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Fresh Air

Are ICE Agents In Minneapolis Breaking The Law?

21 Jan 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What are the legal implications of ICE operations in Minneapolis?

1.803 - 22.866 Unknown

NPR's podcast Trump's Terms is your source for same-day updates on big news about the Trump administration. Short, focused episodes, one topic at a time, about five minutes or so. We carry out reporting from across all of NPR's coverage, so you are always getting the biggest, most urgent stories. Listen to Trump's Terms on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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23.74 - 24.822 Terry Gross

This is Fresh Air.

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Chapter 2: How does the Insurrection Act relate to current events in Minneapolis?

24.962 - 47.916 Terry Gross

I'm Terry Gross. President Donald Trump has said he would institute the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis if the people he describes as professional agitators and insurrectionists continue attacking the patriots of ICE. There are now about 3,000 Department of Homeland Security agents, which includes ICE and Customs and Border Patrol, the CBP, in the Minneapolis-St.

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47.936 - 55.185 Terry Gross

Paul region, to search for and deport immigrants here illegally. What does this say about President Trump and his administration?

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Chapter 3: What concerns do experts have about the militarization of law enforcement?

55.626 - 74.526 Terry Gross

How is this playing out in the courts? What does it mean for the First and Fourth Amendment rights of Americans to peacefully protest and express their opinions, and for our democracy? I have two guests who have been looking at these issues. Emmanuel Malion is a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. He lives in the Twin Cities.

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Chapter 4: How has ICE's presence affected local communities in Minneapolis?

74.947 - 96.475 Terry Gross

He writes about the roles that police and other state security actors play in producing social, political and legal regimes of domination and subordination. He's a former fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, where he focused on white nationalist domestic terrorism, hate crime policy, and police access to surveillance technology and military weapons.

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96.455 - 108.354 Terry Gross

Elizabeth Goytin is Senior Director of Liberty and National Security at the Brennan Center for Justice. She is an expert on presidential emergency powers, government surveillance, and government secrecy.

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Chapter 5: What rights do individuals have when interacting with ICE agents?

108.934 - 128.581 Terry Gross

She's testified before Senate and House Judiciary Committees several times. We recorded our interview yesterday morning before it was confirmed that subpoenas were issued to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, the state's Attorney General Keith Ellison, as well as the mayor of St. Paul and the Hennepin County attorney.

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129.242 - 144.262 Terry Gross

The subpoenas are reportedly part of a Justice Department probe into whether state officials were conspiring to impede federal immigration law enforcement operations. Elizabeth Goytin, Emmanuel Malion, welcome to Fresh Air.

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Chapter 6: How is racial profiling being addressed in the context of immigration enforcement?

144.782 - 163.114 Terry Gross

I want to start with an overview, asking each of you to just like run through a list of some of the things that President Trump and his administration are doing that you find most confounding or legally out of bounds.

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163.87 - 187.667 Emmanuel Malion

So as a scholar that studies primarily policing, criminal procedure, the rights that we have secured against the government in that realm, I'm certainly very concerned about violations of the Fourth Amendment, that's unreasonable searches and seizures, warrantless searches and seizures, certainly some Fifth Amendment due process violations of

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187.647 - 210.048 Emmanuel Malion

Invocations of the right to silence, violations of Miranda, certainly we've seen in the last month or so violations of access to counsel, for example. All of these things are fundamental rights which ensure the fairness and justice to the extent that they can of people's interactions with the criminal legal process and some civil legal processes.

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210.588 - 217.114 Emmanuel Malion

And to the extent that these are violated, it essentially robs individuals of the ability to have their fair day in court.

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Chapter 7: What are the historical roots of white nationalism in U.S. immigration policy?

218.242 - 245.869 Elizabeth Goitein

One of the things that concerns me the most is the way in which this administration is using the apparatus of the federal government to go after perceived political enemies. I'm thinking about, you know, canceling grants to states and to institutions, bringing prosecutions against those who the president perceives have wronged him based on flimsy charges, deploying the military.

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245.849 - 272.778 Elizabeth Goitein

in cities and states that are led by people who, again, the president perceives as his political enemies. That kind of deploying the federal government against political enemies is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes, and it has major implications for basic First Amendment rights and for the functioning of our democracy. Another thing that I'm quite worried about is the militarization of U.S.

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Chapter 8: What potential consequences could arise from invoking the Insurrection Act?

272.838 - 297.523 Elizabeth Goitein

cities. In the last nine presidencies, not including the first Trump presidency, presidents deployed the military to quell civil unrest or to enforce the law twice. President Trump has either deployed the military, attempted to deploy the military or requested deployment seven times in his first year in office. He is violating

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297.503 - 314.337 Elizabeth Goitein

a longstanding legal principle against using the military as a domestic police force. And that principle is a critical safeguard for democracy and individual liberties. So those are some of the things that I'm most concerned about. Well, you both have pretty long lists.

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315.178 - 333.889 Terry Gross

So let's start with ICE and what's happening in Minnesota. And Emmanuel, I'm going to ask you, you were born in Mexico. And I am wondering if you've been stopped by ICE and if anyone in your family has come in direct contact with ICE.

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334.477 - 353.481 Emmanuel Malion

No, I have not been stopped by ICE, certainly not yet, but it is an ever-present concern, I would say. And so I do live in Minneapolis now. I grew up in the city, so I'm returning after about 20 years away with my recent position at the University of Minnesota.

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353.461 - 378.692 Emmanuel Malion

My interest in policing, and in particular in the questions of race and policing, have stemmed from past experiences with police that have involved very explicit racial stereotyping, targeting, explicit epithets, being arrested without a basis, being threatened with deportation despite the fact that I was a citizen. And so that's all personal background that animates my work.

378.672 - 384.321 Emmanuel Malion

professional interest, but certainly in this moment, the line between the two is bleeding quite quickly.

384.782 - 386.525 Terry Gross

When were you threatened with deportation?

387.226 - 403.954 Emmanuel Malion

I'd say about 20 years ago, I was arrested and charged with a crime that I did not commit. But while I was in jail here in Hennepin County, I was brought at some point in time to a room that was very quickly apparent to me was all Latinos. And

403.934 - 420.637 Emmanuel Malion

I got the inkling that something was going to happen, and I had this strange interaction, you know, with a well-meaning, I think, government attorney who was speaking broken Spanish to me as I was responding in English as I am speaking on the radio today, telling me that because I was born in Mexico, I was at risk of deportation.

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