Joe Scarborough tore into the Trump administration on Tuesday’s “Morning Joe” over its refusal to allow lawmakers into Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, which he said are functioning as “internment camps” where “constitutional rights are being just torn to shreds every single day.”
The MS NOW host said he found it “extraordinary” that elected officials across the country are being shut out of conducting oversight into facilities in their own states. His comments came after several New Jersey Democratic lawmakers, including Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Sen. Andy Kim, said they were denied access to Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark.
Since Friday, according to the New Jersey Monitor, around 300 migrants have been holding a hunger and work strike to protest conditions at the center. Detainees have reported being held in crowded rooms with no air conditioning and that they have found live worms in their meals.
After those reports, lawmakers tried to gain access to the facility. During that attempt, Kim said he and dozens of other protesters were pepper sprayed by federal agents. Video posted on social media showed the senator washing out his eyes with a bottle of water.
In a post on X, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called lawmakers’ attempt to enter the facility “nothing more than a political stunt by New Jersey sanctuary politicians,” saying there was “NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall.” He also denied that detainees are dealing with “subprime conditions.” In a separate statement, DHS also said, “No individuals were directly struck by pepper ball projectiles.”
Democratic lawmakers in other states, including New York and California, have also been denied access to ICE facilities.
On “Morning Joe,” Scarborough called for “transparency” at these detention centers.
“What is the Trump administration hiding? What is the DHS hiding? What serial abuses of human beings are they hiding?” he asked.
As the MS NOW host pointed out, members of Congress have a legal authority and duty to conduct unannounced oversight visits at detention centers. Scarborough said lawmakers should take action if the administration continues to refuse to honor that duty.
“Every member of Congress should go to every internment camp in their districts and should demand that they be allowed to be [let in], or they fund nothing,” he said.
“That happened when I was in Congress,” the former Republican representative recalled. “We said we’re not passing a single bill until you talk to us about how you’re going to balance this budget, how you’re going to save Medicare, how you’re going to save Social Security. If we can do that about Medicare and Social Security, we can do that about human beings who are being brutalized inside these internment camps.”
“This administration thinks they have a right — an Article II branch, thinks they have a right to tell an Article I branch or a governor who actually is hosting the internment camp in her state that they don’t have a right to do that. That’s absolutely ridiculous,” Scarborough said.
You can watch Scarborough’s full comments in the clip at the top of the page.
The post Joe Scarborough slams DHS over denying lawmakers access to NJ ICE facility appeared first on MS NOW.
