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

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 Saint 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 reporters, Carol Lennig and Mark Santia, is this, quote, According to two officials briefed on the matter, Gregory Bovino is expected to be removed 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.

This is reporting that we have not confirmed ourselves. But I'll tell you that reporter nick Miroff, who has an excellent reputation, at The Atlantic tonight, he reports this under the headline, quote, Greg Bovino Loses His Job. 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. Bovino's sudden demotion is the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration is reconsidering its most aggressive tactics after the killing Saturday of 37 Alex Pretty by border patrol agents under Bovino's command. Nick Miroff reports, Homeland Security Secretary Christie Nome and her close advisor, Cory Lewandowski, who were Bovino's biggest backers at Homeland Security are now also at risk of losing their jobs. Mirov cite two sources to advance that story about Christie Noem and Lewandowski potentially losing their jobs as well. Again, reporting from reporter nick Miroff. He's 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.

Chief Gregory Bovino has not been relieved of his duties. It 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 that 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. 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 it's 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 30 seconds ago. Once Trump started criticizing both of those elected officials, his US 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're instantly the subject of a federal criminal or civil investigation by the FBI and the US 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. That 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, Today, 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 Saint 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 in that bitter, bitter sub-zero cold.

It was the next day, Saturday, when Trump's federal agents killed Alex Pretty in the street. The streets filled instantly in response in protest and anger and grief. 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, where octogenarians came out into the bitter minus 20 degree weather to hold candles in vigil for Alex Preddy and for their city. It's still today. This was a walkout 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 is 6 hours away from Minneapolis. We stand with Minnesota. This was 600 miles away in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In the cold and the snow, Grand Rapids stands with Minnesota. This was 1,600 miles away. In Orlando, Florida, ICE murders again. This was Green Bay, Wisconsin, where Alex Prady 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. In Phoenix, Arizona, protests convened at the ICE field office in Phoenix. Big protest 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. In anger at ICE and at the Trump administration and in memory of Alex Pretty and in support of the people of Minneapolis. Here was Milwaukee, Wisconsin this weekend. Here was New York City. Really A big protest in New York City, convened on zero notice Saturday afternoon after Alex Pretty 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, in 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, and Cordillain. There was a huge, huge protest in Chicago.

And of course, Chicago has been through it themselves. But a huge number of Chicagoans 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. 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 or seen, somebody at some point starts up the chant, This is what democracy looks like. We've all heard that so much. It has become like protest wallpaper. It almost feels like generic sentiment. This is what democracy looks like. But it is literally It's true. It is what democracy looks like. Peaceful protest is a core part of democratic action, small D, democratic action. The unromantic, strong, simple truth of the matter is that in our country, right right now, every small D democratic muscle that we have is flexing. 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. 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. 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 too 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 masked turn those very things into life-threatening confrontations or being afraid, but still doing it anyway. 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. 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 law US paramilitaries. You'd then see local elected officials out among the people. This was Governor Tim Walls and his wife at a vigil for Renee Good. This past Friday, Senator Amy Klobeschar and her husband at the huge peaceful protests in Minneapolis. We're going to speak with Senator Klobeschar in just a moment. You have democratic force mast 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, how everybody's against them as 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 mast, committed, small d democratic force of great resolve against that on the other. And guess which side wins? After they killed Alex Pretty on Saturday, we very quickly saw it all fall apart for them. Not because somebody defeated them in physical battle. They're the ones who are geared up like the way they're going to the way they're going to overthrow this democracy is in some war.

They can just have just the right military gear and just the right threatening, physical, intimidating force. That'll be how they win. 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 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. That means protest and speech and political power. After months of protest, what happened when they killed Alex Pretty? There was a small D democratic flex, against which the Trump administration just crumpled. Republicans in the Minnesota state legislature, It's clear that Operation Metro Surge is causing more harm than good. It needs to end. We need to de-escalate. We need to 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 Madle 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 Star Tribune, quote, in a surprise video announcement, he said, United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear. Us citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizens relationship. That's wrong. Mabel called ICE's Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, an unmitigated disaster, saying, At the end of the day, 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. 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. A thorough investigation is necessary to get to the bottom of these incidents and to maintain Americans' confidence in our justice system. Republican governors. Republican governors, too. Enough. It's not acceptable for American citizens to be killed by federal agents for exercising their God-given and constitutional rights to protest past 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. Another 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 to recalibrate on what needs to be done. Recalibrate. The Democrats in Congress moving, too. 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. Even those Democratic senators, basically all 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. 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 Christie Noem, 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 140 co-sponsors of the resolution to impeach Christie Noem as Homeland Security Secretary.

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, I failed to view the Homeland Security Funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in I hear the anger from 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. Even in the sink hole of sniveling cowardice that has been America's business so-called leaders, even there, they're starting to ever so tentatively tweak 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, Land O'Lakes, Hormel, US Bank Corp, The Mayo Clinic, 3M, and dozens of other large Minnesota employers issued a public letter Sunday calling for an immediate de-escalation, an immediate de-escalation in their state.

Yes, that is too little. 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 graybeards of US politics rouse from their retirement retirement pastimes 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. We are conditioned to be bored and underwhelmed by anything done in Congress. Honestly, 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 of this political shifting happen. That That is what has forced the Trump administration to change course. That is what has forced Trump to back down. Principled, 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 Bovino 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. 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. You are seeing 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. 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 Klobeschar joining us live from Minnesota. We got a lot to get to tonight. Democracy at work. Stay with us. The hottest part of the day, the high, was negative 9 degrees. The low was negative 20. If you factor in the wind chill, 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 I and Trump's federal agents get out of their city.

Among them in that bitter, bitter cold was Minnesota Democratic US Senator Amy Klobeschar marching with her constituents, demanding an end to the chaotic, violent surge of federal agents in Minneapolis and around state. Again, that was Friday. It was less than 24 hours later when Trump's federal agent shot and killed 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Prady on those same streets. Alex Prady is the third person federal agents have shot in Minneapolis in three weeks. He's the second person they have killed. Amy Klobeschar has represented Minnesota in the US Senate since 2007. She's now wearing two very important hats in the politics of that state, in addition to representing Minnesotans in the US 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. 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. We asked 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 Klobeschar, 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-It is. I'm really appreciate it. Go ahead, sir.

Go ahead. Well, I just appreciated how you captured this idea that Minnesota has, yes, 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. I think it is something that we have learned now about how you take on this abuse of power where they have crossed the line of legality, morality, and decency. It is a long way from a victory. But the fact that they are pulling out the federal agents as we speak, and Bonvino, 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 change the federal government is making. 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 text from the President's Chief of Staff later in the day about what was going to happen here. 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. 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 Pretty. 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 had devoted He wanted his life to taking care of our veterans, and they go out, administration officials, calling him a domestic terrorist, calling Renee Good a domestic terrorist. 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 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 Spiderman backpacks. It just goes on and on and on. It is the biggest abuse I have ever seen of people's civil rights. 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 US Senate this week in terms of funding DHS. It's a bill. I thought you'd ask that. They call it a minibus. It funds 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. Now we have had a number of Democrats, Senator Schumer, 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 bonus for doing it. The training, which was five months, going down to 47 days in honor of President Trump being the 47th President. 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 US Senator, Amy Klobeschar. 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. 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 weeks. I do feel like we're 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. 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. They're pushing in diverse and interesting ways. This is a really interesting emerging story. Again, we could use some more repertorial 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 in Durant, Oklahoma then passed a brand new ordinance that gives them the power to say no to such a facility.

Tomorrow, 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.

Protests in 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. The list of communities pushing back keeps growing. Protesting in Hagerstown, Maryland this past week, Senator Chris Van Holland and their Congresswoman, April McClane Delaney, in attendance. In Hudson, Colorado, which about 35 miles east of Boulder, protesting against a planned ICE prison there. In Merrimack, New Hampshire, which is a scrappy, no-nonsense New England town where I've got family ties, hundreds of people packed a Merrimack, New Hampshire town meeting, denouncing a proposed immigration prison there. Now the Merrimack town council has written to state and federal officials opposing that planned facility. In the state legislature, Democrats in the New Hampshire state legislature are pushing legislation that would prevent any state local funds being used for immigration prisons anywhere in the whole state.

In Hanover County, Virginia, watch for this this week, residents in Hanover County are preparing to attend their Board of Supervisors meeting the day after tomorrow, this Wednesday, January 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. 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 Resident Center in South Texas, in 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. 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 could tell from your affect when you were filming this that this struck you as a really remarkable occurrence.

Well, it was. 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 years 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's watching to fight for their release and for the release of 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 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, 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 is 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 news night. We started off this hour with news reported in part by the Atlantic magazine that border Patrol commander, Gregory Bovino, 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 Border Patrol commander, Gregory Bivino, leaving Minneapolis as soon as tonight or possibly tomorrow. All right, we'll keep you posted. That does it for me for now.