On March 25, Tufts PhD student and visa holder Rumeysa Ozturk was arrested by plainclothes officers and moved into an unmarked van before being sent to a deportation processing facility in Louisiana. Ozturk's congressional representative, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat, joined 'Velshi' to demand her release. Aired March 29, 2025.
Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist at Columbia and legal green card holder, was detained by ICE with no criminal charges read to him and sent to an ICE processing facility in Louisiana. On April 4th Khalil penned an op-ed from ICE detainment. His attorney Baher Azmy joins Velshi to discuss his case. Aired April 5, 2025.
Donald Trump's administration has targeted the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of Education and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for big budget cuts and potential dissolvement. Barack Obama's Secretary of Education Arne Duncan joins to discuss the Dept. of Education's functions and what happens to schoolchildren if the Dept. were to shutter. Aired February 9th.
In his first week in office, Donald Trump removed protections that prohibit immigration authorities from conducting arrests or questioning in "sensitive locations" like schools and churches. President of the American Federation for Teachers joined Velshi to discuss how that could impact children's education and how teachers are preparing for bracing with ICE on campus. Aired February 2nd, 2025.
Introduction and interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates over his new book, The Message. Coates discusses his experiences visiting the Middle East, Africa and South Carolina. Each place reinforces in Coates the power of storytelling, and the responsibility of writers to plainly identify and contextualize systems of injustice wherever they appear.
Part of Velshi's franchise segment Believe Him the First Time in which we examined Trump's policies in his first term to understand what a second term was like. A timeline of the family separation policy including an interview with journalist Jacob Soboroff and filmmaker Errol Morris on their film on the topic, "Separated." Aired Oct. 13, 2024.
Interview with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) on tensions between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Aired Jan. 21, 2024.
MSNBC rolling coverage of Israel-Hamas War. An explainer on the conditions of the West Bank, and an interview with Sari Bashi, a writer and Jewish West Bank resident who is married to a Muslim man. Sari spoke on the differing treatment between Jews & Muslims in the West Bank, including the different streets each are allowed to use and the checkpoints she is allowed through that her husband is not. Aired Oct. 15, 2023