After an ICE-involved shooting in Houston, Friday’s Morning Joe returned to the issue of immigration and deportation in coverage that harkened back to the Minneapolis unrest earlier this year.
Co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski opened the show with talk of ICE, as Scarborough yelled at people who use “Don’t Tread On Me” license plates in Florida amid immigrant enforcement, and screamed about funding for ICE while Brzezinski helped his rant along the way.
Amid the ICE Houston shooting discussion, MS NOW contributor Eugene Robinson called agents “stormtroopers.” He then made a connection back to America 250 celebrations as he remarked: “It's incomprehensible that this takes place in the United States of America, which just celebrated 250 years of freedom, but seems to really want to go back on that now.”
On Friday's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough screamed at ICE after an ICE-involved shooting death in Houston and insinuated there was a cover-up.
— Nick (@nspin310) July 10, 2026
Reminder: Scarborough has previously labeled ICE as "Secret Police" and compared them to the KKK. pic.twitter.com/L8gXnUyhQv
Scarborough followed Robinson with an obsessive dislike for those who have “Don’t Tread on Me” license plates in Florida amid immigration enforcement:
Where are all these hedge fund guys in their Maseratis that have “Don't Tread On Me” like license plates in the state of Florida? Where -- don't tread on me? What are you talking about?
(...)
Like, isn't the time to say ‘Don't Tread on Me’ when Americans and other people who have been here for 30, 35 years are getting gunned down in the streets by federal troops?
Brzezinski interjected and called the ICE-involved Houston shooting a “crime,” before she complained about the use of the term “Criminal illegal alien.”
Scarborough then told, seemingly, those who support immigration enforcement, to read the Constitution: “You should really, like, read the Constitution. You should read. But I know you don't want to. I know, it hurts your head to do that.”
In the same segment on ICE, Scarborough was obsessed with Florida's "Don't Tread on Me" license plates and told conservatives, "You should really, like, read the Constitution. You should read. But I know you don't want to. I know, it hurts your head to do that." https://t.co/AcXAT2to7u pic.twitter.com/d8m76X3tEF
— Nick (@nspin310) July 10, 2026
Scarborough continued with comparisons of the Houston shooting to Minneapolis and returned to his newfound obsession with “Don’t Tread on Me” license plates before his voice began to rise as he complained about ICE’s funding and body cam footage:
I thought we had seen the end of this. I thought we were going to have body cam footage. I thought with all of the money, of all of the billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars shoved down ICE’s throats. I thought we had enough money that body cam footage on every ICE agent out there for the next time, and it's fair to say, as an American, the next time they killed somebody!
The married Scarborough and Brzezinski then screamed back and forth about the Houston shooting, as they claimed there was “No body cam footage,” “no body,” and “no witnesses” in some sort of ICE conspiracy:
SCARBOROUGH: Well, that next time has come. And there's no body footage,
BRZEZINSKI: Body cam footage.
SCARBOROUGH: No body cam footage. And I want to know!
BRZEZINSKI: No body!
SCARBOROUGH: And no body!
BRZEZINSKI: No evidence. And no witnesses!
SCARBOROUGH: No evidence!
BRZEZINSKI: They have to deport?
Scarborough closed, as Brzezinski seemed to briefly move away from him due to his yelling, and warned, “And I'm sorry, but I don't think we've moved anywhere from Minneapolis!”
After months of war coverage and obsessions on items like the reflecting pool, the Morning Joe crew may have found their new hit for the summer in a callback to their attacks on ICE, whom hosts and guests on the show have previously labeled as “paramilitary” and “secret police.”
The transcript is below. Click "expand":
MS NOW’s Morning Joe
July 10, 2026
6:19:52 AM Eastern
(...)
EUGENE ROBINSON: So, you know, it's, it's infuriating to see people gunned down in our streets in this way. I just hope that, soon, like in five minutes, there has to be some federal judge who's going to order that witnesses and evidence be preserved, at least kept in the United States, until this is properly investigated, let alone adjudicated, because you cannot believe a single word ICE says, just not a single word, including ‘a’ and ‘the.’
It's completely - they just lie. They lie. And. And do we accept this? As Sam Stein said, you know, it's just another Friday, right?
We accept stormtroopers seizing and - not just seizing, but killing people in the streets of one of our major cities for no reason. The wrong person. It's incomprehensible that this takes place in the United States of America, which just celebrated 250 years of freedom, but seems to really want to go back on that now.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Where are all these hedge fund guys in their Maseratis that have “Don't Tread On Me” like license plates in the state of Florida? Where - don't tread on me? What are you talking about? Don't tread on like - don't don't borrow our driver. Is that what you mean, or don't, don't tax me at 34 or 38 percent instead of - like, what do you mean they don't tread on me? Like, isn't the time to say don't tread on me when Americans and other people who have been here for 30, 35 years are getting gunned down in the streets by federal troops?
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: And if I could just add for those-
SCARBOROUGH: With masks, usually?
BRZEZINSKI: - who are taking time to understand: If you're a migrant, if you're documented, if you're undocumented, if you're gunned down in the streets of America, it's still wrong, and it's still a crime.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
BRZEZINSKI: Okay? There's no difference. There’s no difference. It’s important to understand.
SCARBOROUGH: I know you don't want to read. I know that reading sometimes makes the tips of your teeth hurt, but you should read what Antonin Scalia, the conservative legal guide, said about this. He said the United States Constitution doesn't just apply to U.S. Citizens. The United States Constitution applies to anybody that is in the United States of America and applies to Americans anywhere they are across the globe. So, if you're sitting there thinking, “well, it's okay to just gun down somebody in the streets of Houston.”
BRZEZINSKI: They like to call them ‘Criminal Illegal Aliens’ to make them sound extremely -
SCARBOROUGH: You should really, like, read the Constitution. You should read. But I know you don't want to. I know, it hurts your head to do that.
But, Jonathan Lemire, they're gunning down people in the streets of America. They gunned down U.S. citizens in the streets of Minneapolis, gunning down a father and a guy who has been in America for over 30 years. Doing all of this, despite the fact that you and I both know that a couple of months ago, after Minneapolis, Trump was like, “No mas. No mas.” To borrow the immortal words of Roberto Duran, like, let's stop this.
And remember, they went to the Republicans and said, “Stop using the term mass deportation.” They understood it was a political loser. We heard about Stephen Miller being pushed to the side, because these quotas that were leading to these killings, that were leading to this abuse of American citizens on the street. “Don't tread on me.” Federal agents treading on the rights of Americans, First Amendment rights of Americans to peacefully protest.
The White House, I thought, had had enough. I thought they were turning a page. I thought we had seen the end of this. I thought we were going to have body cam footage. I thought with all of the money, of all of the billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars shoved down ICE’s throats. I thought we had enough money that body cam footage on every ICE agent out there for the next time, and it's fair to say, as an American, the next time they killed somebody!
Well, that next time has come. And there's no body footage,
BRZEZINSKI: Body cam footage.
SCARBOROUGH: No body cam footage. And I want to know!
BRZEZINSKI: No body!
SCARBOROUGH: And no body!
BRZEZINSKI: No evidence. And no witnesses!?
SCARBOROUGH: No evidence!
BRZEZINSKI: They have to deport?
SCARBOROUGH: They're trying to deport people that were witnesses there. And I'm sorry, but I don't think we've moved anywhere from Minneapolis! I think we're back in the same spot that made the White House freak out months ago! So what's going on inside the white house, and why do they keep doing this?
