Transcript of Minneapolis Protests, Immigration Enforcement Shootings, Running Venezuela

Protests extended into a second day in Minneapolis after an ICE agent shot and killed a balloon.

The federal government has taken over the investigation, leaving state officials shut out.

I'm Steve Inskeep with A. Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News. A former acting director of ICE says immigration agents are pursuing different strategies than in the past.

Tasking the agents with being the front line on the crowd control. You're creating a toxic stew there.

Is there some connection between the tactics and the number of shootings in the past year?

Also today, oil executives meet with President Trump after he said the US would run Venezuela much longer than expected. What This is the end game? Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start today.

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This week on Consider This, the deadly ICE shootings in Minneapolis. That city's police chief told us he was already concerned with how federal agents were doing their jobs. Truly, the manner how this enforcement action is being conducted. An immigration crackdown gone wrong on Consider This. Listen every weekday afternoon on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Two incidents this week call attention to shootings by federal immigration authorities.

One was in Portland, Oregon. We have very limited information so far. The Department of Homeland Security says agents shot two people during a traffic stop and that the two people drove away. Dhs issued a statement casting all blame on the people who were shot. That is what the Homeland Security Secretary also did after a shooting in Minneapolis that was caught on video. People in Minneapolis want immigration agents out of their city after an ICE officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good on Wednesday.

Npr's Meg Anderson is in Minneapolis. Meg, you're at the protest we just heard from last night. So what's the mood they're like?

Yeah, it's been somber here and mostly peaceful but defiant. At the march last night, the weather was awful. A freezing rain was coming down. A lot of the sidewalks were covered in a sheet of ice, and there were still hundreds of people there. Community members were chanting, holding signs with messages like, ice melts under resistance. I saw one in Spanish saying, We scream for those who can't. Most of the protesters I spoke with told me the shooting on Wednesday made them more angry than afraid. People like Kaitlyn English, she lives in the Twin Cities. It's been sad, but it's also been uplifting because we understand what's right and what's wrong. Seeing community come together for this cause and uplift with other places to be inspired. It's amazing. She told me she stood on this same street five years ago, protesting the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, and says she felt the same way back then.

Okay. Now, what can you tell us about the shooting itself?

Well, There's been two big developments in the last day. The first is that NPR has confirmed the identity of the ICE agent who killed Good as Jonathan Ross. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security have said that he is an experienced officer, not a recent hire. The second development is that the FBI took over the investigation, and state authorities say they do not have access anymore to evidence in the shooting. That means that the federal government is the only entity looking into a shooting committed by an agent of the federal government. Yesterday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walsh questioned whether that investigation would be fair.

Do you know if federal officials have spoken much about the victim, Renee Good?

Yeah. A witness told NPR that they thought she was a legal observer her, and federal authorities have used that to label her as an extremist. Here's how vice President J. D. Vance described her. That woman is part of a broader left-wing network to attack, to dox, to assault, and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job. But that is just not how her family and friends have spoken about her.

Tell us how they've been describing her.

Well, a reporter from the Minnesota Star Tribune spoke with Good's mother. She described her as the kindest person she's ever known, said she was not involved in any anti-government activity. Good was the mother of three kids. The youngest is about six years old. We know she had a home repair business with her wife in Kansas City. We also found what appears to be her Pinterest page. That page, to put it simply, is filled with the things of a normal human life. Ideas for recipes and haircuts, plans for a garden, and tips on parenting, like how to soothe a child's anxiety and fun things to do with them in the summer.

All right, that's NPR's Meg Anderson. Meg, thank you.

You're welcome.

After border, agent shot two people in Portland, Oregon. City officials there called it a pattern of violence.

How much of a pattern is there? It can be hard to judge by one or two news events like we've had this week. Certain incidents get a lot of attention, others do not. In this story, we will take a wider view.

Let's go to NPR's Sergio Martínez Beltrán. Sergio, you've covered shootings by immigration authorities before. How often do they happen?

It seems like they're becoming more frequent. According to The Trace, which is a nonprofit news organization that focuses on gun violence, there have been at least 14 shootings in ICE rates since Trump took office last year. Now, NPR has an independent recently confirmed all of these incidents, but we've reported on some of them. The Trump administration has definitely ramped up its immigration crackdowns in a big way. We heard Vice President J. D. Vans yesterday say immigration agents in Minneapolis were going door to door to find undocumented immigrants, which is unusual. Usually, ICE operations are targeted, and these shootings could be a terrible side effect of this approach.

Tell us more about these shootings by Homeland Security Officers.

Last year in Chicago, a Mexican immigrant was killed after attempting to drive away from immigration agents. Also in Chicago last year, border patrol agents fired at a woman while she was still in her car injuring her. So what happened in Minneapolis this week is something we've been seeing since President Trump launched his immigration enforcement operation. That's according to Dupinder Mayal, the executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota.

This is really part of a broader pattern of misconduct. The Trump administration has essentially emboldened federal forces to act with impunity.

That misconduct can be seen on the way ICE is arresting people, Mayal says. Others tell me it's palpable in the way agents deal with protesters.

So on that, I mean, are ICE agents prepared? Do they know how to handle how to engage with protesters.

Crowd control is not the role of ICE agents. In fact, they are not trained to do it. That's what John Sandwick tells me. He served as ICE's acting director during the Obama administration.

The way in which this administration is deploying the agents, the way in which, especially with tasking the agents with being the frontline on the crowd control, you're creating a toxic stew there.

Sandwick tells me that ICE has made millions of arrests in nearly two decades, but this uptake in shootings is new.

It's a direct byproduct of this shift in tactics that we saw really beginning in March, where the administration started promoting and the surges of agents for these very flashy high-profile operations in cities.

This is an at end point A, because people in law enforcement, I've talked to say that publicizing in advanced operations like the ones in Minnesota makes things dangerous for both the ICE agents and the public. And that's where we are right now.

The administration, though, seems to be doubling down on this.

Right. They're fiercely defending the agent who shot good. Vice President Vance yesterday downplayed the circumstances of the shooting, saying, What you see is what you get in this case. Vance said the agent did it in self-defense. He also blamed good for the shooting and even news organizations. But none of this seems to be stopping the administration's goal of arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants. Dhs Secretary Christie Noem has said her agency will continue carrying out enforcement operations across Minneapolis and the country.

All right, that's NPR's Sergio Martínez Beltrán. Thanks a lot.

You're welcome.

Executives from United States oil companies We'll meet at the White House today to talk about the future of Venezuela.

The Trump administration ousted Venezuelan President Nicolaus Maduro this past week. In an interview with the New York Times, President Trump seemed to say the United States could be running Venezuela, giving orders there for years to come. So what would that look like?

Npr's Daniel Kurt Slaven is here to update us on this. So, Danielle, tell us about the details we know.

Well, the overarching answer there is that there's just a lot we don't know. For example, we don't know what cooperation between the US and Venezuela's interim President, Delce Rodriguez, even looks like right now. But now we know that the US could be there for some time. Here's the exchange between Trump and Times reporters as posted on the Times website.

How long do you think you'll Are you running Venezuela?

Only time will tell.

Like three months, six months, a year, longer?

I would say much longer than- Much longer. We have to rebuild. You have to rebuild the country, and we will rebuild it in a very profitable way.

On that note, the administration said this week that the US will take 30 to 50 million barrels of oil, sell it, and oversee the money. Press Secretary Caroline Levet also said that the money will be dispersed, For the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people. But again, we don't know what that looks like. However, today, Trump will meet with oil company execs to talk about all of that.

What else have they said about the Venezuelan oil?

Well, Rubio has laid out three main phases to what comes next. That's Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. First is to stabilize Venezuela. Second, he said, is recovery, which involves opening access to the Venezuelan market. But also, he said that would involve reconciliation and rebuilding civil society. Third, he said, be transition. But once again, there's a lot we don't know about that. For example, when he talks about civil society, is that nation building and how involved is that? And there's one more thing left open-ended here. When the Times asked Trump what would prompt him to send ground troops into the country, he said he didn't want to answer that to a reporter. So Trump is leaving the possibility open for boots on the ground, though none are there right now. Now, we did get more information overnight also. Trump posted that since cooperation is going well, he has canceled a second wave of attacks on the country, but that US ships would stay nearby.

And so here's something else, too, because Trump has also threatened Venezuela's neighbor to the south, Colombia. And in the middle of that interview with the Times, he stopped to take a call from the President of Columbia, Gustavo Petro. So what's happening between the US and Columbia?

Well, that call was off the record, so the Times didn't report what was said. But afterward, Trump posted on social media that it was an honor to talk to Petro. He said they talked about their disagreements and that Trump looks forward to meeting in the near future. But that turnabout with Columbia really underscores that Trump's foreign policy worldview is that he can do what he wants. The Times asked, Are there any limits on your foreign policy powers? And he said, Yeah, there is one thing, my own morality, my own mind. It's the only thing that can stop me. Now, all of this is maybe not surprising, but still stunning. I mean, Trump is a staunch unilateralist, but not only that, he's for whom foreign policy can be personal and potentially affected by a phone call.

All right, that's NPR's Daniel Kurtzlaven. Thank you very much, Danielle.

Of course.

That's a first for Friday January ninth, Emi Martinez.

I'm Steve Inskeep. Fear of civil unrest is driving a new group of people to the gun ridge. What I'm talking about is protecting myself from a situation where there may be some chaotic civil unrest and the streets become something we don't recognize. This weekend on the Sunday story, NPR's Frank Langefit explains what's driving more liberals, people of color, and LGBTQ folks to exercise their right to own guns. Listen to the Sunday Story right here on NPR's Up First podcast.

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This week on the NPR politics podcast, barely more than a week into the new year, there's plenty to break down and try to understand. In Venezuela and beyond, questions about the changing role of America on the world stage, and in Minnesota, a deadly ICE shooting. Follow us each day for facts, perspective, and analysis on the NPR politics podcast. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get podcasts. On NPR's Wild Card podcast, heavyweight host Jonathan Goldstein talks about his early years as a writer.

I was writing and no one was buying what I was selling. I just couldn't get anywhere.

And I just kept doing it because I felt compelled to do it like a spider spinning a web.

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