'I couldn't pass that up': Brian Tyree Henry on what drew him to new show 'Dope Thief'
The new show 'Dope Thief' focuses on two grifters who pose as DEA agents to fleece local dealers stashing drugs. Actor Brian Tyree Henry stars in the show and serves as an executive producer, and he joins Morning Joe to discuss.
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump faces criticism of his broad mass deportation push from two different angles
The sister of a woman allegedly murdered by six noncitizens said President Donald Trump's administration is targeting the wrong people for deportation and is not doing enough to get the worst of the worst off U.S. streets, even as authorities embark on a massive deportation effort. Tiffany Thompson, whose sister Larisha Sharrell Thompson was shot and killed in South Carolina last month, said she was angered that while deportations have played a central role in Trump's administration, more hadn't been done to target those who were charged in the killing — particularly the alleged ringleader, who faced a previous charge before her sister was killed. 'It's frustrating that they're illegal and they committed this crime. They should have been deported, maybe this wouldn't have happened,' Thompson told NBC News in an interview. She added: 'I don't know where Trump is right now.' The notion that a family member of someone allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant would call Trump to action over his signature issue comes amid broader questions about how the president is executing his mass deportation policy. Though from a different point of view, Tiffany Thompson's anger mirrors the anxiety rippling through Los Angeles over Trump's deportation efforts there, culminating in protests and some violent clashes and driven by the belief that the administration is indiscriminately removing noncitizens instead of targeting removal of criminals in an attempt to laud a high number of arrests. Polling shows immigration remains Trump's strongest issue, though the most recent CBS News/YouGov poll conducted last week illustrated a gap: A 55% majority said they like the goals of Trump's deportation program, while 44% said they like how 'he is going about it.' Americans narrowly said they believe Trump is prioritizing dangerous criminals (53%) versus prioritizing nondangerous people (47%) for deportation. And to the extent there is sharp division over Trump's immigration policy, it's not over efforts to deport convicted criminals. More than 80% of Americans support deporting those who have committed violent crimes, according to the Pew Research Center data from late February and early March. 'What this administration is doing is going after low-hanging fruit: collateral arrests, stripping protections,' said Beatriz Lopez, co-executive director of Immigration Hub, a national immigration policy group. Lopez derided Trump administration tactics, including stripping Temporary Protected Status from Venezuelans and agents making arrests outside immigration courthouse hearings. 'They are creating the chaos,' she added. 'They aren't going after violent criminals. They are creating undocumented people.' Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, pushed back on that characterization on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' on Monday, saying that the enforcement actions in Los Angeles last week stemmed from a criminal investigation targeting specific people as part of a larger alleged conspiracy. They were not, Homan said, a random immigration raid. 'I said from day one, Jan. 20, we will prioritize public safety threats and national security threats. However, we will enforce law, particularly — I may prioritize my family life over my work, doesn't mean I ignore my work,' Homan said. 'We're going to enforce immigration law. We've been honest about that from day one, especially in sanctuary cities. When we can't get the bad guy in the safety and security of a jail, they release them to the street. Well, we got to go to the street and find them.' Data shows that violent crimes committed by immigrants are rare when compared with the general population. 'We often will hear about a very high-profile event, and not to reduce the tragedy of it — obviously, a crime is still a crime, and it's incredibly painful when you know when people are affected by those sorts of things — but looking at numbers and statistically speaking, it's not as though a higher presence of immigrants creates a higher presence of crime,' said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, associate policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration policy think tank. 'That's been pretty proven through various studies over the years.' But as the Trump administration has pointed to arrestees as 'rapists' and 'killers,' competing narratives have stacked up with examples like a child suffering from cancer ordered to self-deport, university students targeted for removal and advocacy groups sounding alarms over violations of human rights and due process. Some Trump supporters have spoken out about the impact of a dragnet detaining those here legally. An Argentinian couple from North Carolina, who said they had backed Trump, were apoplectic after their 31-year-old son, a green-card holder in the country since he was a toddler, was arrested and detained in Georgia. 'He didn't say he was going to do this, that he was going to go after people who have been here for a long time,' the mother, Debora Rey, said of Trump in an interview with The Atlanta Journal Constitution. 'He said he was going to go after all the criminals who came illegally. ... We feel betrayed, tricked.' At the same time, noncitizens charged with violent crimes are still making headlines. Under President Joe Biden, Trump attacked such crimes as evidence of a broken system that required his election to fix. Now, he and Republicans hold up those incidents — including the recent attack in Boulder, Colorado — as evidence that deportations should be more widespread. Authorities announced they elevated their deportation efforts and lauded a record-breaking day of arrests last week. 'President Trump is working at record speed to clean up Joe Biden's Open Border Disaster that let countless unvetted illegal aliens pour into the United States and threaten the safety of American citizens,' White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a written statement. 'The President has closed the border and now he's deporting illegal aliens, especially violent criminals. The recent attack in Boulder just underscores why the President's work is so important. 'We're grateful the media is now admitting that illegal aliens pose a risk to the safety of the American people and look forward to the stories about why Joe Biden let so many violent criminals into the country in the first place,' Jackson continued. In the Larisha Thompson case, six people who do not have legal status, according to the Department of Homeland Security, were charged. They include 21-year-old Asael Aminadas Torres-Chirinos, who faces three firearms charges and, according to DHS, had previously been arrested on a domestic violence allegation. Lancaster County lawyer Doug Barfield said Chirinos' 2022 charge was still pending. He added that immigration authorities had placed detainers on all six people, which would prevent them from going free even if they posted bond. Tiffany Thompson said she 'wished they would have seen that,' referencing Chirinos' previous arrest and the fact that he was still in the country. She didn't specifically cast blame on any administration but remained angry that the suspects — including teens who were 13, 14 and 15 years old — were attempting to be released on bond. 'Would I like for Trump to get ahead of this? Yes,' she added. The pace of deportations has bothered the White House, and NBC News reported top Trump aide Stephen Miller berated and threatened to fire senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in May if they did not begin detaining 3,000 migrants a day. Miller also threatened to fire leaders of field offices posting the bottom 10% of arrest numbers monthly, NBC News reported. Yet, that's exactly the tactic that immigration experts say will do little to protect against national security. 'There's really no incentive for ICE to spend a bunch of resources investigating and tracking down people in the field. It's about convenience primarily, and public safety is a distant second,' said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian-aligned public policy think tank. 'The Laken Riley Act specifically says you should be prioritizing resources to go after people who have been arrested on violent or property offenses. So they supported that bill,' Bier said, referencing the law Trump signed in January, which requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants who are arrested or face charges, or who have been convicted of 'burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.' After signing the law, Trump said, 'That's why I'm here instead of somebody else. Actually, it's the biggest reason.' Bier said the argument after signing the law was, 'They said: 'This is going to prevent more Laken Rileys.' And then they have done nothing to implement it.' The administration and allies reject that assertion, saying they are arresting criminal noncitizens and are moving as quickly as possible to reverse the impacts of lax border policies under Biden. In March, DHS touted its success in deporting convicted criminals and those who had pending criminal charges. 'He is dealing with what Biden and Kamala Harris facilitated. ... He keeps going as fast as he can, trying to fix a million different issues,' said Nicole Kiprilov, the executive director of The American Border Story, a group that elevates 'the human stories of American citizens impacted by the border crisis.' 'These people now who are committing crimes under the Trump administration are people who were brought in by Biden,' Kiprilov said. 'They were not brought in by Trump.' Kiprilov noted that Trump has turned off the flow of illegal immigration by shutting down the southern border. In a written statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: 'Under Secretary Noem, we are delivering on President Trump's and the American people's mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens to make America safe. In the first 100 days, 75% of ICE arrests were criminal illegal aliens with convictions or pending charges. The shocking story here is that instead of deporting many heinous criminals, the Biden Administration chose to RELEASE these known public safety threats into our communities instead of deporting them.' Currently, 56% of those in ICE detention have either been convicted of a crime or have pending criminal charges, according to ICE data. The remainder do not have criminal histories. This article was originally published on
Fox News
3 hours ago
- Fox News
FBI director Kash Patel hails record drug bust; drugs seized could have killed nearly 50 million
FBI director Kash Patel praised his agents as well as those from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for taking down a major drug operation in Atlanta, resulting in the removal of 33 firearms and over 252 kilograms of drugs valued at over $9 million, from the streets. The FBI, alongside the DEA and state and local authorities executed three search warrants last Thursday, resulting in the arrest of 47-year-old Bartholomew Keeton Harralson. A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Harralson with three drug trafficking and weapon possession crimes related to the drug trafficking operation. U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said Harralson is charged with possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. If convicted, he faces at least 40 years in prison and the possibility of life behind bars. "I'm proud of the outstanding work by our agents and grateful for the strong partnership of the DEA in this joint effort," Patel said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "This was a major takedown – dozens of weapons, large quantities of fentanyl and meth, and key members of a sophisticated drug network taken off the streets. Together, we've dealt a serious blow to those profiting off addiction and reaffirmed our unwavering commitment to protecting American communities." FBI Special Agent In Charge Paul Brown said the FBI and DEA executed search warrants at three locations – one in Atlanta, one in South Fulton, and another in Douglas County. On June 5, law enforcement executed a federal search warrant at Harralson's Atlanta-area residence, and once inside, they located over 56 kilograms of fentanyl, 84 kilograms of methamphetamine, nearly 10 kilograms of heroin, and about four kilograms of cocaine, all in the form of powders and hundreds of thousands of pressed pills. Law enforcement also found nine firearms at the residence, including one that was converted to operate as a machine gun, $145,000 in cash, and a book titled, "How to Avoid Federal Drug Conspiracy & Firearms Charges." The Department of Justice said Harralson was arrested at the scene. A second search warrant was executed at Harralson's Douglasville residence, where law enforcement allegedly found two large pill press machines capable of pressing up to 25,000 pills per hour, and three hydraulic presses used to form kilogram-sized bricks of narcotics. The search also resulted in the discovery of over 37 kilograms of fentanyl, about 13 kilograms of methamphetamine, over eight kilograms of heroin and more than six kilograms of cocaine. The drugs, the DOJ alleged, were in the form of powder and hundreds of thousands of pressed pills. Additionally, law enforcement searched a machine shop behind Harralson's Douglasville residence and allegedly found about 1,375 pounds of binding agent used to press pills, 564 punch dies to mark the pills, 19 firearms, four drum-style magazines and a significant amount of ammunition. Brown told reporters that two ballistic style vests were allegedly found in one of the residences "Right now, we have an American dying every seven minutes from drug overdoses, and homicides occur twice each hour," Brown said. "Our new FBI director, Kash Patel, has given our workforce a simple mandate, crush violent crime, and this is a big step toward that end in metro Atlanta. This major operation is shut down, and it's just one example of the work the FBI and DEA agents continue to do each and every day." DEA Atlanta Acting Special Agent in Charge Jae E. Chung told reporters the operation resulted in the largest fentanyl seizure to date in the state of Georgia. The 97 kilograms of fentanyl that was seized has the potential to kill about 48 million Americans, Chung said "The DEA and our partners are working hard day in and day out to protect their communities from the dangers and violence associated with drug trafficking," he said. "DEA's priorities are to save American lives and to keep our communities safe. We will continue to leverage every partnership, every resource available to ensure the drug dealers who distribute poison, like fentanyl and other illicit drugs through our communities are brought to justice." The FBI and DEA conducted the take-down as part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that streamlines efforts and resources within the Department of Homeland Security to not just crack down on illegal immigration but also achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and protect our communities from the "perpetrators of violent crimes." Chung told reporters the large quantities of drugs discovered in the bust showed they were being provided by cartels in Mexico.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Dangerous waterslides, toxic toys: Henry Winkler digs into 'Hazardous History'
Award-winning actor Henry Winkler joins Morning Joe to discuss the new History Channel show 'Hazardous History with Henry Winkler'. The show looks at popular old toys, recreational activities and ways of life that are questionable by modern standards.
