A heated debate on live TV ended with President Trump’s Border Czar demolising an MSNBC host during a tense interview, defending ICE’s uptick in the deportation of illegal aliens and advocating for the Trump Administration as handling border policies significantly better than Biden, all the while relentlessly pushing back on the host’s insinuations that ICE was inhumane.
For context, on April 18, 2025, “Border Czar” Tom Homan appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and was immediately put on blast by the host, Joe Scarborough, who came after ICE’s methods of detaining and deporting illegal aliens. In the face of intense scrutiny, Homan held his ground, firing shots at the hypocrisy of the Democrats and pushing back against the characterization of ICE’s work as un-American.
In the interview, which quickly came to a fever pitch, Scarborough asked Homan if he believed that ICE’s detainees were being treated “humanely,” to which Homan responded, “We treat all people humanely.” Scarborough, unsatisfied, told his guest, “A lot of people would disagree.” Undeterred, Homan said, “I know there’s (sic) a lot of bad stories out. I think it’s fake news.”
Continuing, Homan backed up his defense of ICE by citing his decades of experience with border work. He told Scarborough, “I’ve been doing this, I’ve been well, I’ve been doing this since 1984; we do things humanely. We’re the most giving nation in the world. We welcome more people to this country, refugees, than any other nation in the world. This is a very giving nation, and I’ve been in this business since 1984, and we do everything humanely.”
In response, Scarborough granted that America is a giving nation, telling Homan, “I’ve always said America’s fed and freed more people across the world than any country that’s ever existed. We are a city like [Ronald] Reagan said, that shines brightly on the hill for all the world to see.” However, Scarborough continued by countering Homan, saying, “I think, though, people are saying some of the situations, especially with people being pulled off the streets and sent down to a maximum-security prison…”
At this point in the interview, Homan cut in, defending ICE’s use of maximum-security facilities and saying, “The American people voted for Donald Trump. The vast majority of Americans want illegal aliens removed from this country.” He continued, saying, “We are using the laws on the books…we’re following the law, unlike the last administration. But now they expect a vetting process for those who’ve seen an immigration judgment or been removed. It’s just ridiculous.”
When Scarborough grilled Homan further near the end of the interview, the Border Czar had more counterarguments to back up ICE. He asked his host, “When 95 percent fewer people are coming across that border illegally, how many women aren’t being sexually assaulted? How many children aren’t dying? How many pounds of fentanyl aren’t coming across to kill Americans?”
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Concluding the interview, Scarborough seemed to agree with Homan, saying, “The border has been in chaos for way too long.” The host finished, “The question is whether you can and will [control the border] following judicial orders, as you said, following the law, and following whatever supreme court decisions are handed down in the coming weeks and months.” Homan simply responded, “We will follow the law.”
Watch the heated interview:
Featured image credit: screenshot from embedded video