'Flat-Out Lie': MS NOW Lets Hochul Claim Trump Promised to ONLY Deport 'Worst of the Worst'

On Friday's Morning Joe, MS NOW co-host Willie Geist cued up Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) to accuse President Donald Trump of breaking his promise on which illegal aliens would be deported. 

MS NOW has long been pushing the narrative that Trump promised to only deport the "worst of the worst" in spite of the President clearly stating that anyone caught in the country illegally is on the table. During an interview with Governor Hochul, Geist brought up the recent increase in ICE arrests as if it were a bad thing:

ICE arrests have surged to record levels this summer, reaching 43,000 in June -- 49,000 in July. That's according to newly released federal data. An analysis from the New York Times shows most people arrested last month had no criminal charge or conviction, while fewer than four percent had a past violent conviction -- four percent. Arrests have risen across the country, with Texas averaging more than 380 per day, and Florida more than 230. New Jersey, New Mexico also have seen arrests double.

He then claimed that the Trump administration is "not going after the worst of the worst" as he posed:

So, Governor, this data from the federal government confirms what we already knew, which is that this administration is not going after the worst of the worst. We've seen just in the last week, these scenes at bus stops around schools in Connecticut. We've seen scenes in hospital rooms where mother and a daughter were arrested in hospital gowns after getting into a car accident. So what does the relationship -- in your state anyway -- look like between law enforcement and the state level and ICE coming in from the federal level?

Hochul quickly accused President Trump of lying and suggested that he had somehow broken a promise: "Well, let me just step back for a second. You actually hit on this, Willie. Everybody who voted for Donald Trump believed he was going after the worst of the worst. That's what he promised. That was a flat-out lie."

She went on to brag about signing a law forbidding local police departments from voluntarily choosing to assist ICE in immigration enforcement, and disingenuously denied that New York is a sanctuary state, suggesting that it is better for public safety for local police not to make an effort to assist ICE.

Instead of anyone questioning her claims, Morning Joe regular Mike Barnicle followed up: "Can you prevent the ICE federal -- at the federal level from securing agreements with local police forces in New York?"

But, in spite of the New York governor's claims about what President Trump has promised, there is a documented history of President Trump saying that there will be a push to deport anyone illegally in the country, and officials like border czar Tom Homan have promised to go not only after immigrants with deportation orders, but to find the millions of migrants who preferred to sneak into the country and bypass President Joe Biden's efforts to make it easier for them to come in.

You can start with Trump's declaration at the 2024 Republican convention on July 18: "The Republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country." Nine days earlier, MSNBC's Chris Jansing said the same: "Republicans have now released their 2024 platform, and it sounds a lot like what you'd hear at a Trump rally. It includes the largest deportation program in American history."

On the December 8, 2024, Meet the Press, NBC News host Kristen Welker had an exchange with the President-elect:

KRISTEN WELKER: You've talked about prioritizing people who have criminal histories, but is it your plan to deport everyone who is here illegally over the next four years?

TRUMP: Well, I think you have to do it, and it's a -- it's a very tough thing to do. It's -- but you have to have -- you know, you have rules, regulations, laws -- they came in illegally.

A bit later, they continued:

WELKER: Is it realistic to deport everyone who's here illegally?

TRUMP: We have no choice. First of all, they're costing us a fortune, but we're starting with the criminals, and we got to do it. And then we're starting with others, and we'll see how it goes.

WELKER: Who are the others?

TRUMP: Others are other people outside of criminals.

It's become obvious that Democrats and their media allies oppose all deportations as unjust.

Transcripts follow:

MS NOW's Morning Joe

August 28, 2026

7:06 a.m. Eastern

WILLIE GEIST: Let's turn to immigration, Governor. ICE arrests have surged to record levels this summer, reaching 43,000 in June -- 49,000 in July. That's according to newly released federal data. An analysis from the New York Times shows most people arrested last month had no criminal charge or conviction, while fewer than four percent had a past violent conviction -- four percent. Arrests have risen across the country, with Texas averaging more than 380 per day, and Florida more than 230. New Jersey, New Mexico also have seen arrests double.

So, Governor, this data from the federal government confirms what we already knew, which is that this administration is not going after the worst of the worst. We've seen just in the last week, these scenes at bus stops around schools in Connecticut. We've seen scenes in hospital rooms where mother and a daughter were arrested in hospital gowns after getting into a car accident. So what does the relationship -- in your state anyway -- look like between law enforcement and the state level and ICE coming in from the federal level?

GOVERNOR KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): Well, let me just step back for a second. You actually hit on this, Willie. Everybody who voted for Donald Trump believed he was going after the worst of the worst. That's what he promised. That was a flat-out lie. Because if he was going after the worst of the worst, I would think in the first few months, they would have identified the known criminals or those that they have charges against, or people need to be extradited back to their country because of a criminal offense.

We're now going after everybody from high school kids on Long Island to people going to their job on a farm. The home health care aides. We have devastated the home health care industry in the state of New York. When we send back the Haitians who are very good at this work, and they have relationships with senior citizens who are wondering why their aide did not show up the next day to take care of them.

So what our relationship with law enforcement is, I will say this clearly, because the Republicans are just absolutely lying about my position. New York state will never be a sanctuary for criminals. Full stop. We work with federal law enforcement, including ICE, when it comes to protecting New Yorkers. And that means we will always have and always will work to get criminals off the streets and in the criminal justice system, get their justice, go to jail, and then go back to their home country.

That's how we do it in New York. But what we had before was there were counties that had relationships with ICE, formal agreements, where they would actually be using local law enforcement for civil immigration enforcement. I'm not talking about criminals. I'm talking about someone whose only offense is coming into this country. And these are people with temporary protected status. Maybe they had a green card, a work permit, married to an American citizen.

They're going after everybody because they have to hit those named Stephen Miller quotas. So I've said, and we passed a law and it went into effect just this week. You cannot have those agreements with ICE to be using local cops for doing your job, ICE. I want local cops focused on local crimes, and crime has gone down dramatically since I've been governor in the state of New York for the last five years, and it's because I've invested money in law enforcement.

We're building trust between communities, and law enforcement has nothing to do with having our local police diverted from catching the rapists, catching the murderers, responding to an emergency, and doing ICE's job for them. It's an $85 billion agency. I think they can take care of themselves. In fact, I wish they would just disband and go back to the old Immigration and Naturalization Service. Remember old INS? People trusted them. They did their jobs. This is a rogue policing state that is wreaking havoc across America. In New York we say no more.

MIKE BARNICLE: Can you prevent the ICE federal -- at the federal level from securing agreements with local police forces in New York?

HOCHUL: I just banned it.

(...)

MSNBC's Chris Jansing Reports

July 9, 2024

2:14 p.m

CHRIS JANSING: Republicans have now released their 2024 platform, and it sounds a lot like what you'd hear at a Trump rally. It includes the largest deportation program in American history.

(...)

Republican National Convention

July 18, 2024

11:38 p.m.

DONALD TRUMP: The Republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country, even larger than that of President Dwight D. Eisenhower from many years ago. You know, he was a moderate, but he believed very strongly in borders. He had the largest deportation operation we've ever had.

(...)

CBS's 60 Minutes

October 27, 2024

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: If I'm in charge of this, my priorities are public safety threats and national security threats first.

CECILIA VEGA: "First" implies others follow, though. Right?

HOMAN: Absolutely.

(...)

VEGA: So you're carrying out a targeted enforcement operation, Grandma's in the house, she's undocumented. Does she get arrested, too?

HOMAN: It depends. Let the judge decide. We're going to remove people that a judge has ordered deported.

VEGA: Homan's suggestion that Grandma might face arrest would mark a major shift in policy.

(...)

Fox News at Night

November 12, 2024

11:32 p.m.

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: The President said under this mass deportation operation that we're going to prioritize public safety threats and national security threats because they pose the greatest danger to this country. It makes sense. And we got plenty of them to go find because the last count was there were over 700,000 illegal aliens with a criminal conviction on their record. On top of that, we look at the gotaways -- 2.2 million people. How many of them are criminals? Most of them probably are -- that's why they didn't want to turn themselves in and to get released. They didn't want to get fingerprinted and vetted.

(...)

NewsMax's America Right Now

November 23, 2024

9:23 a.m.

HOMAN: The President has been very clear. Public safety threats and national security threats are going to be the priority right out of the gate along with fugitives. By fugitives what I mean is the over one million illegal aliens in this country who had due process at great taxpayer expense, were ordered removed by an immigration judge, but defied that order and became fugitives.

So, yeah, we're going to concentrate on the worst first, public safety threats. And we know there's well over a million of them, that's what we know about, and there's a lot that we don't know because we got over two million gotaways -- two million known gotaways under this administration. And these are people that paid more to get away because they didn't want to be vetted -- they didn't want to be fingerprinted. So these are going to be trouble cases.

These could be people from terrorist-sponsoring countries. They could be gang members, they could be people who are sex-trafficking women and children, they could be the ones carrying fentanyl, and they can be the bad guys. So we got to uncover who this two million people are and try to find them also.

(...)

NBC's Meet the Press

December 8, 2024

KRISTEN WELKER: Let's talk about mass deportation, one of your big agenda items. You've talked about prioritizing people who have criminal histories.

TRUMP: Correct.

WELKER: But is it your plan to deport everyone who is here illegally over the next four years.

TRUMP: Well, I think you have to do it, and it's a -- it's a very tough thing to do. It's -- but you have to have -- you know, you have rules, regulations, laws -- they came in illegally.

(..)

WELKER: Is it realistic to deport everyone who's here illegally?

TRUMP: We have no choice. First of all, they're costing us a fortune, but we're starting with the criminals, and we got to do it. And then we're starting with others, and we'll see how it goes.

WELKER: Who are the others?

TRUMP: Others are other people outside of criminals.

(...)

CNN's The Source

December 18, 2024

9:27 p.m.

KAITLIN COLLINS: There are different estimates of how many undocumented immigrants are in the country that -- and you have said everyone is on the table.

(...)

HOMAN: We want to arrest as many people as we can that are in the country illegally -- again, based on prioritization. We want to arrest every criminal, every gang member that's here illegally that's a public safety threat. We want to arrest every fugitive -- those who had due process at great taxpayer expense and have an order of deportation but didn't leave and became a fugitive. We have over 1.5 million of those. And, look, we got millions of people who are illegally -- I've said, "If you're here illegally, you're not off the table." I mean, it's a violation of the law -- it's a crime to enter this country illegally.

(...)

Fox's The Ingraham Angle

January 23, 2025

7:22 p.m.

BILL MELUGIN, FOX REPORTER: And that's what Tom Homan has been warning about, telling these sanctuary cities, "If you don't hand these people over to us and you just let them back out into the community, we're going to have to go in -- we're going to go find them. And if we find them with other people who aren't our targets and they're in the U.S. illegally, we're going to take them, too." And that's exactly what happened yesterday -- sanctuary policy out here caused that MS-13 gang member's friend or acquaintance to also get arrested by ICE.

(...)

ABC's This Week

January 26, 2025

MARTHA RADDATZ: Were all the people arrested on day one, as far you you know, convicted criminals or those who had been arrested before?

HOMAN: No. Let me explain that. There are collateral arrests. Where do collateral arrests happen? Sanctuary cities. And this is important we understand that. Sanctuary cities lock us out of their jails, so instead of ICE being able to arrest the bad guy -- the criminal alien -- in the safety and security of a jail with the officer safe, the alien safe, and the public safe; sanctuary cities release them back into the community which endangers the community. You're putting the criminal alien back in the community. But when we find him, he's going to be with others most likely. Many times they're with others. If they're in the country illegally, they're coming, too.

(...)

CBS Mornings

January 29, 2025

7:31 a.m.

TONY DOKOUPIL: President Trump's long-promised immigration crackdown now in action. Major Garrett rode along with federal agents and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on a series of raids yesterday here in New York City. It was meant to be a targeted operation, but, as the administration has warned, other people did get swept up as well.