On Tuesday morning, MSNBC host Chris Jansing devoted a segment of her eponymous show to highlighting Chicago residents "standing up to" immigration agents who recently searched for an escaped prisoner in their neighborhood.
She also had on a left-leaning professor from Columbia Law School to encourage Americans to verbally confront ICE agents while they are trying to make arrests.
Jansing introduced the segment:
Some new and dramatic examples of Americans standing up to masked ICE agents who are conducting immigration manhunts in their own backyards. The latest, the Chicago suburbs. These photos from the Chicago Tribune show residents confronting federal agents who were chasing people through their neighborhoods, including backyards, and loading them into unmarked vehicles.
She then brought aboard the Chicago Tribune's Olivia Olander and Columbia Law School's Elora Mukherjee as guests. Olander recalled a woman in the Chicago suburbs who ran across border patrol agents in her yard who were trying to find an escaped detainee. She recounted:
She -- I think understandably -- is alarmed by this. She starts asking a few questions, and they tell her that they're looking for someone who escaped detention in their area. She -- they also tell her that this person left a jacket on their -- on their fence. She gets very angry because she knows that that is not the case. That jacket has already been there. So she calls them out on what she sees as a lie, starts yelling at them for being in her backyard without any sort of permission.
Jansing followed up by asking if the woman's children -- who are 17 and 20 years old -- were affected: "And, her children, they're not little kids, but I wonder if she talked to you about the impact that this had on them?"
Olander described them as alarmed by knowing that border agents had been in their yard, even though they did not see them:
Yeah, and I actually was able to talk to them a little bit, too. They were very, very -- they were also, you know, angry, concerned, sort of bewildered -- I would say even more so than those qualities -- just bewildered that this had happened to them. They -- I don't think they saw the agents when they were in their backyard, but just to know that this happened right under them basically.
No one on the panel seemed to have any concern about whether the escaped prisoner might be a danger if he was trying to avoid being recaptured.
Jansing then went to Mukkerjee and asked her if there is any legal risk for Americans who want to confront immigration agents, leading the liberal professor to encourage such liberal activism by bystanders:
It's important for American citizens to cross party lines to be upstanders in this very difficult time. So if Americans are seeing encounters with masked agents who are carrying out arrests and detentions, it is totally find to speak out using your voice. You can take recordings. I do not encourage anyone to interfere with an arrest. That could lead to charges against a person. And it's important to speak out to try and protect our neighbors and our community members.
After claiming that most illegal aliens being arrested by ICE are not criminals, she added: "So it is appropriate -- it is right for the American people to speak out when they're seeing injustice -- in this case, literally in their backyards."
Jansing followed up by asking if such actions make a difference, leading Mukherjee to suggest that President Donald Trump is abusing his power in cracking down on immigration:
It absolutely makes a difference, and Americans across party lines are increasingly expressing that the Trump ICE crackdown has gone too far. We're seeing children -- we're seeing our neighbors -- we're seeing valued employees all being rounded up and taken to detention not for having convicted any criminal offenses, but simply because the executive branch is pushing the bounds of its authority well past the breaking point of the checks and balances system that's been set up in our U.S. Constitution.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's Chris Jansing Reports
October 21, 2025
1:13 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS JANSING: Some new and dramatic examples of Americans standing up to masked ICE agents who are conducting immigration manhunts in their own backyards. The latest, the Chicago suburbs. These photos from the Chicago Tribune show residents confronting federal agents who were chasing people through their neighborhoods, including backyards, and loading them into unmarked vehicles.
Joining us now with her reporting, Chicago Tribune's Olivia Olander. Also with us, Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School. Good to have both of you here. Olivia, I know -- and I was struck by your story. You spoke with a mother in Mount Prospect. She came home, she finds ICE agents in her backyard, her kids are home. Walk us through what she told you.
OLIVIA OLANDER, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Yeah, Chris, thanks for having me. That's exactly right. This mother, 49-year-old mother of three comes home from a workout with her husband. As she's approaching her home, she sees agents that, I believe, were border patrol agents it looked like from the markings that we were able to see coming out of her backyard like around a chain-link fence. They're in masks, they're in camo sort of uniforms.
She -- I think understandably -- is alarmed by this. She starts asking a few questions, and they tell her that they're looking for someone who escaped detention in their area. She -- they also tell her that this person left a jacket on their -- on their fence. She gets very angry because she knows that that is not the case. That jacket has already been there. So she calls them out on what she sees as a lie, starts yelling at them for being in her backyard without any sort of permission.
JANSING: Yeah, and, her children, they're not little kids, but I wonder if she talked to you about the impact that this had on them?
OLANDER: Yeah, and I actually was able to talk to them a little bit, too. They were very, very -- they were also, you know, angry, concerned, sort of bewildered -- I would say even more so than those qualities -- just bewildered that this had happened to them. They -- I don't think they saw the agents when they were in their backyard, but just to know that this happened right under them basically.
And it was just a very strange sensation for them to have, and, yeah, they're 17 and 20, so definitely old enough to know what's going on and to understand what this means, and, yeah, they were very confused as, I think, a lot of neighbors were to have these agents going into backyards and, as far as we could tell, after about 90 minutes to two hours, not actually finding the person that they said they were going after and eventually leaving the area.
JANSING: And we see, Elora, some of these pictures that people are taping of what they're seeing. We know -- in the case of the mom who spoke to Olivia -- she, you know, asked questions, and she wanted to know what was going on, and she was upset, but is there any legal risk to these residents engaging with agents directly?
ELORA MUKHERJEE, COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL IMMIGRANTS RIGHTS CLINIC: It's important for American citizens to cross party lines to be upstanders in this very difficult time. So if Americans are seeing encounters with masked agents who are carrying out arrests and detentions, it is totally find to speak out using your voice. You can take recordings. I do not encourage anyone to interfere with an arrest. That could lead to charges against a person. And it's important to speak out to try and protect our neighbors and our community members.
Overwhelmingly, since January of this year, the people who have been arrested and detained by ICE do not have criminal records according to data that was made available last month. In September, about 43,000 individuals are currently in ICE detention facilities having no criminal convictions, no criminal charges against them at all. That accounts for more than 71 percent of those in ICE custody, and thousands of others are there due to minor violations such as traffic offenses. So it is appropriate -- it is right for the American people to speak out when they're seeing injustice -- in this case, literally in their backyards.
JANSING: So I want to give you another example, Elora, if I can, that also happened in that area. Dozens of residents were so outraged by the protest restrictions that are in place at that now well-known Broadview ICE facility that they actually shut down their local council meeting. Take a listen to this.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: We are calling for an end to the violence.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Know what else is shameful? Limiting our freedom of speech.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: You can beat us to death -- we're not going to stop.
JANSING: "We're not going to stop." I just wonder what you're seeing elsewhere across the country, whether directly speaking to agents, going to meetings, protesting. To what extent are you seeing Americans take action? And does it make a difference?
MUKHERJEE: It absolutely makes a difference, and Americans across party lines are increasingly expressing that the Trump ICE crackdown has gone too far. We're seeing children -- we're seeing our neighbors -- we're seeing valued employees all being rounded up and taken to detention not for having convicted any criminal offenses, but simply because the executive branch is pushing the bounds of its authority well past the breaking point of the checks and balances system that's been set up in our U.S. Constitution.
And it matters that thousands and thousands of Americans across party lines were out protesting over the weekend. It matters that, at the local levels, people are speaking out and saying, "We don't want ICE in our communities -- wants ICE to get out of our backyards." All of this is building momentum toward the midterm elections and the upcoming elections in two weeks where we have races at the local and state levels.
JANSING: Elora, thank you so much for coming on the show. Olivia, some great reporting. I really was -- felt your story was compelling. Thank you for coming on as well.
