David Remnick

Well, if the administration's goal was to deport undocumented immigrants from the United States, is Minneapolis a place that you would put high on the list to deploy such a force?

One of the factors seemed to be a fraud investigation.

Give us a...

straight-up summary of the reality behind the fraud investigations, which seems to be a source for the administration's hostility, especially to the Somali immigrant community.

Trump is often invoking the name of Ilhan Omar, the congresswoman, a Democrat, obviously, and trying to make her a central figure in this conflict somehow.

Just the other day,

She was attacked while speaking.

Somebody took out a syringe and squirted some unknown fluid at her, which was certainly scary in the moment.

What does Ilhan Omar have to do with this directly?

I'm speaking with staff writers Emily Witt and Ruby Kramer.

We'll continue in just a moment.

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour.

We're talking today about the overwhelming federal force in Minneapolis.

The repressive tactics, the violent results, the administration's response.

It's all been described as an immigration enforcement surge.

Surge.

That resonant military term is hardly inappropriate.

The operation, ordered up by the president and carried out by heavily armed, often undisciplined federal agents, is ostensibly an immigration operation.

But it also seems intended to intimidate an entire American city.

The spectacle, the dark reality,