Appearing as a guest on MSNBC's Deadline: White House on Monday, contributor Eddie Glaude condemned President Donald Trump's immigration policies as "evil" as he reacted to a pre-recorded interview that reporter Jacob Soboroff did with Narciso Barranco -- an illegal alien who was arrested by border patrol agents last month after he swung a weed-whacker at them.
At 5:39 p.m. Eastern, host Nicolle Wallace set up the segment:
The story of Narciso Barranco and his sons is one that captured the attention of the country and turned even some MAGA voters against Donald Trump's immigration policies after the father of three U.S. Marines was brutally arrested by immigration agents while working at his landscaping job in Santa Ana, California, earlier this summer. After 24 days in custody, Barranco was finally released on bond and reunited with is family. He's choosing to speak out about what he went through. After his release from Adelanto Detention Center, he sat down exclusively with my friend and colleague Jacob Soboroff for a moving interview which he shared with us on The Best People podcast.
After the first part of the segment was focused on Soboroff discussing his interview with Barranco, which included several clips, Wallace went to Glaude for his reaction.
As the MSNBC host continued to ignore video of Mr. Barranco swinging a weed-whacker at border agents, she posed:
Donald Trump has a lot of authority when it comes to mass deportations, but he doesn't have public support for deporting people like Narciso Barranco. I think fewer than 20 percent of Americans support the deportation of people here with jobs, and around nine percent support (deporting) people with American-born children. I'm not sure -- I've never seen any polling on how many people support the deportation of men who are the fathers of three United States Marines, two active duties. I'm guessing it's zero. But what do you make of what is being done sort of in the name of all of us -- all of Americans to people whose, in Mr. Barranco's telling, only crime was working?
Even though the detention of illegal aliens is called for by federal law, Glaude used the word "evil" three times to describe enforcement of the law:
Honestly, Nicolle, I think it's evil. It cuts against every -- it cuts against everything I was taught as a child growing up in St. Peter's Catholic Church on the coast of Mississippi. It cuts against the values that so many people associate with the American project, but, coming out of the tradition from which I come, it seems familiar. Forcing us to be complicit with evil seems to be a feature of our days in these dark times. And one of the things that, you know, Jacob has done so beautifully, right, is to give life to the people who are harmed by all of this -- to break through the abstraction by forcing us to confront the human beings that have to bear the brunt and weight of our contradictions -- who have to bear the brunt and weight of the evil.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's Deadline: White House
August 4, 2025
5:39 p.m. Eastern
NICOLLE WALLACE: The story of Narciso Barranco and his sons is one that captured the attention of the country and turned even some MAGA voters against Donald Trump's immigration policies after the father of three U.S. Marines was brutally arrested by immigration agents while working at his landscaping job in Santa Ana, California, earlier this summer. After 24 days in custody, Barranco was finally released on bond and reunited with is family. He's choosing to speak out about what he went through. After his release from Adelanto Detention Center, he sat down exclusively with my friend and colleague Jacob Soboroff for a moving interview which he shared with us on The Best People podcast. Here's a look at that interview.
(...)
Eddie Glaude, I'm not sure that there's more important work that any reporter is doing than sort of bearing witness, right? There's not a lot -- Donald Trump has a lot of authority when it comes to mass deportations, but he doesn't have public support for deporting people like Narciso Barranco. I think fewer than 20 percent of Americans support the deportation of people here with jobs, and around nine percent support (deporting) people with American-born children. I'm not sure -- I've never seen any polling on how many people support the deportation of men who are the fathers of three United States Marines, two active duties. I'm guessing it's zero. But what do you make of what is being done sort of in the name of all of us -- all of Americans to people whose, in Mr. Barranco's telling, only crime was working?
EDDIE GLAUDE, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Honestly, Nicolle, I think it's evil. It cuts against every -- it cuts against everything I was taught as a child growing up in St. Peter's Catholic Church on the coast of Mississippi. It cuts against the values that so many people associate with the American project, but, coming out of the tradition from which I come, it seems familiar. Forcing us to be complicit with evil seems to be a feature of our days in these dark times. And one of the things that, you know, Jacob has done so beautifully, right, is to give life to the people who are harmed by all of this -- to break through the abstraction by forcing us to confront the human beings that have to bear the brunt and weight of our contradictions -- who have to bear the brunt and weight of the evil.
And one of the things that came out of that interview for me -- and this is going to sound cynical, but I think it's in the gut -- it's what I know -- that when the country is experiencing a fever dream, Nicolle, gratitude is never enough. Sacrifice is never enough. The blood thirst is what it is, but, you know, he found hope in fellow human beings close to the ground -- not in abstraction, close to the ground. That's what I see.
