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MS NOW's Wagner: Trump Policy Is 'Roving Death Squads' Vs. 'Black and Brown People'
On Friday's The Moment with Katy Tur, former MS NOW host Alex Wagner declared that the Trump administration's deportation policy is to have "roving death squads" targeting minorities. This, from a network that won't air Trump speeches live because he might say something crazy.Wagner's comments came during a discussion of the recent killing of a Colombian man in Maine by an ICE agent during an attempt to detain him.Host Katy Tur began the segment by recalling claims by family members of the agent that he allegedly has a violent history before relating to viewers that, according to DHS, the agent has almost a decade of federal law enforcement service.
MS NOW's Wagner Claims Trump Policy is 'Roving Death Squads' Targeting Minorities pic.twitter.com/vrKqdVCFOL— Brad Wilmouth (@bradwilmouth) July 18, 2026
In spite of admitting that he has that much experience, Tur still pivoted to a discussion that tried to suggest that the killing might have happened because, since last year, DHS has used a more streamlined process to train new agents. Introducing former ICE lawyer Ryan Schwenk as a guest, Tur recalled:Back in February, an ICE whistleblower warned that the officer training program was broken and some of these officers would pose a, quote, "clear and direct threat to everyone in this country." Joining us is that whistleblower, Ryan Schwenk. He formerly was a lawyer with ICE that was responsible for training new deportation officers.After Schwenk spent significant time giving his analysis, including that new hires are being given less hands-on experience before sending them for duty, Tur went to Wagner -- now a MS NOW political analyst -- for her reaction to how President Donald Trump has handled the fatal encounter.After complaining about the President demanding that ICE continue to do traffic stops, Wagner continued:I was speaking this week for my podcast, Runaway Country, with Juan Proano, who's the CEO of LULAC, and he said they are hunting Latin American men. They are hunting -- they are hunting Latino men, according to, I mean, we don't have a lot of stats on this, but from what they can glean, 80 percent of the people in detention are Latino men. ... The conditions inside these detention centers is so abominable. People are not being given enough food. They are not given clean water. Some of them are committing suicide.The conditions are purposefully so to encourage self-deportation. I mean, rule of law is not the goal here, Katy. Making life terrifying and making communities fearful enough that they either shut themselves off or go back home is the point here. I mean, that's why they don't want to make ICE detentions more sane or more targeted or more safe. Instilling fear and the threat of violence is the essence of the policy of this administration. So we should not hold out any hope that they're going to try and fix the system.She concluded by citing the Trump-despising former Mitt Romney adviser Stuart Stevens:I mean, all of this, which we we see as collateral damage, is, in fact, the focus: Recruit as many people as you can -- who cares what their backgrounds are? Just use them as effectively, like our guest earlier in this hour, Stuart Stevens says as part of a roving death squad to make life hell for black and brown people in this country. That is the point. That is the immigration policy of the Trump administration.Transcript follows:MS NOW's The Moment with Katy TurJuly 18, 2026KATY TUR: The Associated Press spoke with the relatives of the ICE officer who fatally shot a 25-year-old man in Biddeford, Maine, earlier this week. One ex-wife, who spoke on the record, claims he once threw boiling water at her while she was holding their child. His oldest daughter, who also spoke on the record, reported coming home from school and seeing her father, the officer, holding a gun to his head.An anonymous relative, speaking to the AP, said that he was extremely mentally ill and diagnosed with bipolar disorder and ADD. And additional court records document years of alleged physical and verbal abuse, including an allegation that he dragged another daughter around the house as she cried. Family members say he told them he shot the man in Biddeford, but that he was acting in self-defense. The AP reached out to the officer, but he did not respond without identifying the officer, and an ICE said the ICE officer in question has nearly a decade of federal law enforcement experience with required training, including use of force training.Back in February, an ICE whistleblower warned that the officer training program was broken and some of these officers would pose a, quote, "clear and direct threat to everyone in this country." Joining us is that whistleblower, Ryan Schwenk. He formerly was a lawyer with ICE that was responsible for training new deportation officers. Alex Wagner is still with us. Ryan, thank you very much for joining us. Tell us what you saw in training.RYAN SCHWENK, FORMER ICE LAWYER: So what I saw in training was a program that was cut dangerously short. We removed a significant portion of the training for officers that related to their use of force -- to the legal standards they had to be held to -- to their constitutional duties. And that training cut essentially removed a lot of the safeguards that would make the difference between an officer who can safely perform their duties, and one who could potentially pose a serious danger to the public.(...)TUR: Alex, the video itself and the -- what happened in Biddeford was hard enough -- the father not being even the subject that they were looking for getting shot; the DHS story changing from "He was using his car as a weapon" to "trying to flee." Now, to put, on top of that, all of these allegations that are being made on the record by his family members, daughters, daughter, ex-wife. Why are we not hearing more from this administration regarding this man and regarding what happened? Why are we not hearing from them, "This was a a disgusting oversight, and we will -- we will make it right, we will ensure that our background checks are more thorough, we will ensure that our training is more thorough so a mistake like this never happens again"?WAGNER: I mean, we have heard from the administration -- we heard from the President who said the day after ICE effectively curtailed its policy of traffic stops. The President, President Trump expressed his disbelief and dismay that ICE would do anything to try and ameliorate the situation or prevent any future accidents or killings like that from happening. That is the point. That is the message from the administration. Violence is the point.You know, I was speaking this week for my podcast, Runaway Country, with Juan Proano, who's the CEO of LULAC, and he said they are hunting Latin American men. They are hunting -- they are hunting Latino men, according to, I mean, we don't have a lot of stats on this, but from what they can glean, 80 percent of the people in detention are Latino men. And once they're in detention, the conditions there -- I spoke to Melissa Shephard from Immigration Defenders. The conditions inside these detention centers is so abominable. People are not being given enough food. They are not given clean water. Some of them are committing suicide.The conditions are purposefully so to encourage self-deportation. I mean, rule of law is not the goal here, Katy. Making life terrifying and making communities fearful enough that they either shut themselves off or go back home is the point here. I mean, that's why they don't want to make ICE detentions more sane or more targeted or more safe. Instilling fear and the threat of violence is the essence of the policy of this administration. So we should not hold out any hope that they're going to try and fix the system.I mean, all of this, which we we see as collateral damage, is, in fact, the focus: Recruit as many people as you can -- who cares what their backgrounds are? Just use them as effectively, like our guest earlier in this hour, Stuart Stevens says as part of a roving death squad to make life hell for black and brown people in this country. That is the point. That is the immigration policy of the Trump administration.