Maddow: Trump in retreat as disastrous anti-immigrant campaign becomes political catastrophe

I'm really happy to have you here tonight as President Donald Trump and the Trump administration

bend and then break under pressure that it turns out they cannot handle.

They underestimated the people of Minnesota and the strength of feeling in this country

right now in support of the people of Minneapolis.

Tonight the Trump administration is pulling border patrol official Greg Bovino and some

number of border patrol agents out of Minneapolis.

We do not know if this is the end of what they've been calling Operation Metro Surge,

this sustained, very large-scale paramilitary attack on the cities of Minneapolis and St.

Paul.

We don't know if it is the end of that operation full stop, but we know it's the end of something.

Our latest reporting here at MSNOW, per our reporter's Carol Lennig and Mark Santia,

is this.

Reporting to two officials briefed on the matter, Gregory Bovino is expected to be removed

from commanding the operation in Minnesota, possibly as early as tomorrow, meaning Tuesday.

There will also be a reduction of Homeland Security Officers and agents in the state.

Again, that's new reporting from MSNOW.

We're also aware of new reporting in the Atlantic tonight, and this is reporting that we have

not confirmed ourselves, but I'll tell you that reporter Nick Miraf, who has an excellent

reputation at the Atlantic tonight, he reports this.

Under the headline, quote, Greg Bovino loses his job, quote, Greg Bovino has been removed

from his role as Border Patrol commander at large, and will return to his former job

in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon, according to a Homeland Security

official and two people with knowledge of the change.

Now sudden demotion is the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration is reconsidering

its most aggressive tactics after the killing, Saturday, a 37-year-old Alex Prety by Border

Patrol agents under Bovino's command.

Nick Miraf reports, quote, Homeland Security secretary Christy Nome and her close advisor

Corey Lewandowski, who were Bovino's biggest backers at Homeland Security, are now also

at risk of losing their jobs.

Miraf citing two sources to advance that story about Christy Nome and Lewandowski potentially

losing their jobs as well.

Again, reporting from reporter Nick Miraf is formerly of the Washington Post, but he's now

at the Atlantic.

Tonight, the Homeland Security department spokesperson said that Bovino, quote, has not been relieved

of his duties.

If Gregory Bovino has not been relieved of his duties, which sounds like pushback,

but if you think about it, it doesn't exactly answer the question.

I mean, that assertion that he has not been relieved of his duties might, in fact, be

quite consistent with the reporting in the Atlantic that Mr. Bovino has been sent home

to California where he is expected to retire soon.

That could also be true while tonight he has not been relieved of his duties.

I don't know.

We don't know what heads will roll or exactly in which direction they shall roll.

We shall see.

But clearly, President Trump and the Trump administration are in retreat on what had

been a violent occupation, I think it's fair to say, of a major American city.

But they essentially hoped to be the front page news headline that everybody remembered

about the Trump administration at this time at the start of Trump's second year in

his second term in office.

They went big with this on their own terms.

Nobody asked for this.

Nobody put them up to it.

They decided to launch this in order to show off what they could do.

And now they are in full retreat with it being viewed both as a practical, debacle, and

a moral debacle, and they are paying a considerable political price for it.

If you were one of millions of Americans who protested ice out of Minneapolis, you

should know tonight you are winning this thing and is worth understanding the power of what

you have done.

President Trump today and tonight held conciliatory phone calls with the Democratic governor of

Minnesota, Tim Walls, and the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry.

Both of those elected officials were demonized by Trump and by the Trump administration up

until like 30 seconds ago.

Once Trump started criticizing both of those elected officials, his U.S. Department of

Justice naturally put both of them under federal investigation of some kind.

Since that's how federal law enforcement works now.

The president gets mad at you or wants to hurt you for some reason.

And bingo, magically you are instantly the subject of a federal criminal or civil investigation

by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Even with those threats though, even with those investigations launched against them, those

threats against Minnesota elected leaders seem to have had the opposite of the intended

effect on them.

It seems to have caused them to dig in and fight harder.

It definitely increased their political support both in their state and around the country.

Similarly, the federal government's threats to the people of Minneapolis.

Federal agents increasingly unhinged an explosive violence toward the people of Minneapolis.

They're killing people protesting and observing and filming federal agents in Minneapolis.

It also seems to have had the opposite of their intended effect.

It caused more people to commit more to being in the streets more of the time, to come

out in larger numbers, to come out with more resolve and honestly with more emotion.

It definitely sent support for them soaring all around the country.

On Friday, you'll recall there were huge marches and demonstrations in Minneapolis, a day

in which the whole city of Minneapolis basically shut down.

Kids home from school, people didn't go to work, people agreed that they would spend

nothing that day, transact no business that day.

They instead spent the day in prayer and protest and finding new ways to stand up for each

other, including these dozens of members of the clergy who were arrested Friday morning

at the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport.

They were there urging Delta Airlines and signature aviation and other companies with business

at the airport to stop cooperating with ICE.

Peaceful civil disobedience by members of the clergy, dozens of whom were arrested at

the start of the day, Friday morning, and that bitter, bitter sub-zero cold.

It was the next day, Saturday, when Trump's federal agents killed Alex Pretti in the

street.

And the streets filled instantly in response and protest and anger and grief.

And by that night, there were protests and vigils all over the city and on Sunday as

well, just everywhere in Minneapolis at the site where they killed him, at Whittier Park

in that same neighborhood where they killed him in downtown at Minneapolis City Hall, and

communities all over the city at retirement homes, right, where octogenarians came out

into the bitter minus 20 degree weather to hold candles in vigil for Alex Pretti and for

their city.

It was still today.

This was a walk out today at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus.

But it wasn't only Minneapolis standing up for themselves.

I mean, this was Davenport, Iowa.

This six hours away from Minneapolis.

We stand with Minnesota.

This was 600 miles away in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the cold in the snow.

Grand Rapids stands with Minnesota.

This was 1600 miles away in Orlando, Florida.

Ice murders again.

This was Green Bay, Wisconsin where Alex Pretti went to high school.

The high temperature was a grand total of seven degrees.

See all the people there on the bridge?

People came out in the cold and the ice and marched in his name and to stand up for Minneapolis.

And Phoenix, Arizona protests convened at the ice field office in Phoenix.

Big protests there Saturday night.

Salt Lake City, Utah protests convened at the federal building there.

Look at that.

Again, Saturday.

This is instant.

No advance notice.

People just convened there on an emergency basis, essentially, after hearing the news.

They were everywhere on zero notice.

An anger at ice and at the Trump administration and in memory of Alex Pretti.

And in support of the people of Minneapolis.

Here was Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this weekend.

Here was New York City, a really big protest in New York City, convened on zero notice

Saturday afternoon after Alex Pretti was killed Saturday morning.

Here was Seattle.

Here was Tampa, Florida.

Tampa on the right there, Seattle on the left.

Here was Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the bitter, bitter cold in the snow.

Here was Boise City Hall in Idaho.

And Idaho, deep red Idaho, actually had more protests than just Boise.

Also in Twin Falls, Idaho, and Idaho Falls in Cordillane, there was a huge, huge protest

in Chicago.

And of course, Chicago has been through it themselves.

But a huge number of Chicago and it's turned out in the cold and the snow to stand up for

Minneapolis as well.

In Omaha, Nebraska, they came out in San Francisco, California, in Los Angeles, California,

in Sacramento, California, in Charleston, South Carolina, in Lantana, Florida, Traverse

City, Michigan.

It was absolutely frigid.

They had 2,000 people out.

We stand with Minneapolis.

And at every protest I've ever been to, every protest I've ever covered, as long as it's

a protest that's happening in the English language, everyone I've ever been to are seen.

Somebody at some point starts up the chant, this is what democracy looks like, right?

If I heard that so much, it has become like protest wallpaper, it almost feels like generic

sentiment, right?

This is what democracy looks like.

But it is literally true.

It is what democracy looks like.

Peaceful protest is a core part of democratic action, small D, democratic action.

And the unromantic, strong, simple truth of the matter is that in our country right now,

very small D, democratic muscle that we have is flexing.

And it turns out that that's way stronger than Donald Trump.

And way stronger than the worst designs of the Trump administration.

United, persistent, earnest, creative, peaceful protests that have not relented for a minute

in Minneapolis.

Get everybody from clergy to professional sports teams, to unions, to school parent groups,

to school kids themselves, to indivisible groups, to Native American activists, to people

who had never previously protested a single thing in their lives.

I mean, every day, nevertheless, protesting, demonstrating, telling Trump's agents to

get out, never giving them a moment's peace, spontaneous, instinctual, and then ultimately

organized mutual aid, community support, alerting people to the presence of federal agents,

walking people's kids to and from school, dropping off groceries to families to afraid

for good reason to get out of their house, doing know your rights trainings everywhere, responding

in person when people are being attacked or taken, not being afraid when Trump's massed

agents turn those very things into life-threatening confrontations, or being afraid, but still

doing it anyway.

And from the ground up, that huge effort by regular people in Minneapolis and people supporting

them all around the country, it set everything in motion.

And now we are seeing what's called political pushback that is so widespread and that

is so relentless and that is so strong, there is no resisting it, even if you say don't

believe in democracy.

Local elected officials encouraging the peaceful protests, asking people to keep recording

everything they can about the behavior of these lawless paramilitaries.

You then see local elected officials out among the people.

I mean, this was Governor Tim Walls and his wife had a vigil for Renee Good.

This past Friday, Senator Amy Klobuchar and her husband at the huge peaceful protests

in Minneapolis.

We're going to speak with Senator Klobuchar in just a moment.

I mean, you have democratic force, massed on one side of this issue.

And on the other side, they have guns and tear gas and physical brutality and menace,

and their propaganda about how terrible immigrants are and how terrible, you know, how everybody's

against them is a communist or whatever.

I mean, that's what they've got.

They've got physical force, weapons, menace, and propaganda.

That's what they've got on their side.

But there is massed, committed, small, de-democratic force of great resolve against that on the

other.

And guess which side wins?

And so after they killed Alex Freddie on Saturday, we very quickly saw it all fall apart

for them.

Not because somebody defeated them in physical battle, right?

They're the ones who are geared up like the way they're going to win, the way they're

going to overthrow this democracy is in some kind of war, right?

They can just have just the right military gear and just the right threatening physical

intimidating force.

That'll be how they win, right?

That's how they think they'll win with guns.

The people of this country, on the other side, the opponents of that overthrow, the population

of this country that is committed to, you know, no kings.

And they're never being a dictator here.

They know that the way they're going to win is not with guns, it's not in a war.

The people on the other side of this fight, they know the way they're going to save American

democracy is by using American democratic means to do so.

And that means protest and speech and political power.

After months of protest, what happened when they killed Alex Freddie?

There was a small, D democratic flex against which the Trump administration just crumbled.

Republicans in the Republicans, in the Minnesota State Legislature, quote, it's clear that

Operation Metro Surge is causing more harm than good.

It needs to end.

We need to quote, deescalate.

We need to quote, pause targeted operations, again, that's Minnesota Republicans in the

legislature, a leading Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota drops out of the

race for governor today, a surprise announcement, quote, Republican Chris Madele made a stunning

exit from the Minnesota governor's race today, saying he cannot support the national

Republican Party's stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count

myself a member of a party that would do so.

The lead in the start Tribune, quote, in a surprise video announcement, he said, United

State citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear.

U.S. citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship.

That's wrong.

Madele called ICE's operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, quote, an unmitigated disaster,

saying at the end of the day, quote, I have to look my daughters in the eye and tell them

I believe I did what was right.

And I'm doing that today as he quit his race for governor as a Republican saying he could

not stand right now to run in Minnesota as a Republican.

It's also Republicans in Congress, quote, the events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing.

The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake.

There must be a full joint federal and state investigation.

We can trust the American people with the truth, quote, a thorough investigation is necessary

to get to the bottom of these incidents and to maintain American's confidence in our

justice system.

Republican governors, Republican governors too, quote, enough.

It's not acceptable for American citizens to be killed by federal agents for exercising

their God-given and constitutional rights to protest their government.

At best, these federal immigration operations are a complete failure of coordination, of

acceptable public safety, and law enforcement practices, training, and leadership.

At worst, it's a deliberate federal intimidation and incitement of American citizens that's

resulting in the murder of Americans.

And other Republican governor, quote, what we're seeing on TV, it's causing deep concerns

over federal tactics and accountability.

Americans don't like what they're seeing right now, another Republican governor.

The Trump administration needs, quote, to recalibrate on what needs to be done, recalibrate.

The Democrats in Congress, moving to, on the Senate side, even Democratic senators

who have sided with Republicans in the past who have voted to fund the Trump administration

when other Democrats didn't want to do that.

And those Democratic senators, basically all the, you know, the so-called moderates,

the conservative Democrats, they came out and said they will not vote to fund the Department

of Homeland Security and ICE.

And that is a vote that has to happen this week.

Democrats saying they are not going to do it even if they have done it before.

In the House, the number of members of Congress who are signing up to an effort there to impeach

Christine Ohm, the Homeland Security Secretary, that races up to well over, look at that,

140 co-sponsors.

I was going to say over 100 now, it's now at 140 co-sponsors of the resolution to impeach

Christine Ohm as Homeland Security Secretary.

And last week, there were a handful of House Democrats who did vote to fund the Department

of Homeland Security, those handful of House Democrats who voted to fund the Department

of Homeland Security last week, have this week started apologizing for it.

Democrat Tom Swasi in New York, quote, I failed to view the Homeland Security funding vote

as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE and Minneapolis.

I hear the anger for many of my constituents and I take responsibility for that.

I have long been critical of ICE's unlawful behavior and I must do a better job demonstrating

that.

Some Democrats changing their previous position to say now they will not vote to fund ICE

and some Democrats who already voted to fund ICE saying, oh, wow, that was wrong, I'm

so sorry, I didn't get it, I'll do better.

This is called political change.

And even in the the sinkhole of sniveling cowardice that has been America's business so-called

leaders, even there, they're starting to ever so tentatively squeak that maybe possibly

if nobody minds, they might want to express that they're mildly uncomfortable with what

Trump and the Trump administration are doing.

Chief executives of Target, Best Buy, General Mills, Cargill, Landalakes, Hormel, US Bank

Corp, the Mayo Clinic, 3M, and dozens of other large Minnesota employers issued a public

letter Sunday calling for, quote, an immediate de-escalation in their state.

And yes, that is too little.

And yes, that is too late, but it is way more than they were willing to do before.

So take it, bank it, and build on it.

We even saw some of the old greybeards of US politics rouse from their retirement past

times and diversions to say something.

President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton, each issuing pretty stirring statements,

condemning Trump's attack on Minneapolis and praising the strong, peaceful protests

of the people there in response.

And you know, we are conditioned to be bored and underwhelmed by anything done in Congress.

And honestly, you know, by Congress, by candidates, by brand name politicians, by even state-elected

leaders, we are conditioned to expect that the actions of anyone in politics who is not

currently the president are just, you know, not very powerful actions.

They're just not very important.

But we are conditioned to believe that in a way that is not actually keeping faith with

who we're supposed to be as a country.

Because what we inherited from the founding fathers of this country is a democracy that

was explicitly and purposefully designed to be decentralized and divided and responsive

to the people.

And when the people push in a concerted way, what we are seeing is that the country is

working the way it's supposed to.

The levers of power are moving.

There is a political response, a small D democratic response.

And yes, that means the president's poll numbers sink further into the bedrock, including

on immigration, which he really at one point wanted to be his signature issue.

And he is now running from.

But the other forces of political gravity start to work on him as well.

He may not want to be subject to democratic force, but he is.

And in Congress and in state government and in party politics and in business, which

to them all means money as well as power, you are seeing political shift happening.

And that is because of the people.

It starts with the people.

It starts with the protests that we have seen.

Principled, peaceful, relentless protest.

It works.

That is the source of this shift.

Peaceful, powerful, relentless, principled protest works.

It uses democratic means to save democracy.

That is what has made all this political shifting happen.

That is what has forced the Trump administration to change course.

That is what has forced Trump to back down.

Principle, peaceful, relentless protest is the democratic means of saving a democracy.

And that is the only way to win for the long term.

So as they pull Gregory Bavino and federal agents out of Minneapolis tonight, be very clear

on why this happened.

If you were part of those protests, if you were part of the peaceful democratic advocacy

to get ice out of Minneapolis tonight, you are winning.

And there's a lot going on.

There's a lot to cover tonight.

We've got an update tonight on the places all over the country where Trump is trying

to put new immigrant prison camps.

They want to build a whole new network of massive prison camps that are effectively black

sites, where there's little to no legal access, where they want to indefinitely imprison

men, women, and children.

And we are now seeing in red states and blue states, in urban areas, and suburban areas,

and small towns, and rural areas, everywhere they are trying to cite one of these prison

camps.

Americans of all stripes, even local Republican officials standing up and saying no to that,

saying no, we are not going to let you build one of your camps here where we live.

So we're going to have an update on those efforts tonight.

Also some striking imagery out of Texas this weekend, there was an uprising in one of these

camps in Texas, men, women, and children held in one of these Trump prison camps, rebelling

this weekend in Texas, demonstrating they were calling explicitly for the children in

that camp to be set free.

We're going to talk tonight with a lawyer who happened to be there when that peaceful

uprising happened.

The authorities rushed him out as soon as it started.

They forced him to leave, but not before he was able to capture some of it on video.

We're going to speak live with him in just a moment.

We've got Senator Amy Klobuchar joining us live from Minnesota.

We got a lot to get to tonight.

Democracy at work.

Stay with us.

The high, the hottest part of the day, the high, was negative nine degrees.

The low was negative 20.

If you factor in the windshield, it was in the negative 40s.

It was quite literally one of the coldest days in Minneapolis in years, but thousands of

Minnesotans came out to protest anyway.

Organizers estimate that somewhere between 50,000 and 75,000 people turned out in Minneapolis

on Friday to insist that ICE and Trump's federal agents get out of their city.

Among them in that brittle, bitter cold was Minnesota Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar

marching with her constituents, demanding an end to the chaotic violent surge of federal

agents in Minneapolis and around that state.

Again, that was Friday.

It was less than 24 hours later when Trump's federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old

ICU nurse Alex Pretty on those same streets.

Alex Pretty is the third-person federal agents have shot in Minneapolis in three weeks.

He's the second person they have killed.

Amy Klobuchar has represented Minnesota in the U.S. Senate since 2007, and she's now

wearing two very important hats in the politics of that state, in addition to representing

Minnesotans in the U.S. Capitol currently.

She's also at least considering a campaign to try to become Minnesota's governor.

Last week, she filed the preliminary paperwork required to run for governor.

She hasn't announced that she is running, but by filing that paperwork, she is at least

keeping the option open.

And so with Trump's federal agents forcing her state into a state of chaos, Senator Klobuchar

now finds herself with a large and interesting and complex role to play as both a leader

in the Senate and a potential future governor.

We have warned this administration.

I have personally warned them that there would be more deaths that more of this would happen,

and clearly they're not listening.

So we ask people around the country to talk to their Republican representatives to make

clear that this is not the America that is ours.

This has got to stop.

Joining us now live is Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota.

Senator, it's nice to see you.

Thank you for being with us tonight.

I know it's a really difficult time.

First let me ask you to really appreciate it.

Go ahead, sir.

Go ahead.

Well, I just appreciated how you captured this idea that Minnesota has been the center

of America's heartbreak, but we have also been the center of America's courage and America's

hope and how ordinary people have just done the most extraordinary things that have gotten

to this point.

They have stood up.

They have marched.

They have brought food to their neighbors, and they have not blinked.

And I think it is something that we have learned now about how you take on this kind of

just abuse of power where they have crossed the line of legality, morality, and decency.

And it is a long way from a victory.

But the fact that they are pulling out the federal agents as we speak, and Bob Vino,

who is just in this same TV studio I'm in today, 24 hours ago, was in the same room with

me, is now gone.

Let me ask your, I guess your reaction, your understanding of what kind of change the

federal government is making.

And I know that you said publicly at the press conference this weekend, there's been

reporting that you have had some communications with the Trump administration.

Did you have any word that this was going to happen?

Did you have any sense in advance that this was going to be what they did?

Yes, this morning I got a call early from the White House and some texts from the President's

Chief of Staff later in the day about what was going to happen here.

And this is a long haul of standing up publicly, calling them out, standing with our police

chiefs who have been very strong, Minneapolis, suburban areas, our mayor, our governor, our

attorney general Keith Ellison, and all of us saying enough is enough, our congressional

delegation on the Democratic side, and then pleading with our Republican colleagues.

And finally, this weekend, after the horrendous murder followed, of course, after the murder,

the killing of Renee Good, and now you have the killing of Alex Prety, talking to his parents

last night, when they told me how offended they were, crying the entire time about the

lies about him, when he devoted his life to taking care of our veterans, and they go

out administration officials, calling him a domestic terrorist, calling Renee Good and

domestic terrorists.

So all of this just has culminated in this moment where people across our state, regardless

of political ideology, mounting time and time again, have said enough.

We have had enough, get ice out of our state, and stop these abusive tactics, taking

mong elders out of their homes, dragging them out in their underwear, and then figuring

out they had the wrong guy, because he was already in jail, taking two-year-old, sending

him to Texas, my office up through the night trying to get that kid back on a plane, which

we were able to do, so she could be united with her mother, five-year-olds with Spider-Man

backpacks, it goes on and on and on, and it is the biggest abuse I have ever seen of

people's civil rights, and the fact that there is now some de-escalation, and that they

are willing now to talk to our leaders and our police officers, and let them do their

real jobs, and get ice out of our state is truly a moment, but we have to see it bear

out to its finality, and they can't keep doing this all around our country as well.

To that point, there is a decision that needs to be made at the U.S. Senate this week,

in terms of funding DHS, it's a very old asset, they call it a minibus, it funds like

five major components of the government, a little more than half of the total operations

of the government, including DHS, what's going to happen there, what's your expectation

this week for that bill, and what would be the impact if that funding for DHS didn't

pass?

Well, as you pointed out, there are more and more Democrats, I've signaled my opposition

as did Senator Smith weeks ago to this, and voted against that a big beautiful betrayal

of the bill that was $75 billion added to the ice budget, so they are now bigger than

the FBI, and now we have had a number of Democrats, Senator Schumer and Murray others, that have

made it very clear that we are not voting for that bill as it is.

What we would like to see is there's some bipartisan bills that fund other parts of the

government that could pass, and then separate out this ice funding.

Too much money, the surge has to stop, the illegal entries into people's homes have

to stop.

They have to wear mandatory body cameras, which that agent in the Renee Good killing was

not wearing, he had a cell phone on, the unbelievable bounty system they have, where they're picking

up legal citizens, putting them in a car, and then we think they get some kind of bonus

for doing it.

The training, which was five months, going down to 47 days in honor of President Trump being

the 47th President, and that's just the beginning of the overhaul, the complete overhaul

that must be made to our immigration and border enforcement.

You can't just sit there and say, life goes on as normal, when I've had two of my constituents

who are innocent, no criminal record killed, and two of the three homicides in Minneapolis

were committed by federal agents.

Minnesota U.S. Senator, AB Clovishar Senator, it's always a pleasure and an honor to have

you with us, but particularly right now.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Thank you.

It was great to be on.

Thanks, Rachel.

More news ahead, stay with us.

Everywhere the Trump administration tries to put new camps, new ice facilities and ice

prison camps.

They're being pushed back.

Now this is something we've been trying to cover here on this show in recent weeks.

I do feel like we're sort of starting to get our arms around it, but I just want to say

to our friends in the national media, we could use some help on this story.

I think this is an important story, and it'd be great to have more national media attention

to it.

The Trump administration really is trying to build Trump prison camps all over the country,

and if you look, you will find that people all over the country, including in very unexpected

places, almost uniformly are pushing back everywhere they're trying to do it, and they're

pushing back in diverse and interesting ways.

This is a really interesting, emerging story, and again, we could use some more reportorial

help with it.

But let me tell you what we know.

Last week, for example, it was Durant Oklahoma, local people there packed a meeting to say,

they don't want ice turning a local warehouse into a giant prison, the local government

and Durant Oklahoma then passed a brand new ordinance that gives them the power to say

no to such a facility.

Tomorrow, the city council in Oklahoma City is planning to address local concerns about

a proposed ice prison there on the south side of Oklahoma City.

Up in New Jersey, Roxbury, New Jersey, locals there started protesting like mad against

ice, reportedly wanting to convert a half million square foot warehouse in Roxbury into

an ice prison camp.

After those protests, the all Republican local government in Roxbury, New Jersey passed

a resolution saying, no, you are not allowed to build that here.

Down in Texas, Hutchins, Texas, again, a local protest against a proposed ice prison followed

by the mayor in that city saying they are not going to allow anything like that to be built

in Hutchins, Texas.

In New York State, Republican leaning Orange County, similar story, packed town halls, packed

public meetings, and then local elected officials saying, no, you

will not be allowed to build a prison camp here.

Kansas City, Missouri, after ice said they wanted to build a prison in KC, the city council

passed a five-year ban on building any non-municipal detention facility, any non-city detention facility.

Social Circle, Georgia, local Republican officials saying they will not let ice turn a vacant

warehouse there into a huge prison camp as well.

Since Salt Lake City, Utah, we reported last week on dozens of people turning out in

the early morning in deep dense cold fog because they heard that ice was coming to inspect

the local warehouse site there as a potential location for a new ice prison.

Locals then protested a local real estate company that was reportedly handling the potential

sale of that site to ice.

Well now that local real estate firm has announced this weekend that they have no plans to sell

that local warehouse to the federal government for any purpose.

And the list of communities pushing back keeps growing, protesting in Hagerstown, Maryland

this past week, Senator Chris Van Holland, and their congresswoman, April McLean Delaney,

in attendance in Hudson, Colorado, which is about 35 miles east of Boulder, protesting

against a planned ice prison there.

In Merrimack, New Hampshire, which is a scrappy, no nonsense to England town where I've

got family ties, hundreds of people packed a Merrimack, New Hampshire town meeting, denouncing

a proposed immigration prison there.

And now the Merrimack Town Council has written to state and federal officials opposing that

planned facility.

And then the state legislature, Democrats in the New Hampshire state legislature, are

pushing legislation that would prevent any state or local funds being used for immigration

prisons anywhere in the whole state.

And Hanover County, Virginia, watch for this this week.

And Hanover County are preparing to attend their Board of Supervisors meeting the day

after tomorrow, this Wednesday, January 28th, to tell their Board of Supervisors that they

need to stand against a new immigrant prison facility that is planned for that county

as well.

Again, that's Hanover County, Virginia.

And those are very disparate locations with very different politics and very different

diverse communities.

But you see pushback everywhere, even as all these local residents, all over the country

and all these different kinds of places are all pushing back against the Trump administration's

efforts to build new camps, to build ice prison camps and ice facilities in their towns

and cities, even as that happens.

Something really, really remarkable happened this weekend inside one of the camps they've

already built inside one of the largest immigration prisons in the country, a witness who

was there to see what happened, who got tape of what happened, is going to join us here

live next, stay with us.

We learned it was happening when a lawyer named Eric Lee arrived at one of these camps at

what they call the South Texas Family Residential Center in South Texas and Dilly, Texas.

Eric Lee arrived there for a meeting with his clients, but then while he was waiting,

he was suddenly rushed out of the building by guards.

And Mr. Lee then began filming what was happening.

I'm outside of the Dilly facility here in South Texas.

There's a demonstration of detainees taking place inside right now.

We were all asked to leave.

There's a drone flying up ahead right now.

It's an extremely bizarre situation.

You can hear them shouting.

Can you hear that?

They're shouting, let us out, let us out.

There's people in blue shirts, again, there's drones flying up ahead.

There appear to be hundreds of people through the crack that I can see.

That was Saturday in Dilly, Texas, and we do have an aerial shot of what was happening

behind those walls.

The Associated Press used a drone to capture these remarkable images of this effectively

prison camp, this detention facility, and the protest within it.

These are immigrant families, men, women, and children, effectively imprisoned at this

Texas facility and they're holding their own peaceful protest inside the prison walls

this weekend.

The signs they're holding included ones that said in Spanish, liberty for the kids, libertad

para los niños.

Let the kids go from this prison.

According to what lawyer Eric Lee was later able to learn from people inside, he says

the prisoners had heard about the huge protest and general strike in Minneapolis on Friday

and they wanted to support it, all the way down in South Texas behind prison walls.

Joining us now is immigration attorney, Eric Lee, Mr Lee, thank you very much for being

here.

I appreciate your time.

Thanks for having me.

Hi.

What should we understand about this Dilly facility and what happened here on Saturday

I can tell from your affect when you were filming this that this struck you as a really remarkable

occurrence?

Well, it was and if I can show an image that my five-year-old client drew today that she

wanted me to show this program, their name is the El Gamal's.

They've been detained in Dilly for eight months.

They are two five-year-old twins.

You can see at the top.

I am five-year-old and the sad, detained children behind bars are saying, let us go.

Let us go.

This is a family that has been persecuted by the Trump administration, not for anything

that they did, but because of the crimes of a relative, they are suffering immensely,

calling almost every day, begging for help, begging for the American population to pay attention

to the conditions that exist inside this facility.

And last week an immigration judge denied them bond claiming that because they had insufficient

assets and insufficient property that these children were going to remain in detention,

possibly for years as we continue to exhaust their appeals.

Their name is El Gamal.

We urge everybody who is watching to fight for their release and for their release of

every single child, mother and father in this terrible facility.

How much transparency is there about the quality of life inside these facilities and the

way people are being treated?

How much do you feel like you have a visibility into how people are living there?

Well, what we know is from the detainees.

They tell us that the water is putrid.

Mothers have to mix baby formula with water that stinks.

There's bugs in the food.

My client, one of my clients in this El Gamal family was vomiting from pain in the hallway

as he suffered from appendicitis and the officials there told him to take a Tylenol and come

back in three days.

That's the type of treatment that is happening in this facility and I have to say that it

was referred to earlier as Trump prison camps.

This facility was founded by Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in 2014.

This is being expanded by Trump.

Certainly, the conditions are worsening.

There's no question about that.

But this is a bipartisan policy.

The product of 30 years, 25 years of mass detention by Democratic and Republican administrations

alike.

This facility was open, as you said, during the Obama administration.

My understanding is that it was closed during the Biden administration and then reopened

by Trump.

That facility, though, is right now one of just a number of large-scale prison camps

that Trump administration wants to operate all around the country, access to the kind

that you have to support your clients as key to us understanding the scale of what they're

trying to do here.

Eric Lee, thank you very much for being with us.

I appreciate your time tonight.

Thank you.

All right.

We'll be right back.

Stay with us.

All right.

This has been a very, very busy newsnight.

We started off this hour with news reported in part by the Atlantic magazine that Border

Patrol Commander Gregory Bavino was being essentially demoted, stripped of his title of being

Border Patrol Commander at large.

MSNOW has matched that story with a single source at this point, but it does look like

there is significant change happening in terms of the character and size of the presence

of federal agents in Minneapolis with that high-profile provocateur of a Border Patrol

Commander Gregory Bavino leaving Minneapolis as soon as tonight or possibly tomorrow.

All right.

We'll keep you posted.

That does it for me for now.

For now?

For now?

For now?

For now?

For now?

For now?

For now?

For now?