Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Wednesday afternoon, MS NOW host Katy Tur pushed the latest claims of ICE "terrorizing" people as she also compared ICE agents to "jerks" who believe everyone else is a jerk.
Shortly after 2:00 p.m. Eastern, she began the segment:
People in Minneapolis say they are being terrorized by the federal government. In video after video posted online, you can see ICE or immigration officers grabbing people off the street, clashing with protesters, telling demonstrators to learn a lesson from the shooting of Renee Good, and even getting into it with people who say they're just trying to travel through their community.
She continued: "They break windows, knock down doors, physically drag people away. And the administration says all of this is justified, that it isn't federal law enforcement escalating the tensions. It's the community who won't leave them alone."
After three video clips of federal agents having to aggressively react to left-wing activists, The MS NOW host commented:
It's hard to definitively determine what is going on in each of those videos, because we don't know the full context. We don't know identities. We don't know much beyond what you see for yourself. What we do know, though, is that confrontations like that are happening over and over and over again. And in each one we see a pattern of aggressive behavior from the feds and operations that have only intensified since that ICE officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good.
A bit later, as MS NOW senior investigative reporter Carol Leonnig appeared for the segment, Tur further excoriated immigration enforcement agents:
There's this rule, this common saying that -- and it uses an expletive that I won't use, but I'll replace it -- that if you encounter one jerk, that's -- that's too bad. If you encounter two jerks, bad luck. Three jerks, you're the jerk. Is that what we're seeing with this pattern of these ICE interactions, these ICE confrontations? Because I know ICE keeps saying and immigration keeps saying it's all the demonstrators. But the videos all follow a very similar script.
Leonnig, who used to work for the Washington Post, began by expressing her approval for Tur's choice of words: "Katy, I think it's so smart for you to focus on exactly that question, and we can't know the answer definitively."
She soon fretted that the Trump administration for the ICE officer who shot Renee Good was emboldening similar actions by other agents:
But that pressure to do something is causing a lot of tension in the streets. And the shooting of Renee Good, which the President of the United States and the Vice President both declared as justified prior to any investigative work being done. In fact, some sources say when evidence was ignored of a potentially -- that this shooting was illegal and unjustified, their declaration has emboldened a certain element of enforcement on the streets who might believe they're under attack from residents who are angry about this -- this surge in their communities.
Transcript follows:
MS NOW's Katy Tur Reports
January 14, 2026
2:00 p.m. Eastern
KATY TUR: People in Minneapolis say they are being terrorized by the federal government. In video after video posted online, you can see ICE or immigration officers grabbing people off the street, clashing with protesters, telling demonstrators to learn a lesson from the shooting of Renee Good, and even getting into it with people who say they're just trying to travel through their community. They break windows, knock down doors, physically drag people away. And the administration says all of this is justified, that it isn't federal law enforcement escalating the tensions. It's the community who won't leave them alone. Here are three videos -- we'll let you decide for yourself.
(...)
It's hard to definitively determine what is going on in each of those videos, because we don't know the full context. We don't know identities. We don't know much beyond what you see for yourself. What we do know, though, is that confrontations like that are happening over and over and over again. And in each one we see a pattern of aggressive behavior from the feds and operations that have only intensified since that ICE officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good.
(...)
There's this rule, this common saying that -- and it uses an expletive that I won't use, but I'll replace it -- that if you encounter one jerk, that's -- that's too bad. If you encounter two jerks, bad luck. Three jerks, you're the jerk. Is that what we're seeing with this pattern of these ICE interactions, these ICE confrontations? Because I know ICE keeps saying and immigration keeps saying it's all the demonstrators. But the videos all follow a very similar script.
CAROL LEONNIG, MS NOW SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Katy, I think it's so smart for you to focus on exactly that question, and we can't know the answer definitively. But let me tell you what I'm hearing from law enforcement sources. One, the ICE officers from various elements, by the way, of the Department of Homeland Security -- they may be TSA employees who got drafted into this immigration work.
They may be FBI agents who were also pulled, as you remember, into immigration raids. They may be other components of the Department of Homeland Security, in which obviously FBI is not. But all of these officers are being ordered to meet a quota of arresting and deporting illegal or undocumented immigrants, and that oftentimes they're arresting and detaining people that are legally here or have not been involved in any crime or are complying with their asylum requirements
But that pressure to do something is causing a lot of tension in the streets. And the shooting of Renee Good, which the President of the United States and the Vice President both declared as justified prior to any investigative work being done. In fact, some sources say when evidence was ignored of a potentially -- that this shooting was illegal and unjustified, their declaration has emboldened a certain element of enforcement on the streets who might believe they're under attack from residents who are angry about this -- this surge in their communities.
But also, Katy, so important if I can just defend law enforcement officers who have the right intentions and the right motives. Here they are saying this is a recipe for disaster, to send thousands of officers into the street and urge them to crack down on immigration and crack down on civil protests, which are all apparently right now legal, that this creates a tinder keg. This creates a situation that is going to explode again and again.
MSNOW's Chris Jansing Reports
January 23, 2026
12:04 p.m. Eastern
ALEX TABET: And another allegation from this school district is that this ICE agent took little Liam Ramos -- this five-year-old -- to the front door of his family home and used him essentially as bait to try to lure family members out so they can also be detained by ICE. Now, of course, we're hearing a very competing narrative from Marcos Charles. He's the acting executive associate director of ICE. ... I want you to hear what he had to say just less than an hour ago.
MARCOS CHARLES, ICE: My officers did everything they could to reunite him with his family. Tragically, when we approached the door of his residence, the people inside refused to take him in and open the door. Let me say it again: They saw the young boy, and they refused to open the door and take him back.
TABET: So, of course, two very different competing narratives.
(...)
Deadline: White House
January 30, 2026
4:09 p.m.
NICOLLE WALLACE: When you let it sink in, what people who are living there are living through, the use of a five-year-old as bait -- as human bait to bait out someone by law enforcement; the killing of two U.S. citizens on the streets -- it doesn't feel like hyperbole anymore. This feels like a real "across the Rubicon" moment.
MELLISA MURRAY, MSNOW LEGAL ANALYST: I think it is an "across the Rubicon" moment, Nicolle. It's worth noting, as that guest did, that there are real parallels between what we are seeing here and what we've seen at darker points in our history, not for nothing. The Nuremburg laws that essentially divided the Jewish populace in Europe into two different camps were based on laws. They were codified -- they were written into laws in much the same way that this administration is harnessing existing legal structures in order to mount this surge in Minneapolis.
Again, ICE doesn't seem to be distinguishing between those who they believe to be undocumented migrants who have criminal records and those who are simply citizens or individuals who are lawfully here but happen to be brown or black. And that is essentially what happened. That is why you had people wearing markers or star on their clothing during those periods in the 1930s to denominate them as individuals who were disfavored by the state. We're seeing that happen in real time.
(...)
February 2, 2026
Deadline: White House
4:24 p.m.
WALLACE: It was a rare ray of pure light when news broke over the weekend that Liam Conejo Ramos, that five-year-old boy in the blue bunny hat and the little backpack who was arrested by ICE agents in Minneapolis, had been released from a Texas detention center alongside his dad, Adrian. They were detained after ICE agents had attempted to use that five-year-old Liam as bait to arrest other people living in his home, including his pregnant mom.
A judge ordered their release with a scathing rebuke to Donald Trump, writing this, quote, "The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas. Apparently, even if that requires traumatizing children, observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest knows no bounds and are bereft of human decency and the rule of law be damned."
The judge, including that indelible image of Liam and his blue bunny hat next to his signature on that order. Liam is right now home safe in Minnesota, but his story, tragically for our country and the people who write its history, is a drop in the bucket. According to the Marshall project, quote, "At least 3800 children under the age of 18, including 20 infants, have been booked since Donald Trump took office."
(...)
4:27 p.m.
ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER, THE ATLANTIC STAFF WRITER: ...the governor saying, "We have to be serious about certain enforcement questions, but our policy also has to be, 'No, we're not going to arrest a five-year-old in a Spiderman backpack and a, you know, furry blue hat after being picked up from pre-school.'"
(...)
Deadline: White House
February 3, 2026
4:22 p.m.
WALLACE (to Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-TX)): You're here to talk about efforts to return Liam Ramos to his family, a five-year-old boy used as bait to try to trap his mother who was inside his house.
(...)
Deadline: White House
February 4, 2026
4:08 p.m.
WALLACE: Schools are not considered on the other side of any of the lines for Donald Trump and ICE. Children are not considered on the other side of the line when it comes to using them as bait to lure out of homes other humans for arrest even if that human is their pregnant mom.
