On Thursday’s edition of Morning Joe, MS NOW reporter Josh Einiger claimed ICE arrests of previously convicted criminals did not fall under the Trump administration’s pledge to deport the ‘worst of the worst’ illegal immigrants. It was a blatant pivot from the media’s typical claim that those being arrested had no criminal record.
The report came as the Department of Homeland Security began a new immigration enforcement operation in Maine titled ‘Operation Catch of the Day’ as part of the administration’s illegal immigration crackdown.
After being introduced by Morning Joe co-host Willie Geist, Einiger talked over a short video of ICE “targeting” a possible person of interest. Einiger did not report on the actual immigration or criminal status of the man in the car:
This was on Tuesday morning, as about half a dozen federal agents surrounded a man who had been driving his car. They pulled him out of his car, put him in one of their cars and drove off, leaving his car on the side of the road. We don't know who he was, why they were targeting him, or how they found him.
Einiger then bizarrely claimed ICE detainment of at least three previously convicted criminals did not fall under the category of deporting the ‘worst of the worst’:
We do know DHS released the pictures of four people they say they detained here in Maine over the past several days. They referred to them as the worst of the worst. But three of them actually were already convicted and adjudicated for crimes of various severity here in the state of Maine. Local officials say they weren't actually wanted for anything here in Maine.
Previously, the elitist media’s go-to tactic was to claim those being arrested had no criminal record at all. Now, they’re fearing for those who were convicted.
After playing a clip from the Mayor of Portland, Einiger interviewed a Somali activist who cried out against ICE operations in the Northeast.
He ended his segment by fearmongering the residents of Maine: “And Willie and Mika, the - one of the biggest concerns here, is that people fear it's all just the beginning here in Maine”
At the story’s conclusion, Geist and frequent Morning Joe guest Mike Barnicle complained over the clever naming of ICE operation by the DHS, while they also claimed ICE stopped people over skin color or accents:
That’s it, you have an accent, you have - you have brown skin, everything like that. Pull them over. It's outrageous, and it's a daily, hourly basis that they're doing it.
While Barnicle’s claims were nothing new, the report that tried to gloss over the previous criminal conviction of ICE detainees should not be forgotten. It would seem to be reasonable to many that those illegally in the United States with criminal records were pretty solid candidates for deportation.
The transcript is below. Expand to Read:
MS NOW’s Morning Joe
January 22, 2026
7:43:39 a.m. Eastern
WILLIE GEIST: As we were discussing earlier, the Department of Homeland Security says it has started to make immigration-related arrests now in the state of Maine in a new operation. Let's bring in MS Now reporter Josh Einiger, joins us live from Portland, Maine. Josh, good morning. How does it look on the ground there?
JOSH EINIGER: Willie, good morning to you. We're here in front of Portland’s City Hall, where local leaders, much like their counterparts across the country, are basically in the dark about what ICE and DHS are doing here on the ground in the state of Maine. Sources tell MS NOW there are about 200 federal agents here for what they're now calling ‘Operation Catch of the Day’.
And we can show you cell phone video obtained by MS NOW, as this has started to ramp up. This was on Tuesday morning, as about half a dozen federal agents surrounded a man who had been driving his car. They pulled him out of his car, put him in one of their cars and drove off, leaving his car on the side of the road. We don't know who he was, why they were targeting him, or how they found him.
We do know DHS released the pictures of four people they say they detained here in Maine over the past several days. They referred to them as the worst of the worst. But three of them actually were already convicted and adjudicated for crimes of various severity here in the state of Maine. Local officials say they weren't actually wanted for anything here in Maine. We talked to the mayor yesterday. He spent 32 years in law enforcement before he went into politics. And he told me what concerns him the most is the tactics at play, or the lack thereof.
[Cuts to video]
MARK DION (Portland Mayor): I'm concerned, I mean, I really would love to look at their training records. How much time did they spend preparing their people for the work they were going to be asked to do? I mean, we put Maine officers through 20 weeks of training in an academy. Most of them come back to their home agency. There's additional training. We add a year or year and a half of field - field training officer process. I mean, we invest a lot because those people are going to make serious decisions, life and death decisions. I don't know if that's been the same for all these new agents and ICE.
[Cuts to video]
SAFIYA KHALID (Activist from Lewiston, ME): They're targeting Somali people. They are targeting immigrants. You know, if you're brown and you're black and you look like you may have an accent, they are stopping you. We are seeing what is happening in other parts of the country. So, Maine is just another target, you know? And right now we are being targeted. The Somali community is right now being targeted today, but tomorrow it can be another community. So no one is safe. We don't know their exact tactics and stuff, but it's really to put fear in people, right, to other us, and to intimidate us and say that we don't belong in this country.
[Cuts back to live]
EINIGER: And Safiya Khalid is a community activist in the Somali Community in Lewiston, which is about 45 minutes up the road from Portland and where Somalis, chiefly Somali Americans, by the way, make up about one-tenth of the population. But even though so many of that community are American citizens, they're just terrified. Most of them are staying home.
There's a main drag there of vibrant stores, of grocery stores, restaurants, a barber shop, and it's just been a ghost town the last few days. The owner of the ghost - of the barbershop told us, this is sort of like a second pandemic when it comes to his business. No one is going out knowing no one is spending money, people are just that concerned. And Willie and Mika, the - one of the biggest concerns here, is that people fear it's all just the beginning here in Maine.
GEIST: MS NOW reporter Josh Einiger, live from Portland, Maine. Josh, thanks so much.
Mike, we can put to the side for a moment the clever, gleeful titles they’re giving these—
MIKE BARNICLE: Catch of the Day.
GEIST: — Operation Catch of the Day, talking about human beings. But also this idea that they are getting the worst of the worst. They keep saying that over and over again, when their own internal data shows that’s just not the case. If they're arresting rapists and murderers, do it. Get them all. But that's not what's happening.
BARNICLE: They're also doing something that is forbidden by nearly every major police department in the country, in that they go to places like Auburn, Maine, or Lewiston, Maine, and they will stop people based on skin color alone. That's it.
GEIST: Or you have an accent
BARNICLE: That’s it, you have an accent, you have - you have brown skin, everything like that. Pull them over. It's outrageous, and it's a daily, hourly basis that they're doing it.
GEIST: From Minnesota, now to Maine with perhaps more to come.
