As the media turned back to cover immigration after Iran’s domination of the news cycle, Friday’s Morning Joe went all in on comparisons of detention facilities as internment camps. Co-host Joe Scarborough made the most direct comparison, stating detainees were being treated worse than the Japanese in their internment camps, as he asked if Republicans knew how this “will haunt the country.” Before Scarborough’s Japanese comparison, which never mentioned how it was the Democratic Party’s idea, his wife and fellow co-host Mika Brzezinski hit on ICE with multiple references to ICE and internment camps. Reading partly from her “note” in yesterday’s Morning Joe newsletter, The Tea, Brzezinski described a detainee, who committed suicide, as “an interned young man,” while she also called detention centers “gulags” that “have turned into grotesque money-making machines for the well-connected.” She continued with an attack on “pro-life” Republicans: This is happening in Trump's America, and it's all being rubber-stamped by Republican politicians who still have the gall to call themselves pro-life. Just think about that sick stuff.   On Friday's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough mocked DHS Sec. Mullin's accent and labeled ICE facilities as "internment camps." He then stated ICE detainees are "being treated much worse than the Japanese were treated in their internment camps, if you read history." pic.twitter.com/j1HPvXvYTN — Nick (@nspin310) May 29, 2026   Further on in the show, Scarborough joined in on the ICE and DHS bashing, as he started with a mockery of DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullins's accent after he threatened to pull security for Newark International Airport. Scarborough connected the airport comments to… internment camps: What we're going to do is we're going to try to disrupt operations at one of America's most important international airports, all to help what? Hold people that haven't committed crimes inside subhuman conditions in internment camps? Scarborough then remembered the Minneapolis unrest and ICE shootings, and made a wild direct comparison to Japanese internment: And young people, children, being scooped up off the streets when they came home from school and thrown into internment camps, being treated much worse than the Japanese were treated in their internment camps, if you read history.  Later, while introducing Sen. Booker (D-NJ) for his interview on immigration, Brzezinski grew emotional about illegal immigrants and said they were “put in concentration camps”: And they've spent so much money and so much time, and they've saved all their papers, and they've tried to do everything right. And they show up, and they get nabbed like criminals, like the worst of the worst, and put in concentration camps here in America.   Scarborough then asked Sen. Booker about what Republicans "think about an internment camp system that will haunt this country..." Booker then attacked Republicans' "alleged Christian faith," before Mika asked, "Do they not care?" to which he said, "There is a reckoning coming." pic.twitter.com/FGHqlrOGpa — Nick (@nspin310) May 29, 2026   As the Booker interview was at its close amid what turned out to be an almost 20-minute segment on ICE detention centers, Scarborough asked Booker what his Republican colleagues “think about an internment camp system that will haunt this country, just like Japanese internment camps haunted the soul and the conscience of this country.” He continued, “Do they not think that the very things that were said about Japanese internment camps will be said about them, will be said about their party, will be said about their president? What do you say to them?” Booker responded with an attack on the faith of some Republicans and commented on their “alleged Christian faith”: As the senator railed on Republican “compassion” and “empathy,” Brzezinski interjected with a raised voice: “But what do you get from them? Do they not care? Do they not care?” Booker then responded, “There is a reckoning coming, there is a reckoning coming.” With the Iran War’s loss of some media attention, MS NOW and other liberal networks seemed extremely poised to revive the immigration talk and threatening rhetoric against ICE, with references to internment and concentration camps. The transcript is below. Click "expand": MS NOW’s Morning Joe May 29, 2026 6:33:39 AM Eastern  (...) MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Then there is the Associated Press investigation uncovering how ten detainees died by suicide since President Donald Trump's second term began. In a normal year, ICE records no deaths or perhaps one.  An interned young man spent his final days sick and isolated, slipping handwritten notes under his cell door, begging to hear his mother's voice on a phone. A guard collected the note and walked away. Within an hour, the internment camp victim was dead.  And if it could not get worse, these gulags have turned into grotesque money-making machines for the well-connected. Private contractors get paid for filling beds, whether those souls trapped inside have committed a crime or not, and whether they are American citizens or not.  Not that any of that matters. The U.S. Constitution guarantees due process for every person on American soil, and that is ignored daily by Trump's internment goons. Some mothers get sick, husbands slowly die, and sons trapped in hopeless despair take their own lives. This is happening in Trump's America, and it's all being rubber-stamped by Republican politicians who still have the gall to call themselves pro-life. Just think about that sick stuff.  (...) 7:03:38 AM Eastern JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know, Jonathan Lemire, the stupidity, I mean, it makes your teeth hurt. the stupidity. He’s saying [Mocking DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s Accent] what we're going to do is we're going to destroy more global commerce. What we're going to do is make flying on airplanes even less safe. What we're going to do is we're going to try to disrupt operations at one of America's most important international airports, all to help, what? Hold people that haven't committed crimes inside subhuman conditions in internment camps? So you're talking about 21st-century commerce being undermined, all to make a point about like medieval things taking place at internment camps that Americans don't want.  You look at Donald Trump's approval ratings. When did they start really collapsing? The war didn't help. But you look at what happened at Minneapolis. You looked at the fact that U.S. Citizens were gunned down in American streets. You look at the fact that ICE officers abused people. ICE officers clearly not trained for the work they were being asked to do, and abused that power.  And young people, children, being scooped up off the streets when they came home from school and thrown into internment camps, being treated much worse than the Japanese were treated in their internment camps, if you read history.  (...) 7:07:47 AM Eastern JONATHAN LEMIRE: So perhaps, Mika, they'll be talked out of this particular idea. But it's pulling back the curtain on a priority that's reemerging, is that, it's very clear. We've been saying this for a few weeks now. We've heard it from Tom Homan. We've heard it now from Secretary Markwayne Mullin, that the deportation program is about to ramp back up.  And maybe, they say, it won't - maybe it won't lead to the violence that we saw in Minneapolis, but it's coming.  That they think because it's - for this president when things are bad. And as Joe just said, his polling, really bad. His reflex is always go back to what he thinks is his best issue, which is immigration and the promises he made to deport millions of people, even though so many Americans say, wait, this has gone way too far? BRZEZINSKI: And just to reinforce some of the other facts here, they're not just being scooped up off the street or having their cars broken into, or their doors pushed in and other laws broken as these people are being pulled into custody. Rose showed up at her immigration hearing.  So, now you have story after story after story of people showing up at their immigration meetings, at their hearings, at their - they get a form. They're trying to go through the process. They may be close to the process, but the rules get changed. So actually, you thought you could stay, but you can't.  And that's happening to many different categories of people who are here and want to have legal status, or in the process of getting legal status, they show up for their hearings. They show up because they want to follow the rules.  [On Verge of Tears] They show up because they want to be here legally, and they're almost there. And they've spent so much money and so much time, and they've saved all their papers, and they've tried to do everything right. And they show up and they get nabbed like criminals, like the worst of the worst, and put in concentration camps here in America.  And now the protests that have taken place outside Delaney Hall, just one of many, detention center they call it, for a full week now in New Jersey, amid reports of hunger strikes by detainees, some of whom have described rotten food, a lack of air conditioning and being denied medical care. Joining us now, Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. And you got into Delaney. So, take it from me because I'm getting emotional. What did you see? SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): First of all, to not be emotional. The dignity of our nation, any pretense of nobility within our country is under assault right now.  BRZEZINSKI: I know. BOOKER: This is our taxpayer money. These are our officials conducting immigration policy. That is levels of deep cruelty that should be unacceptable to all Americans. It's going on in Newark. It's going on in Texas. It's going on around our country. (...) 7:20:05 AM Eastern SCARBOROUGH: You know, senator, there - I know there are extremists and there are idiots that literally want to take us back to 1865 and make the same argument the Confederate States made to Lincoln that they didn't want to get back into the union unless they could vote against the 13th and 14th amendments. 1865! And they're rearguing that right now.  I don't want to talk about those idiots, and those racists, and those bigots. I want to talk instead about friends that I have known, that I knew when I was in Congress. People that you are working with right now. Good men, good women in their in their private lives.  I want to ask you, what do those Republican - your senate brethren and sisters think about an internment camp system that will haunt this country, just like Japanese internment camps haunted the soul and the conscience of this country. For 85 years, we have been apologizing for Japanese internment camps for 85 years. Do they not think that the very things that were said about Japanese internment camps will be said about them, will be said about their party, will be said about their president? What do you say to them? How can they be encouraged to step forward and do what is clearly, this isn't a close call morally, but clearly do the right thing for not only these people, but for the United States Constitution and the guarantees that Scalia talked about when he was alive that he said extended to immigrants here in America. BOOKER: Or even your alleged Christian faith.  This - how can there be such a constipation of compassion, a poverty of empathy that, from the dictates of your faith to the laws in the constitution, that you are willing to so violate your values and any shred of moral decency that our country proclaims. BRZEZINSKI: But what do you get from them? Do they not care? Do they not care? BOOKER: I - There is a reckoning coming. There is a reckoning coming. (...)