Matthew Chapman
February 18, 2026
RAW STORY
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stand guard outside the Whipple Building near a U.S. flag, during a protest against the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, and a rally against increased immigration enforcement across the city, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Former Trump administration White House lawyer Ty Cobb delivered a dire warning Wednesday on MS NOW about the growing network of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities that are planned and funded — and suggested that Trump having that much detention power and resources at his disposal is horrifying.
Cobb's warning came in the middle of a discussion with anchor Ari Melber, about the possibility ICE might try to engage in election interference by stationing agents at polling places.
"What is your legal view of the limits on ICE under current law?" asked Melber, himself an attorney. "To be out in a way that might be voter intimidation in any voting period when we get to the midterms?"
"So that's an excellent question," said Cobb. "I think we're going to see the courts gradually parse through that. You know, ICE actually has no local law enforcement authority in any of the states. They're only supposed to manage the limited number of federal crimes entrusted to them, and they shouldn't be there. But it's going to take a series of court battles, I think, to prevent them from being there. And it may come down to a conflict between, you know, state National Guards and ICE absent, absent an invocation of the Insurrection Act, which I think we will see in advance of, of the election. So I think — I think people should be very, very concerned and very, very animated about what's coming."
To understand the reason for fear, Cobb continued, consider Garry Kasparov, the Russian world chess champion turned dissident of the Putin regime.
Kasparov, he said, "has been very outspoken about, you know, the gulags that are being built around the country and the fact that they're intended not only to house, you know, illegally detained immigrants, of which we have thousands now, but also likely dissidents and people of color on a going forward basis. You know, what is happening in this country."
"You don't think that's just an international parallel gone too far?" Melber pressed him. "You believe that's something that Trump would, would try to do and get away with?
"So I'll put it this way," said Cobb. "You know, Trump is deporting people on a trajectory and at a pace that's not very different from the number of deportations that happened under Obama. However, the number of illegally detained people is extraordinarily high. And he's building, you know, dozens of prisons to house up to 8,000 people. We've never needed that before. That's — that's, you know, well over 150,000 beds. Who are they for and who are they going to be for when, when detainees are gone?"
"This is, this is — this is, as Garry Kasparov says, this is not a drill," he added.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stand guard outside the Whipple Building near a U.S. flag, during a protest against the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, and a rally against increased immigration enforcement across the city, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Former Trump administration White House lawyer Ty Cobb delivered a dire warning Wednesday on MS NOW about the growing network of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities that are planned and funded — and suggested that Trump having that much detention power and resources at his disposal is horrifying.
Cobb's warning came in the middle of a discussion with anchor Ari Melber, about the possibility ICE might try to engage in election interference by stationing agents at polling places.
"What is your legal view of the limits on ICE under current law?" asked Melber, himself an attorney. "To be out in a way that might be voter intimidation in any voting period when we get to the midterms?"
"So that's an excellent question," said Cobb. "I think we're going to see the courts gradually parse through that. You know, ICE actually has no local law enforcement authority in any of the states. They're only supposed to manage the limited number of federal crimes entrusted to them, and they shouldn't be there. But it's going to take a series of court battles, I think, to prevent them from being there. And it may come down to a conflict between, you know, state National Guards and ICE absent, absent an invocation of the Insurrection Act, which I think we will see in advance of, of the election. So I think — I think people should be very, very concerned and very, very animated about what's coming."
To understand the reason for fear, Cobb continued, consider Garry Kasparov, the Russian world chess champion turned dissident of the Putin regime.
Kasparov, he said, "has been very outspoken about, you know, the gulags that are being built around the country and the fact that they're intended not only to house, you know, illegally detained immigrants, of which we have thousands now, but also likely dissidents and people of color on a going forward basis. You know, what is happening in this country."
"You don't think that's just an international parallel gone too far?" Melber pressed him. "You believe that's something that Trump would, would try to do and get away with?
"So I'll put it this way," said Cobb. "You know, Trump is deporting people on a trajectory and at a pace that's not very different from the number of deportations that happened under Obama. However, the number of illegally detained people is extraordinarily high. And he's building, you know, dozens of prisons to house up to 8,000 people. We've never needed that before. That's — that's, you know, well over 150,000 beds. Who are they for and who are they going to be for when, when detainees are gone?"
"This is, this is — this is, as Garry Kasparov says, this is not a drill," he added.
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