Oh the 'Humanity'! MS NOW Misinforms on ICE Shooting as Fox Fact-Checks Liberals

On Friday's Morning Joe on MS NOW, the show continued misinforming viewers about the recent ICE shooting in Austin in spite of the fact that fact checkers like Fox News host Will Cain had already debunked some of the claims pushed by liberals.

As co-host Willie Geist brought up the shooting and arrest of Wilber Garces Perez, an illegal alien from Venezuela, he recalled:

Wilber Garces Perez, who is from Venezuela, was shot by an ICE agent on Sunday during a traffic stop after the 28-year-old said the agent sideswiped his car and video showed the same. Garces Perez remains in a south Texas detention center, with that bullet still lodged in his back. In a separate social media post, DHS added it would, quote, "never apologize for arresting and removing" migrants who, quote, "should have never been in America in the first place."

Reciting misinformation from Perez's attorney, and complaining that ICE has not shown "humanity" in its statements, Geist added:

The attorney for Garces Perez has said her client entered the country lawfully as an asylum seeker and had a legal work permit. We've been talking about this quite a bit this week. DHS obviously, as expected, blaming the victim, showing no humanity whatsoever. 

This was a DoorDash driver who says he was swiped and effectively run off the road and then shot in the back. A bullet that's still there laid on a concrete floor in ICE detention center, not getting the medical care he needs, the surgery he needs for his spine. And yet in these statements, you just see no reflection, no humanity, no anything from DHS or ICE.

Then, even though Perez had a deportation order issued against him, and it is a criminal offense to remain in the country in defiance of such an order, co-host Mika Brzezinski jumped in to add more misinformation:

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Well, possibly no truth. I mean, if he's here legally, then he's not what they're calling them. And they're defaming him. They're twisting this reality. They're calling people illegal aliens. And, by the way, being undocumented, civic offense.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Right. You know, the thing is also he had a work permit.

BRZEZINSKI: Right.

SCARBOROUGH: According to his attorneys, he had a work permit.

After New York Times opinion writer Mara Gay declared that the Trump administration is "terrorizing" immigrants to keep the country white, Scarborough alluded to ICE making arrests in churches even though ICE has not been targeting houses of worship.

By contrast, on Wednesday evening on Fox, Cain called out the misinformation parroted by liberals. He began by actually showing video of ICE vehicles with their emergency lights flashing as they chased Perez, demonstrating that he should have known he was being chased by law enforcement even though the vehicles were unmarked.

He also informed viewers that he was in the country illegally, his work permit was expired, and that a work permit would not confer legal status even if it were still active.

Appearing as a guest, border czar Tom Homan disputed claims that ICE denied Perez treatment, and contended that the hospital had decided when he could be released into ICE custody.

Also, noting that Perez's left-wing attorney has been spreading misinformation to the media, Cain informed viewers that she recently shared a tweet tastelessly making fun of Charlie Kirk's murder.

Transcripts follow:

MS NOW's Morning Joe

September 25, 2026

6:35 a.m. Eastern

WILLIE GEIST: The Department of Homeland Security is defending its actions after an ICE agent shot a DoorDash driver in the back during a recent traffic stop in Austin -- the story we've been talking about a lot this week. DHS posted on social media, "The agency will not slow down its operations in Texas," writing, quote, "Our mission is to administer the laws passed by Congress. We do not pick and choose which laws to enforce or where we enforce them."

Wilber Garces Perez, who is from Venezuela, was shot by an ICE agent on Sunday during a traffic stop after the 28-year-old said the agent sideswiped his car and video showed the same. Garces Perez remains in a south Texas detention center, with that bullet still lodged in his back. In a separate social media post, DHS added it would, quote, "never apologize for arresting and removing" migrants who, quote, "should have never been in America in the first place." The attorney for Garces Perez has said her client entered the country lawfully as an asylum seeker and had a legal work permit.

We've been talking about this quite a bit this week. DHS obviously, as expected, blaming the victim, showing no humanity whatsoever. This was a DoorDash driver who says he was swiped and effectively run off the road and then shot in the back. A bullet that's still there laid on a concrete floor in ICE detention center, not getting the medical care he needs, the surgery he needs for his spine. And yet in these statements, you just see no reflection, no humanity, no anything from DHS or ICE.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Well, possibly no truth. I mean, if he's here legally, then he's not what they're calling them. And they're defaming him. They're twisting this reality. They're calling people illegal aliens. And, by the way, being undocumented, civic offense.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Right. You know, the thing is also he had a work permit.

BRZEZINSKI: Right.

SCARBOROUGH: According to his attorneys, he had a work permit.

BRZEZINSKI: They keep changing the rules.

SCARBOROUGH: He came here legally. They do keep changing the rules because they have these insane quotas that they're never going to meet, but they're going around shooting people in the back. Again, I mean, you know, this happened in Texas. It is a human tragedy. It is also one of the reasons -- you (Mara Gay) are in Texas -- it is also one of the reasons why Donald Trump did better with Hispanics in 2024 than any President since George -- any Republican since George W. Bush. And his party is going to do worse now in 2026 because, well, all of the horror that they visited upon the Hispanic community there.

MARA GAY, THE NEW YORK TIMES: You know, not just there -- across the country, right.

SCARBOROUGH: Of course.

GAY: Of course it's very intense. But I have not found a voter anywhere in Texas, anywhere in any state I have traveled to -- I've traveled to a lot of swing states this year -- who has defended the way that ICE is prosecuting this campaign against brown people, against Hispanic people. I have not found a Trump supporter who likes the way this campaign has been prosecuted, and I believe that, come November, it's going to be hell to pay. Honestly, I don't -- I think that the amount of anger -- I mean, also just the reverberation within a community. You have one person who's arrested by ICE. God forbid something happens to them physically in terms of the violence that ICE has been perpetrating. But one person, that reverberates through an entire community. So you have entire communities that have been terrorized by this campaign.

And -- and I think that there's also just a dawning awareness that this is not about border security at all. This is not about border security. This is about keeping America white. And this is about cruelty. And this is about, I think, lawlessness. And, you know, you were saying a moment ago that you want to see people who are breaking the law held to justice.

SCARBOROUGH: Right.

GAY: You know, so do voters, and they're fed up with it. And I -- I just -- I don't think the fact that this is unpopular and they're still doing it anyway ahead of a midterm election, what does that tell us about their view not just of immigrants, but of the American people?

BRZEZINSKI: And of the American process and of our systems.

GAY: Due process. I mean, but I am personally offended as an American because this is being done on in our name, and it's a stain upon all of us, right? It makes us less.

SCARBOROUGH: And I think that's -- I think Americans are going to be heard on election day because, Mika, Mara brings up a great point. You don't have to arrest everybody in a church. You don't have to arrest half the people in church -- arrest one or two people in church who are here with a legal work permit, and it spreads throughout that entire church community. It spreads throughout the neighborhoods. It spreads throughout the workplaces.

And it's why you're seeing extraordinarily bad numbers for Republicans when it comes -- comes to the immigration and also comes to Hispanic support. It is completely collapsed because they are intentionally terrorizing people who often are here legally. And -- and what does that do to the other people who are here legally? They stay in their homes. They're afraid to go work. They're afraid to take their kids to school. They're afraid to live what they thought was going to be the American dream.

(...)

The Will Cain Show

September 23, 2026

4:24 p.m. Eastern

WILL CAIN: Three days after the ICE shooting in Austin, we're getting a closer look at the lies and the facts. Just in to our newsroom, we're getting a look at surveillance video. It shows the illegal immigrant's car speeding away from police, confirming there was a pursuit.

(clips of the ICE vehicles with emergency lights on pursuing a car)

New bodycam video shows the moments before and after the shooting with the Venezuelan illegal immigrant still inside his car before Austin police help him out and begin to treat his wounds. And now, DHS putting out a fact check on the lies coming from the left. First, the left asks, "Why was ICE going after a DoorDash driver in the first place?" To that, DHS says, "His job had nothing to do with it." The department says this wasn't random. It was a targeted vehicle stop based on his immigration status.

Many of the lies are coming from the illegal immigrant's own attorney, like that he wasn't getting pain medication. DHS says that's false -- he's receiving round the clock medical care including pain medication. She also claims ICE refused to have the bullet removed to which DHS says ICE doesn't make that decision -- that's a medical procedure and a decision for the hospital.

Then there's the lie that he had a valid work permit. We've heard this numerous times. DHS says that work permit expired last year. But even if it hadn't, a work permit doesn't give someone legal status. Which brings us to the root issue here -- the contention that he was here legally. That's one of the lies. DHS says false. They put out these facts cleanly yesterday for anyone to see, but that didn't stop Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico from saying this this morning.

JAMES TALARICO (D-TX) SENATE CANDIDATE:  Peres came to this country legally. He has no criminal record, yet ICE agents shot him in the back three times while he was doing his job making food deliveries. This is outrageous. And I think most people want to see accountability. They promised they would go after criminals. How does paralyzing a DoorDash driver make anyone more safe?

CAIN: Talarico is wedded to these stories -- the lies, no matter the facts. But where does it all originate? So many of the lies (that) have been peddled and swallowed by the left originated from the illegal immigrant's attorney. And she's also the same person that said he was a legal immigrant who entered legally and was issued a work permit, all of which DHS says isn't true.

But this is also the attorney for this illegal immigrant. Her name is Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, and she posted this: "How do you resist getting shot in the neck? Does Charlie Kirk have any advice on that?"

That post has since been deleted? I guess she had second thoughts. But I think that reveals the character of the person peddling these lies and, with so many stories, consider the source.

(...)

They made the contention, Tom, that he's sleeping on the floor and that didn't spend enough time in the hospital.

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: Look, the hospital released him. That's a medical decision made by an independent doctor. And he's in an ICE facility, and I'll say it again: ICE has the highest detention standards in the industry. They have access to doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and, you know, he's being well taken care of. But the doctors at the hospital make that decision when he should he be released. And he has a bed. It's just, you know, Will, it's just a continuation of lies about ICE detention.

It's just like back -- remember Delaney Hall where the governor said there was a hunger strike and all these congressmen jumped on it, you know, "There's a hunger strike up there -- people aren't getting their medication." And I went up there unannounced, and I sat in the cafeteria with aliens that are being detained. I ate the same meals they ate. There was never a hunger strike, the food wasn't bad. The people who weren't eating in the cafeteria were eating on the commissary. Of course they didn't say anything about that. Everybody was getting their medication.

(...)

It's just lie after lie after lie, and when the facts come out, you never see them come out and say, "Well, okay, we were wrong. We reported it wrong." No, it's just a constant vilification of ICE. And that leads to why more people out there do not comply with lawful orders from ICE who are federal law enforcement officers. They feel emboldened because they keep hearing, "ICE are the Nazis or the racists or the secret police -- they're not real law enforcement." All this stuff feeds into this.