On Thursday afternoon, MSNBC's Chris Jansing presided over a panel that fretted over video of border agents using a Penske truck to lure and arrest illegal aliens in Los Angeles, and contributor Tim Miller scoffed over right-leaning actor Dean Cain announcing plans to join ICE.
Jansing demonstrated that, on a network that frequently complains about federal agents without uniforms making arrests, those who do wear uniforms will also get complaints as she claimed that border patrol agents were seen "fully decked out in military garb" even though they appeared to be just wearing border patrol uniforms.
Jansing began:
Take a look at this video of border patrol agents in Los Angeles fully decked out in military garb loading into a rental truck. They were headed to a Home Depot where they jumped out of the back of the box truck and arrested 16 day workers waiting to be picked up for jobs. It's all part of what CBP is calling "Operation Trojan Horse," and it comes as the Wall Street Journal has new reporting on immigrants vanishing once inside ICE detention.
After reading about concerns that illegal aliens are being frequently transferred to different detention facilities, making it difficult for their attorneys to find them, Jansing went to reporter Julia Ainsley to fill in viewers on the news that agents made the arrests at a Home Depot. Ainsley recalled that, according to the border patrol, they were trying to find MS-13 members, and then read a quote from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) scoffing at the claim.
The MSNBC host soon turned to MSNBC contributor and disgruntled ex-Republican Tim Miller and asked if the Trump administration believes that such arrests are helpful politically. Miller declared that "I do think that the Democrats should campaign on this" as he argued that some Donald Trump supporters would disapprove of the tactics:
None of those people signed up for this kind of cops and robbers cosplay -- masked men jump out of a car, and they give themselves a cute name, and then they take ladies that are just sitting there trying to sell food to workers. I understood when they carried "mass deportation" signs, now, that was going to be part of the agenda, but I think a lot of people that supported Trump did not think that was part of the agenda. They took him at his word that he was going to go after the worst of the worst or whatever his quote was.
These are not that, and it feels un-American. It is against the, you know, sort of libertarian spirt that some in the Trump base have who are for border security, but, again, are not for masked federal agents grabbing people, handcuffing them and shackling them if they haven't committed any crimes that are not related to immigration.
Later on, after Jansing brought up Dean Cain's recent announcement that he was joining ICE, and asked for Miller's reaction, the MSNBC contributor mocked the right-leaning actor's interest in joining:
I mean, this is obviously unserious and preposterous, but it kind of ties back to my last answer, right? Like, you have these people that are not treating -- these people being ICE agents that are not treating these migrants or immigrants like they are actually humans.
They're treating this whole thing like it's a big show -- it's a big game of cops and robbers -- "I get to put on my mask and we get to do a Trojan horse, and we're going to, you know, go get the bad guys," and so it's not surprising that an actor would be drawn to that. And I think that, look, just kind of echoing the reported concerns on this.
It was not mentioned that Cain has a history of joining police reserves to show moral support when law enforcement are being publicly castigated.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's Chris Jansing Reports
August 7, 2025
1:22 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS JANSING: Take a look at this video of border patrol agents in Los Angeles fully decked out in military garb loading into a rental truck. They were headed to a Home Depot where they jumped out of the back of the box truck and arrested 16 day workers waiting to be picked up for jobs. It's all part of what CBP is calling "Operation Trojan Horse," and it comes as the Wall Street Journal has new reporting on immigrants vanishing once inside ICE detention.
Quote, "Frequent transfers between detention centers across the county or to multiple locations in a few days, have become commonplace in the second Trump administration, according to more than a dozen immigration lawyers across the country."
(...)
Julia, tell us more. What do you know about this so-called Operation Trojan Horse?
JULIA AINSLEY: Well, it's exactly as it sounds. There were these ICE officers who went into a Home Depot parking lot in Los Angeles and jumped out of the back of a Penske truck. Penske, by the way, has put out a statement saying that they did not want any part of this -- that they didn't want ICE to be using their truck or their brand to do it. They jumped out, they arrested 16 people in this parking lot that ICE has not told us anything about their criminal background.
But the border patrol sector chief in that area said that this is an area that has had MS-13 activity, but Mayor Karen Bass of L.A. pushed back and said that she doesn't think MS-13 members would be simply sitting in a Home Deport parking lot waiting for a job as a day laborer, and that they are really targeting the wrong people. And not only is that her opinion, that came from a judge, and the city attorney of Los Angeles is now looking into whether or not ICE is violating that court order that said that they could not arrest people based on things like race or location.
In other words, you can't just go into an area you think undocumented immigrants might be and start arresting people willy nilly. In the past, ICE has found target list -- people who they believe they know who they are, where they are, and that they've committed some kind of immigration violation in the United States. This is in violation of that order, and we'll see if this ends up actually becoming part of a legal challenge.
(,,,)
JANSING: Tim, I want to talk about the imagery as well as the reality of some of this stuff. The L.A. Times reporting on this is pretty specific. One of the things they say is that it just happened at one of these locations that a group -- an advocacy group called the L.A. Tenants Union was there, and they were giving out information to help people who may be having issues with where they live, and in a video that they took, masked men in border patrol uniforms can be seen leading a woman in an apron away from the folding table where she was selling food and drinks. She was handcuffed and loaded into the van. Politically, is this what the Trump administration is okay with? Or are you getting a sense, at least within his base, that this is helpful?
TIM MILLER, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, well, definitely, it's something that the Trump administration is okay with, and that they've chosen, and they're out there defending it vigorously. There are elements of the Republican base that are for this. But I do think that it is a potential political problem for them, and I do think that the Democrats should campaign on this. Look, there is at least some subset of the Trump base -- whether that be the, you know, former Republicans like myself -- former like Bush/Romney type Republicans or whether it be this kind of newer group of younger, "don't tread on me," manosphere types that are the Joe Rogan types, to use that as shorthand. Joe Rogan has been talking about this himself.
None of those people signed up for this kind of cops and robbers cosplay -- masked men jump out of a car, and they give themselves a cute name, and then they take ladies that are just sitting there trying to sell food to workers. I understood when they carried "mass deportation" signs, now, that was going to be part of the agenda, but I think a lot of people that supported Trump did not think that was part of the agenda. They took him at his word that he was going to go after the worst of the worst or whatever his quote was. These are not that, and it feels un-American. It is against the, you know, sort of libertarian spirt that some in the Trump base have who are for border security, but, again, are not for masked federal agents grabbing people, handcuffing them and shackling them if they haven't committed any crimes that are not related to immigration.
(...)
JANSING: Well, Tim, somebody who has said, "I'd like to help" -- I don't know if you've seen this news -- Dean Cain who is best known -- he's an actor best known for playing Superman has just announced that he is joining ICE. He says he feels it is important to, quote, "help secure the safety of all Americans." There he is. You know, maybe there are trucks going into the Home Depot -- maybe people selling lemonade at the stands or whatever was being sold at the stand getting rounded up. That part of the message isn't getting through. What is apparently getting through with Dean Cain and others -- who says, by the way, "Join me -- help secure the safety of all Americans," Tim.
MILLER: Yeah, I mean, this is obviously unserious and preposterous, but it kind of ties back to my last answer, right? Like, you have these people that are not treating -- these people being ICE agents that are not treating these migrants or immigrants like they are actually humans. They're treating this whole thing like it's a big show -- it's a big game of cops and robbers -- "I get to put on my mask and we get to do a Trojan horse, and we're going to, you know, go get the bad guys," and so it's not surprising that an actor would be drawn to that. And I think that, look, just kind of echoing the reported concerns on this.
You know, there have been -- this is a much larger version of what the Trump administration did in the first term with DHS hiring border patrol agents, and they were trying to, you know, spike the increase of people to join the border patrol. And there were lots of issues with that. There were people who were not qualified -- people that, you know, in the past had black marks on their record, you know, in local law enforcement, etc., taking these jobs. And, you know, I just think that there's really -- this is a recipe for disaster as far as people coming in who don't really -- aren't trained and don't understand how, you know, we should in a free country be treating people that are here, you know, potentially illegally but that, you know, are not complicit in any other crimes.