZINSKI: And they’re not even that good.
SCARBOROUGH: - who are suffering that are not getting health care that they were promised. Can we not claw back that money from ICE and give it to our vets?
GALLEGO: Joe, look, I think we can, we just have to wait for an election, unfortunately. But that money came from the cuts to Medicaid, right? That money came from those communities in rural Arizona. They're probably going to have to close down some of their rural hospitals because they needed more money to buy and buy up these big camps they're putting together to hire these ICE agents that only have about 45 days of training and are given a gun and sent into very stressful areas.
There are people that are going and racially profiling people and rounding up Americans until they can prove their citizenship. That money came from kicking millions and millions of Americans off of Medicaid. It was the same bill. It was the same bill, the Big Beautiful Bill, whatever they want to call it. They cut Medicaid to expand ICE, and all that money is being used right now is to continue. They haven't even started yet with their full deportation policy. And what they've done so far is only terrorize communities and create distrust among Americans.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, terrorize communities, create distrust, and actually gun down Americans in the street. And gut funding for Medicaid, gut funding for our grandparents, gut funding for children, gut funding -
BRZEZINSKI: And they’re building the internment camps.
SCARBOROUGH: - And again, not taking care of our vets. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego. Well, go ahead sir.
GALLEGO: No, I mean, again, like if you talk about to our veterans every day, we feel that this administration is just taking any reason and finding any reason to cut more and more of our benefits to disrespect the veterans that work at the V.A. And just look at how many veterans were just fired at the beginning of this year that just worked for the federal government. This is the most anti veteran administration in the history of this country.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
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