On Thursday’s Morning Joe, in a revival of attacks on ICE from the MS NOW liberal morning show, host Joe Scarborough compared ICE agents to “shock troops” and claimed, “Hispanics are having to carry their papers.” Scarborough did what he usually did when he talked about ICE and related immigration enforcement to “what happened” in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
The actual discussion was based on an AP report that said ICE planned to buy and equip “shock gloves,” which essentially act as a taser.
Frequent guest David Drucker actually made the first comparison to an authoritarian regime, as he likened “Americans who are Hispanic who are called now to carry their passports” to the Soviet Union.
On Thursday’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough likened ICE agents to “shock troops” before he compared parts of immigration enforcement to “what happened in the Soviet Union” and “what happened in Nazi Germany," as he claimed "Hispanics are having to carry their papers." pic.twitter.com/Otu9R4fPxX
— Nick (@nspin310) August 13, 2026
He remarked, “There are Americans who are Hispanic who are compelled now to carry their passports, in a sense, to be able to show their papers. Which, you know, Joe, for you and I, as people who remember the Soviet Union and that old joke about having to show your papers and how it was different in the United States. And for now, a group of Americans, it is not different.”
After more conversation on the “shock gloves,” Scarborough began to bash ICE actions.
He first remarked on the gloves plan, saying it, “gave new meaning to the term shock troops,” and then said, “You're actually going to use shock troops in the United States of America to go after not only people who are immigrants, but also Americans themselves.
Scarborough continued, “Time and time again, Americans are getting caught up in this, getting gunned down in the streets of America.”
He added, “And you look at Hispanics, what David Drucker said: they're having to carry their papers now. This is like - this is what happened in the Soviet Union. This is what happened in Nazi Germany. Hispanics are having to carry their papers.”
Scarborough then connected the situation to the Texas Senate race: “But Hispanics were actually breaking Republicans' way, and they have bent over backwards to implement policies, continue implementing policies that will drive Hispanics further and further away from ever voting Republican again.”
Morning Joe had spent much of the year with attacks on ICE, with most from the beginning of the year amid the Minneapolis unrest over ICE operations. On the show, Scarborough himself likened ICE to “Secret Police” and lauded other comparisons to the KKK. He also called ICE detention “much worse than Japanese internment.”
Another guest worried that ICE could turn into a “paramilitary, private police of Donald Trump” to be used in the midterm elections.
His co-host and wife, Mika Brzezinski, had also joined the ICE attacks, as she had a meltdown back in February over Border Czar Tom Homan and “ICE Bros.”
Scarborough's new comparisons to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union just added to the list of his own dramatized attacks on ICE to regimes that committed actual atrocities, like the Nazis and Soviets.
The transcript is below. Click "expand":
MS NOW’s Morning Joe
August 13, 2026
6:44:04 AM Eastern(...)
DAVID DRUCKER: There are Americans who are Hispanic who are compelled now to carry their passports, in a sense, to be able to show their papers. Which, you know, Joe, for you and I, as people who remember –
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Yeah
DRUCKER: – the Soviet Union and that old joke about having to show your papers and how it was different in the United States. And for now, a group of Americans, is not different. And I think that that is why this has been so devastating politically, but also just so jarring - devastating politically for the Republicans, but also just so jarring for Americans who are clued in on this because it's antithetical to how we think of ourselves as a country.
(...)
6:46:57 AM Eastern
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. I just had somebody that's been in law enforcement their entire life who said it gives new meaning to the term shock troops. That you're actually going to use shock troops in the United States of America to go after not only people who are immigrants, but also Americans themselves. Time and time again, Americans are getting caught up in this, getting gunned down in the streets of America.
And you look at Hispanics, what David Drucker said: they're having to carry their papers now/ This is like - this is what happened in the Soviet Union. This is what happened in Nazi Germany. There have - Hispanics are having to carry their papers.
And Republicans wonder why Ken Paxton is losing in Texas, other than the fact he's just an absolutely horrible political candidate. But Hispanics were actually breaking Republicans' way, and they have bent over backwards to implement policies, continue implementing policies that will drive Hispanics further and further away from ever voting Republican again.
(...)
