Morning Joe - Border Patrol commander Bovino expected to leave Minnesota

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Border Patrol commander Bovino expected to leave Minnesota To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I wasn't shocked when you guys gave up the First Amendment, and I wasn't shocked when you gave up the Fourth Amendment and the 10th Amendment and the 14th Amendment at Trump's behest. But the second? Guns are your whole personality. Guns are your Zoom backgrounds, your decorative lapel pins. Guns are how you show displeasure at documents. Guns are your Christmas cards.

There's no human activity that can't be made better without the pulsing heat of your Armolite best friends. Of course, in Texas, we cook bacon a little different than most times. Morning and welcome to Morning Joe. Yeah, I didn't see that one coming. It is Tuesday, January 27th. We have a lot to cover. And that's a lot.

Yeah, that is a lot. As the fallout continues this morning from Saturday's deadly shooting in Minneapolis, the Trump administration is making a major move, putting border czar Tom Holman in charge of the operations there. This comes after Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino falsely accused Alex Preti of trying to massacre law enforcement. Meanwhile, a growing number of Republicans are calling for an independent and transparent investigation into the shooting, including lawmakers from deep red states. And on Capitol Hill, both parties are digging in amid a fight over. money for DHS in a package to fund the government. The question is, can lawmakers come to a compromise

before Friday's deadline? Along with Joe, Willie, and me, we have the co-host of our 9 a.m. Our staff writer, The Atlantic, Jonathan Lamere, and White House correspondent for Bloomberg. Jeff Mason is with us. And you know, Willie, so much happening over this weekend. Of course, the tragic shooting on Saturday. The increase, calls for ice to either tamp down its operations in Minneapolis or leave Minneapolis. And then yesterday, mid-morning, I think it was, the president and Tim Walts and also the mayor of Minneapolis actually reaching out, talking, and having conciliatory words and tamping down a situation that had grown wildly out of control because of

You just have to say it because of Christy Noem and Bovino and the way they ran ice. Yeah, I mean, no question about it. There's now some acknowledgement that the president sees how bad this is, not just for the people of Minneapolis, for the country, but for himself, which is kind of where this story always ends. He sees that the American people have turned against him and his administration on that. But you're right. Apparently, we're hearing reports that he met directly with Christy Noem and Corey Lewin-Dows.

yesterday into the night to talk about this. Perhaps Christine Ome's job on the line as Greg Bevino has been now moved out of Minneapolis. He's going back to the border in California to be a border patrol agent, which is what he's been doing for most of his career. So you're seeing some of the pieces move around Tom Homan come in. I know people have feelings about Tom Homan and the policies he's enforced over the last several months. But let's remember he is the one after the shooting death of Renee Good, the only one who said,

Let's have an investigation. Let's see what comes out. Let's not call her a domestic terrorist within the first five minutes. So hopefully for the country, hopefully for Minneapolis, things have cooled down. It's just a shame that it took the shooting deaths of two protesters to get us to this place. It really is. And the president's saying yesterday that Tom Holman, who, by the way, had warned Jacob Soberoff. Jacob ran the clip this weekend, had warned Jacob.

Soberoff, that there were people that, if this continued, there were people that were going to be killed warned about that months ago. He had been sidelined. But Mika, the president's saying that Holman's job's not just to run operations in Minneapolis for however much longer it is, but to sit down and work with Minnesota leaders so they can coordinate together. So as Willey said, top border patrol official, Gregory Bovino is expected to be removed from commanding the operation in Minnesota as early as today. That's according to two officials briefed on the matter who tell MS now, there will also be a reduction of federal officers and agents in the state,

although the size and scope of that reduction remains unclear. This comes just days after Bovino rushed to judgment following the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Prattie, claiming without evidence that the victim intended to massacre law enforcement officials. An additional source tells MS now that Bovino will be removed from his role as Border Patrol commander at large and will return to his sector in El Centro, California. The Department of Homeland Security, however, is pushing back, claiming he has not been relieved of his duties and is a key part of the team.

Well, they lie repeatedly, so we just don't know if they're lying here or not. But with Bovino's expected exit from Minneapolis, I mean, can we just stop there and just talk about how that is a huge part of the problem? I know we're going to move on and talk about Tom Holman, but let's not stop there quite yet. Because I will say John Lemire, the repeated lies. And, you know, people use Orwellian. You know, there's a hard hit disinterfield. Oh, that's Orwellian.

It was a Texas. You know, they overuse the word. Here, Orwellian fit, because time and time again, you would see video of Americans being beaten or, in two cases, gun down in the streets. And VHS, there's spokespeople, and especially Christine Ome, going back to Renee Good, lying through her teeth with her cowboy hat on, talking about snow banks, just making shit up about dead Americans, gun down in the street. Dead Americans gun down in the street.

The first remember, Renee Good saying, I'm not mad. The last word spoken on earth to the man that shot her twice at point blank range, putting a bullet through her head. I'm not mad. And then she turns and tries to leave.

They lie about her, and immediately, Kristine Homme, without knowing any of the facts, lies through her teeth. it happened again here with Alex Freddie. The same exact thing happened. DHS lying through their teeth. And I'm curious, I know so much played in to just the torrent of Republicans,

finally having the courage to stand up and speak out and all of this happening. But it seems to me a lot of people kept going back to all the lies that Christy Noem has been telling over and over and over again, as almost along with these American citizens being gunned down in the street, it's the lies that seem to really have gotten a lot of these Republicans saying, no, no, what she's saying here is a lie. What she said about Renee Good, all lies, what she said about Alex Prattie, all lies. They lied, lied, lied through their teeth. And I'm just wondering if at the end of the day, that's not one of the things that really made Republicans say, we just can't do this anymore.

They're lying to the American people. They're lying to our constituents. DHS is lying nonstop. Yeah, lies from Secretary Nome, from DHS staff, from over the weekend, Stephen Miller, suggesting that Mr. Prattie was an assassin intent to kill federal agents. A lie, mind you, on social media that was then amplified by the vice president of the United States. And there were Republicans who were uneasy about some of the lies they heard about the Renee Good killing.

But this one was different over this weekend. We heard almost immediately the framing that the DHS and the administration was putting out about what happened in Minneapolis. Just simply didn't match the videos that the whole world saw from so many different angles, from frankly those brave protesters in Minneapolis who were willing to, as it turned out, risked their lives to record what was happening there. The facts, the videos and the facts simply didn't line up with what the federal government was telling us. So there was indeed some real anger. And that's what I'm told over the weekend. And then yesterday as well that some of these Republicans and went to the White House and said,

look, we don't like how this is being discussed. An investigation is needed here. You can't just dismiss this. You know, obviously about the NRA part as well, saying that, you know, the fact that he had a gun and brought it to a protest, well, he kind of deserved it. None of that sat well with Republicans. That added to the pressure. And indeed, we saw Bovino being moved out, the Atlantic going to reporting that even he's soon to retire, Willie. And then we had Secretary Nome and Corey Lewandowski in this meeting at the White House yesterday.

Stephen Miller, not part of it, interestingly enough. And we're told that their job's safe for now. But it's very clear there's at least a little bit of a de-escalation from Minnesota as the president and his team see poll numbers and realize this is not going well for them. And so much of the problem stems from Christy Noem's immediate lies about what happened in both of these cases. And that's in part, as you say, why more Republican senators are calling for an independent and transparent investigation into the deadly shooting of Alex Prattie. At least 10 have posted statements about Saturday's shooting, including John Curtis of Utah, who criticized DHS Secretary Kristy Knoem, calling her response to Prattie's death premature, adding, it came before all the facts were known and weakened common. others speaking out include senators from states that voted overwhelmingly for President Trump by Crapo of Idaho wrote in part, Preti's family, law-abiding citizens exercising their Second

Amendment right, and the trust of the American people deserve a fair process. Jerry Moran of Kansas posted, law enforcement must reflect our nation's values and citizens should obey the law. This tragic circumstance should be investigated to the fullest extent to ensure transparency and accountability. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska reiterated his support for ICE, but also wrote, We must also maintain our core values as a nation, including the right to protest and assemble. And Ted Cruz of Texas said the administration is taking the wrong tone in the aftermath of the shootings in Minnesota.

That immediately when an incident like this happens, they come out guns blazing that we took out a violent terrorist, hooray. And the problem is, particularly for someone not paying attention, if you're being told, this is a mom of three and there's no indication, you know, she's not waving an ISIS flag or doesn't have a suicide vest around her. Yeah. Escalating the rhetoric doesn't help. And it actually loses credibility. And so I would encourage the administration to be more measured, to recognize the tragedy and to say, we don't want anyone. anyone's lives to be lost, and the politicians who are pouring gasoline onto this fire, they need to stop.

So more Republican reaction. Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, is also calling on the Trump administration to rethink the ongoing ice operations in Minnesota following the fatal shooting death of Alex Prattie. During a recent interview on the Mark Davis show, Abbott noted the White House was already facing public backlash over the killing of Renee Good and said the enforcement operations need to be recalibrated. In general, we need to have respect for law enforcement officers in the country. They are law enforcement officers. And so they being the White House, need to recalibrate on what needs to be done to make sure that that respect is going to be reinstilled. And that's not,

an easy task, especially under the current circumstances, but I know that they're working on a game plan to make sure that they are going to, let's say, recalibrate and maybe work from a different direction to ensure that they get back to what they wanted to do to begin with, and that is to remove people from the country who are here illegally. There's also Fox News host Sean Hannity, who on his radio show yesterday did slam Democratic Immigration policies, but also criticized the... ice raids as establishments like especially ice raids at establishments like home depot. I was ice perfect or not can they do a better job but they can.

So I think that you know some of the optics at times I do I think that going into home depots and arresting people there is a good idea. I don't. I don't think the people that if you're working at a place you're not the immediate problem eventually we'll have to deal with those people that didn't respect our laws, borders, and sovereignty, there's got to be a program where people get to come forward. I think they should then be given transportation home. They can get a check for, what, $2,000, and they can apply to come back in the country legally.

We can vet them. We can do a health check on them and make sure they won't be a financial burden on the American people. I think that'd be a more responsible, reasonable way to deal with that problem. Wow. So the Republican reaction really playing a huge role here, I think, in what played out, Joe. And it's not just the ice raids across the country where UCP ICE agents bashing their way into cars, pushing their way into homes, making mistakes, detaining U.S. citizens, detaining children. But these two killings were jarring U.S. citizens. Americans. And then the lies that followed were so fast. and so furious that I think it was chilling universally. Right. And I am struck by Sean Hannity's words, the senator's words,

and struck because that position has been what I've been saying all along, what I've been saying since 1994, and I'm struck that the administration didn't start here. I'm struck because, again, most Americans believe that if you are here illegally, that you should be deported, as Sean Hannity said, people have been talking about this for years. Give people money to get back home. Then have those people reapply to come back to America. and yes, get in line with people all over the world that are applying and trying to do this the correct way. But if you've been in America for a long time, if you've been law abiding, if you've had... If you're an asylum seeker. Certainly if you've had children that have served in the military, you're at the front of the line.

So this has been the established view of many people. Barack Obama, again, was called the Deporter of... in chief, but what he did was he took that view. What's not curious, but what's very unfortunate for this country and politically unfortunate for the administration of Republicans is it's taking them this long to express this publicly in the face of some violent tactics over the past six to nine months. And I just want to repeat this, because I just want to repeat this, because I don't think, I know Republicans watch this, and I don't think they listen sometimes to what I'm saying. They just go, oh, Joe's a lefty. Joe's a little. No, I'm not. I'm just not. I have been saying

from the beginning that the Trump administration trying to chase the same numbers, the Biden administration, was able to do in deporting people that were here illegally, was a losing cause. because the Biden administration let so many people in the border. Some days, 5, 10,000 people in and right there. So if they're all down by the border, it's much easier for border patrol to send them back over to raise those numbers up. And you're never, ever going to match those numbers by the sort of brutish tactics that we have seen unfold in this country over the last nine months, and especially in Minneapolis, you're just not going to do that going neighborhood by neighborhood, community by community,

street by street, door by door. And the physical, the emotional carnage that comes from that is not going to be politically. You're not going to be able to do that politically. You're going to lose. And that's exactly what's happened here. So the administration has got to figure out a better way moving forward because, yes, Jeff Mason, there's no doubt. The overwhelming majority of Americans, what did they say when Donald Trump got elected? We want the southern border secure. And Biden belatedly started moving in that direction to secure the southern border. It took that administration way too long to do it. But Americans want a secure southern border, and they want the worst of the worst out. And as a Wall Street Journal

editorial page notes today, the first couple of months, you had 85, 87 percent of the people being deported being the worst of the worst because they were getting them out of prisons and sending them home. Now that number is down to 5 percent of those that they're deporting who have committed violent crimes. So now they are deported. a lot of women and children and people who haven't committed violent crimes who aren't the worst of the worst. So the question moving forward, obviously, is how do they recalibrate? Do they do something more like what Sean Hannity is saying than what their policy has been over the past nine months? Well, and clearly the politics are requiring them to recalibrate

in some ways based on all of the responses that you just read. Number one, if you've lost Sean Hannity, then you're definitely struggling at the White House under this policy. Number two, I think it's important to note that the tone shift is also a reflection of the fact that the tone is set by the top and set at the top. Stephen Miller is a very, very important policymaker in this White House. President Trump and Vice President Vance look at the responses that they made to the killing of Renee Good. That was set at the top and then amplified by people. like Secretary Noem and, of course, Stephen Miller. The fact that Tom Holman is going in now, he is still a very, very big Trump acolyte. He's got some differences with a few people in the

administration, but he is absolutely somebody who is an implementer of President Trump's policies. But the political pressure that is now coming from Republicans, not to mention Democrats, and I would add to that, the polling that has shown that the electorate is losing confidence in President Trump's immigration policies, that is having. an impact and that is leading to this shift. The New York Post has hugged the President closely on this issue throughout, but now breaking with him. A new editorial titled, What Trump's next move needs to be in Minneapolis.

The Post writes this, quote, it's time to de-escalate in Minneapolis, Mr. President. These enforcement tactics won't turn the tide and instead are backfiring. Swing voters, Hispanics and independents who turn to you at the last election, see U.S. citizens dying at federal agents' hands and require. coil in horror. Team Trump needs to cool things down and let the American public see calm leadership. The hasty and misleading rhetoric coming out of the administration needs to stop. However noble the mission is to rid the country of the worst of the worst, the broad support for it is now ebbing fast. Mr. President, the American people did not vote for these scenes and you can't continue to order

them to not believe their lying eyes. Again, Jonathan Lemire, that is the New York Post, which obviously has been right there with Donald Trump, especially on this issue of immigration enforcement. Axios has a quote from an administration official just this morning. I'll paraphrase. It says, the president knew the situation was effed and knew he needed to un-eff it, thereby putting in Tom Holman, who, let's be clear, is not some open border squish. It's still a tough policy, but at least perhaps the leadership from the top with Bovino and maybe even Christy Noem now, sidelined, the way that ICE operates in Minneapolis and other cities make change a bit here. Yeah, we're in a strange place when a number of Democrats yesterday were thought that Tom Holman

would sort of be a de-escalatory force, you know, and I think we should be careful as to what happened in terms of our judgment there, but certainly it's been as well documented. He was more reasonable after a good killing than the like. You're right. The New York Post differs with Trump on support for Ukraine, but that's about it. They've gone so far to say their front page say iced Barbie in terms of Christy Noem being sidelined in her penchant for a cosplay for whatever job she's on right now. We'll see, though, what happens next. I'm told this next week or so will be crucial to fate of Minnesota. There are pulling some agents out. That's a significant step. But Holman's going there. What will he recommend? Will he actually work with local leaders?

President Trump did praise the mayor of Minneapolis, particularly the governor, yesterday, and true social. That also a step, perhaps, toward extending an olive branch, or the, Let's remember both of those men are currently under DOJ investigation for allegedly obstructing ICE operations there. There's also been talked, well, maybe ice will pull out of Minnesota because things are too hot, but they'll simply move somewhere else. We know they're escalated operations right now in Maine. They're considered other cities, you know, on the map as well where they could head next.

But Joe and Mika, I think there is a recognition in the last few days. This is a storyline that's gotten away from the White House. That outside of the hardest core Republicans, people don't want. want to see this. You know, outside of the hardest core of MAGA supporters, people don't want to see these kind of clashes. It just leads to unease and unhappiness, a sense that things are falling apart. We'll see if the president, who's usually good at reading the polls, makes some choices

to go another direction. Still ahead on morning, Joe, a federal judge in Minnesota heard arguments yesterday on the state's request for a temporary restraining order on ICE operations. MS Now's Candelanian joins us next. with more on that. Plus, more than a dozen members of Congress have filed a new legal complaint after DHS blocked efforts to visit detention facilities amid reports of overcrowding and inhumane conditions. We'll dig into that new legal fight. And as we go to break, a quick look at the Travelers' Travelers'Bourcast this morning from Ackyweather's Bernie Rayno. Bernie, how's it looking?

Bundle up is the best advice I can give you today, Mika. It is cold. This is getting old, isn't it? Now, some lake effect snow and flurries around off of Lake Ontario. A few slippery spots here and there. But the story's the cold. 23 degrees in Boston. 20 degrees New York City, Accuather, Rio Field Tappet, shingle, numbers, and teens. And the cold gets all the way down into the south.

Good news for Nashville. Still lots of power allergies. 36 degrees. Sunshine for the most part. Even Miami's only at a high of 68 degrees today. And travel back to normal. We don't have any. delays. To help you make the best decisions and be more in the know, download the ACU weather app.

A federal judge has heard arguments from the state of Minnesota calling for ICE agents to leave the state and for an end to the Trump administration's sweeping immigration enforcement there. Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul urged the judge yesterday to issue an immediate temporary restraining order, arguing the surge of DHSA. agents in the state is a clear violation of Minnesota's sovereignty under the 10th Amendment and has plunged their communities into crisis. The Trump administration defended the surge as lawful enforcement of federal immigration statute. It's arguing that Minnesota cannot refuse to cooperate. The judge did not say when she might issue her ruling. With his Alex bringing in

MS Now Justice and Intelligence reporter, Ken Delaney. Ken, it seems like a a pretty high bar for any federal judge to use the Tenth Amendment to block federal agents from coming in to any state. What are you hearing on the ground? Yes, you're absolutely right, Joe. And Judge Catherine Menendez made that point several times during the hearing, even as she expressed bewilderment and frustration over the federal government strategy. And the state lawyers, they spared no language in the way they characterized what was happening. One of them said, government has sent an unprecedented force of thousands of mask agents armed with assault rifles to spread through our region in roving patrols that are racially profiling and inflicting

violence on people. They said that there's no precedent in 250 years of the federal government doing this to a state. So what the judge did is she ordered the Trump administration to respond in court filings explaining the reasons and the motives behind these operations. But honestly, I think you're right, Joe. I think that the, the, the, the, uh, the, uh, If these things are going to taper down, it's going to be because of the political dynamics that you were discussing in the previous segment. Donald Trump is clearly seeing that he's overplayed his hand here. It's ironic to me, of course, that the solution to this problem appears to be Tom Homan, the man who, as we reported, was recorded in an FBI sting operation accepting $50,000 in cash. But nonetheless, he's seen as the reasonable person here, and they're sending him in to maybe change some things, guys.

It's all relative, I guess. One of the bizarre subplots to that hearing yesterday, Ken, one of the issues was the letter Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote to Minnesota Governor Tim Walsh on Saturday after the shooting death of Alex Preti, laying out a series of order, she said, would restore the rule of law in Minneapolis. It was a three-page letter obtained by the New York Times. Attorney General Bondi urges Governor Wals to share state records of everyone who's collecting welfare benefits like Medicare, to repeal state sanctuary city policies, and to allow the Justice Department to access Minnesota's voter rolls.

Whilst dismissed the letter saying it's not a serious attempt to de-escalate tensions, the attorney for Minnesota said that this amounted to a ransom note. Can you just talk about how extraordinary, unusual this is, as effectively saying, we'll back off a little bit. We'll stop shooting people in the streets if you give us your voter rolls. Yeah, it's really remarkable. especially coming from the Attorney General, who's really acting as the president's lawyer here,

as she often does, and representing the administration, not really representing the rule of law. You're right. The state called it a ransom note. The judge seemed very concerned about the implications of the letter. It's sort of a conservative wish list, right?

These are the issues that people in the MAGA world have a problem with in terms of Minnesota and Minneapolis in particular. And in terms of the sanctuary laws, there's a reasonable debate about whether, for example, the jails in Minneapolis and St. Paul should honor ICE detainers when they have people who have final orders of deportation. They're not doing that right now. That really annoys a lot of conservatives. We can debate that. But the idea that Pambani wants access to the voter rolls and, of course,

access to the public assistance roles because of this big fraud scandal that's been unfolding in Minneapolis and Minnesota. There's been federal prosecutions. A lot of the people involved have been of Somali descent and conservatives have been making a huge deal of that. But none of this has anything to do with, as you said, these immigration operations that are unfolding in the streets. But on places like Fox News and conservative media and other places, it's all tied together as one thing. And so that you saw Pambani reflecting that in that letter. On the demand for the voter rolls, the Secretary of State of Minnesota wrote, the answer to Attorney General Bondi's request is no. MS now, Justice and Intelligence

reporter Ken Delaney and Ken, thanks so much. A dozen Democratic members of Congress filed an emergency motion in federal court last night focused on restoring their authority to conduct oversight of ICE detention facilities. The filing is in response to moves by the Department of Homeland Security to restrict lawmakers from conducting unannounced visits to federal detention centers. Join us now, Sky Perryman. She's president and CEO of Democracy Ford, which represents congressional members, and is a non-primeous. legal organization that challenges what it believes are anti-democratic actions and government wrongdoing. Sky, good morning. Great to have you with us. So can you flesh out a little bit more

about this case we have in front of you about members of Congress say they're just exercising their job as with oversight by visiting these detention centers and are being kept away. Where do things stand now? Yes. I mean, this is their job and it is their legal obligation to conduct this oversight on behalf of the American people. A federal court has already, found once that the administration's attempt to keep members of Congress from oversight is unlawful. And so we're back in court because after that finding, the administration then denied members of Congress in Minneapolis the ability to conduct oversight. This is highly concerning, and it shows what we've been discussing in the previous segments, which is this

administration knows it has an optics problem. And to solve that optics problem, it is trying to prevent the American people from seeing with their own eyes, trying to prevent the American people's representatives, members of Congress, for seeing with their own eyes what is going on. And the filing we made last night, which was joined by Representative Morrison, who is a congressional member from Minnesota, there are explosive revelations about what is happening at the Whipple Center that they have been kept away from. And so we will pursue this very aggressively and hope to have a court order soon to restore this oversight. Sky, I want to get your reaction to what we just heard from our colleague Ken Delaney in a moment ago about the Attorney General Pam Bondi's push to Minnesota lawmakers to turn over Minnesota voter rolls as part of this surge.

Tell us what you think this means why you're concerned. It's important to connect the dots here. What we've seen in Minnesota is not about immigration. It is about an autocratic power grab. And that we see with Pam Bondi coming out and saying, an extortion, a ransom letter saying, you know, we will stop federal agents murdering people in your streets. If you just give us the voter rolls, every federal court that has considered this has said that there's no basis for the Department of Justice's request for these roles. And you see Minnesota resisting that. But the Department of Justice in like a mob-like mentality wants to say, you know, we're coming in. We're going to terrorize American citizens,

murder two of them. And we'll put all this to rest if you just, give us the role. So this is a huge autocratic power grab, and it is important that we be connecting the dots. This power grab came and this letter came on the heels, not just of the murder of a second American citizen by federal agents, but also after in federal court, in another case that we're litigating at Democracy Forward, we saw the Department of Justice make a filing that suggested that members of Doge back last spring had access to people's personal data, exfiltrated it to servers and engaged in a agreement with a voter advocacy organization. So you can see that while Minnesota has never been about immigration, it's about a power grab.

Doge was never about efficiency. It was about data and about taking the American people's data. And I think if we connect the dots, what you're going to see is this power grab is coming straight for our elections in November. President and CEO of Democracy Forward, Sky Perryman, thank you very much. much for your analysis this morning. We appreciate it. Thank you. You know, looking at the front page the New York Times, also other papers, it really is pretty remarkable. Alex Pretty, who tragically, tragically was gunned down. And it certainly, a lot of people have said

execution style. It certainly looked that way. It's amazing. He was everywhere. I saw protests in Chicago and they were holding his signs up, Times Square, so a huge image of him in Times Square. I mean, he really, tragically, he has become the face of Americans who want their streets back. The face of when things turned, you know, Trump promised mass deportations like you've never seen before. And there have been, there are some chilling moves that have happened by the, this administration that demand accountability, the plane loads of people sent to sea coat. What's going on in these detention facilities? A million different questions that still deserve answers. But politically did not have the impact of two dead American citizens in a matter of

weeks in one city at close range and videos to back it all up. So we're at a moment for sure. coming up. We are. And we, there is now an opening, a political opening for the federal government and the state governments to work together. We saw it yesterday with Donald Trump and Tim Walts, two people who had been sharply critical of each other. And the same thing with the mayor of Minneapolis, have been sharply critical. They are talking now. There is an opening. Let's hope there's a bipartisan effort to walk through that door and get real immigration reform and put this terrible chapter behind us. Coming up, the government looks likely to be headed for a shutdown later this week over

disagreements surrounding funding for immigration enforcement. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois joins us to explain her push against the spending bill. Morning Joe will be right back. 46 past the hour, the federal. government is headed for a partial shutdown this Friday. As lawmakers, battle over funding for President Trump's immigration enforcement agenda following Saturday's second deadly shooting by ICE officials in Minneapolis, a growing number of Democratic senators are warning they will not vote for a $1.2 trillion federal funding package if it includes money for the Department of Homeland

Security, which oversees immigration enforcement. Joining us now, one of those senators, Democrat Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. She's a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees and is also an Iraq war veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart. It is good to have you on the show this morning. Thank you so much, Senator. Understand what's at stake with a potential shutdown here moving forward. But DHS was funded in the last budget in a huge way. and certainly won't be for a lack of money anytime soon.

What is the point of this potential shutdown and holding strong on that? Is there anything that can be done about the massive amount of money that has already been approved for DHS? Well, the problem we have is that even in the big beautiful bill, Trump's big beautiful bill, they gave ICE and CPB a $70 billion slush fund to pay. with what we're asking for is for leader Thune to break out the DHS budget let us pass the rest of the bill let us pass the rest of the bill and let's go to the let's let's go and sit down and work on putting some restraints on ice you know I have my police accountability and independent review act which says anytime you know

ICE has is involved in a shooting there should be an independent review transparent we need to put guard rails around ice and that's all Democrats are asking for so to be responsible about how ICE operates in our nation cities, whether that's a blue city or red city. Yeah, Senator, yesterday, 10 Republicans, I think we counted, came out strongly, especially people like Rand Paul, who, of course, runs the pertinent committee here, but came out strongly saying there needed to be an investigation into the shootings. I'm curious, is there a chance. to work with Republicans and Democrats?

Is there a chance to get a bipartisan agreement on this? Since you have, there we have, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Crapo, Curtis McCormick, Moran, Rukowsky, Ricketts, Tillis, and Young, all calling for an investigation. Is there an opportunity here for peace to break out, for there to be a bipartisan deal? There very much is an opportunity for that, but it's up to the Republican leadership to decide. that, right? These 10 Republican colleagues of mine need to go to their leader, a leader Thune, and say, hey, break out the DHS funding package. We'll pass the rest of it and then we'll negotiate with the Democrats. Put together a team of people to negotiate. We on the Democratic side have put together our list of what we would like to see to put some restraints on ice.

And then we'll, you know, we can come to an agreement. But it's up to them to decide whether or not they want to negotiate and make this bipartisan. Senator, good morning. We just showed that list of senators. Republicans who have spoken out were hearing from some members of the House, including the chair, a Republican chair from out of Long Island of the House Homeland Security Committee saying the leaders of these organizations need to come and testify about what's going on after the shooting death now of Alex Prady. Can you speak to behind the scenes, what you've been hearing from your Republican colleagues that's now spilled out into the public, which is their frustration in some cases discussed in others with what's been happening in Minneapolis? Well, from a very few of them, I've heard some disgust, but they are very much tentative. They are scared of retribution from the White House. Many of them have seen their colleagues see retribution, and they're very much afraid of that. But, you know, what I say to them is, you're supposed to love this country first. You're supposed to love our Constitution first.

We're supposed to be defending our Constitution, not whoever is sitting in the White House. And ICE needs to be raining. And I think they're finally seeing that. I got to be honest with you. When I talk to a few of my colleagues, they have not even seen the videos. It's almost like they put blinders on. They're uneasy.

They haven't even seen the videos. The Democrats, we've all watched every single video from every single angle. Yeah, that is hard to believe. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. Thank you so much for being with us. We greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

Jeff Mason, you know, the one issue I have heard from some people in the White House for some time that they thought they could get a bipartisan deal out of eventually was on the issue of immigration. It always seemed like a pipe dream. It doesn't so much now. What would that look like? It seems to me we can't even get a straight version of events coming out of Minnesota on whether Minnesota officials actually cooperate with the federal government and getting convicts who are illegal immigrants into the hands of the DHS. Tim Walts today has an op-ed saying they do it. Republicans say, yeah, he doesn't do it. But is there an opportunity for some bipartisan deal in immigration reform? And what does that

look like? You know, Joe, I think it depends on a couple things. Number one, it depends on how real this recalibration is. Jonathan and I were talking earlier in the break about the fact that the president may be shifting a little bit because of the optics, but the basics of his policies are still the core of the promises that he made as a candidate. So if any of that shifts, maybe that we create some room. Another factor is just whether or not Democrats feel any reason right now to cooperate with Republicans. And I think the fact that they're open to another government shutdown suggests that they don't see a lot of room for that because of what's happened in the last few weeks. You know, I remember back to Trump 1.0, the president at one point said that he was

open to a deal for dreamers. That's something that Democrats have wanted for years, dating back, of course, to the Obama administration. If something like that were to come back on the table and there was some kind of a way for them to find compromise and give Democrats a win on that, that could be part of something that would create an incentive for them to work with Republicans. But if you look at everything we've been talking about and what's going on in Minnesota and the pressure

and now the political weakness, frankly, that the Republicans are going to be coming into the midterms with because of this, I'm just not sure there's an incentive for Democrats to come up with a deal. And I'm not sure that Republicans are going to get give them anything that they would want. Yeah, I mean, the thing is we're looking at, we're looking at the possibility, again, a Dreamers deal, E-Verify on the other side.

There could be outlines of an immigration deal, but as Jeff said right now, chances are good. It's, again, still too early. I don't know that the two sides would agree to even come together and talk about it. We'll follow it. Bloomberg White House correspondent, Jeff Mason. Thank you very much.