On Saturday's The Weekend: Primetime, MSNBC gave a forum to an anti-ICE guest, Sarah Slackert who was arrested Friday while protesting against immigration agents in Chicago, and co-host Ayman Mohyeldin even thanked her for her liberal activism. Co-host Catherine Rampell also suggested that federal agents are not the "good guys" in Chicago during President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. MSNBC is all for illegal immigrants.
Co-host Antonia Hylton set up the segment by fretting over a couple of recent cases in which agents made arrests in proximity to children. She began:
Across the country, videos keep surfacing of vulnerable people or families caught up in Trump's immigration crackdown, and the public backlash is growing. Take Tuesday in Los Angeles. Federal immigration agents drive away with a toddler in the backseat after detaining her father. A DHS spokesperson told the L.A. Times that the man allegedly, quote, "exited his vehicle wielding a hammer and threw rocks at law enforcement while he had a child in his car."
Even though it is appropriate for immigration agents to arrest violent protesters who are trying to interfere with their law enforcement activities, Hylton suggested that there was something wrong with arresting him because he was a citizen: "But both of them -- the infant and the parent -- are U.S. citizens."
She then brought up the case in Chicago in which a teacher tried to evade a traffic stop by running into the daycare where she worked, which other MSNBC hosts have also been fretting over.
The MSNBC host soon related the activities of a left-wing group of Chicago mothers who have been protesting at the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. After Hylton asked Slackert what message she was trying to send, the liberal activist accused immigration agents of breaking the law with their enforcement actions:
We really wanted to bring awareness -- national awareness to what is going on in Chicago ... and we kind of want to be like, please look at how fast constitutional violations are happening here. They're like -- they're -- they're really not even trying to hide it anymore, and so, you know, the federal government is trampling people's rights all over town and terrorizing our communities. They're ripping apart families, and people are living in fear everywhere whether they're citizens or not, and it doesn't even matter if you have a criminal background. They're just pretty blatantly doing whatever they want.
In spite of recent numbers finding that crime in Chicago has dropped substantially, Slackert claimed to feel more unsafe: "They think they're making it safe here, and we as a collective city have never felt more unsafe."
After Slacker declared that "we're trying to use our privilege as white women," co-host Catherine Rampell suggested that immigration agents are not the good guys as police usually are as she followed up:
How do they understand what's happening with what looks like law enforcement, right? I think back to Mr. Rogers, and he talked about, you know, "Look for the helpers." You should feel safe with -- with policemen and with -- with other officials who are there to protect you. And the experience that I imagine you and other people in Chicago are experiencing right now is a little bit different. So how do you explain to them what -- what's going on and who are the good guys and who are the bad guys and how they should think about these -- these people -- coming up into their city?
Toward the end of the segment, after Slackert again claimed that immigration agents are "terrorizing" communities, co-host Ayman Mohyeldin thanked her for her activism as he concluded: " I was going to say, thank you so much for sharing that story with us. Thank you so much for what you're doing to protect your community. We greatly appreciate you. Thank you."
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's The Weekend: Primetime
November 8, 2025
8:31 p.m. Eastern
ANTONIA HYLTON: Across the country, videos keep surfacing of vulnerable people or families caught up in Trump's immigration crackdown, and the public backlash is growing. Take Tuesday in Los Angeles. Federal immigration agents drive away with a toddler in the backseat after detaining her father. A DHS spokesperson told the L.A. Times that the man allegedly, quote, "exited his vehicle wielding a hammer and threw rocks at law enforcement while he had a child in his car." But both of them -- the infant and the parent -- are U.S. citizens.
The next day in Chicago, armed ICE agents dragged a daycare worker out of a private school and arrested her in front of children and families. DHS saying that she was in the country unlawfully, fled into the daycare after an attempted traffic stop and lied about her identity. But her attorney maintains she has legal authorization to work in the U.S.
Joining us now is Sarah Slackert. She is one of 15 Chicago moms who were arrested outside of the Broadview detention center during a protest yesterday. Take us through this decision to create this kind of civil disobedience to join together with moms. What kind of message were you trying to send to that facility but also to this administration more broadly?
SARAH SLACKERT, ANTI-ICE PROTESTER: Yeah, thanks for having me. We really wanted to bring awareness -- national awareness to what is going on in Chicago because a lot of people are feeling like we're overreacting, and we kind of want to be like, please look at how fast constitutional violations are happening here. They're like -- they're -- they're really not even trying to hide it anymore, and so, you know, the federal government is trampling people's rights all over town and terrorizing our communities.
They're ripping apart families, and people are living in fear everywhere whether they're citizens or not, and it doesn't even matter if you have a criminal background. They're just pretty blatantly doing whatever they want. And we're here as moms to kind of say we're not going to have this in our communities -- we want our kids to feel safe, you know. They think they're making it safe here, and we as a collective city have never felt more unsafe. So we just kind of want to bring the message to kind of get people aware because if we don't stand up right now, it's going to come to your city next. So.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Sarah, as you mentioned, you're a mom. How do you talk to your kids about what's going on in their city -- what their mom is doing and what's happening to other families in your community?
SLACKERT: It's really hard. I have a two-year-old and an eight-year-old. And the eight-year-old, I talk to her pretty openly. I keep it pretty simple that they're really targeting immigrants which is really unfair, and it's illegal, and we have to stand up right now -- I mean, we're trying to use our privilege as white women to stand up and bring awareness for our neighbors and community members who can't right now. And so I've really been keeping it that simple that we have the ability to do it, and we're going to try to help our community.
RAMPELL: How do they understand what's happening with what looks like law enforcement, right? I think back to Mr. Rogers, and he talked about, you know, "Look for the helpers." You should feel safe with -- with policemen and with -- with other officials who are there to protect you. And the experience that I imagine you and other people in Chicago are experiencing right now is a little bit different. So how do you explain to them what -- what's going on and who are the good guys and who are the bad guys and how they should think about these -- these people --
SLACKERT: It's --
RAMPBELL: -- coming up into their city? Yeah?
SLACKERT: I mean, I feel it's pretty impossible because it's like this -- this group of, you know, they're wearing masks. They're not always -- they're sometimes wearing kind of uniforms. They're not identifying themselves. They're in unmarked vehicles all the time...
AYMAN MOHYELDIN: Sarah, can you tell us about where you see this protest movement going. I mean, you've talked about trying to raise awareness and trying to alert people in the community neighborhood because of the privilege that you have, but talk to me about how you plan on continuing this, expanding it, perhaps maybe what you would like to see happen next with the attention that you are putting on this story.
SLACKERT: We really are a group of moms, literally like PTL members. We volunteer to coach our kids' teams. And I kind of -- we wanted to show none of us have ever done this before ever. Like, so we wanted to, I mean, inspiring us other people with privilege to use their power -- don't be afraid to rock the boat. Grab a friend and just do one more step. I started going to the protest -- a friend brought me because I was like, "Where do I park? I don't know how to get there." And they gave me all the info, and a friend and I went, and then I just started going about twice a week.
And every time I would bring a couple of my friends with me, and then it just like grew from there. So you don't have to do something in an official capacity. Everybody just needs to do whatever is within their sphere of influence -- whoever you have around you. It might be one conversation -- it might be going to a protest. Everybody can have their thing to do, and we want to build -- help be one step in building and taking collective power so we can dismantle this, like, insane, like, terrorizing of our communities.
MOHYELDIN: Sarah --
SLACKERT: It's a system, and we want to -- yeah?
MOHYELDIN: I was going to say, thank you so much for sharing that story with us. Thank you so much for what you're doing to protect your community. We greatly appreciate you. Thank you.
