SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
So much has happened over the past two weeks in Minneapolis ever since ICE began ramping up its presence there. There was the shooting of Renee Macklin Good. Then the protesters who were hit with tear gas and pepper spray and criticized by President Trump and Vice President Vance, and the Department of Justice sending subpoenas to state officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Operation Metro Surge, as the federal government is calling it, is the largest and most aggressive campaign yet by the Trump administration to arrest undocumented immigrants.
Today, there are widespread protests. More than 600 businesses are closing in solidarity. And given all of this, it can be really hard to get a sense of the big picture. Over the next few minutes, we are going to try and do that with two NPR reporters who have been covering all of this in Minneapolis. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf and Jasmine Garsd are on the line. Thanks to both of you for talking to me.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: Thank you for having me.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey. Thanks for having us.
DETROW: You have both filed so many stories about what is happening day in and day out. After we have this conversation, you're going to go out and cover these protests. There's so much happening. I want to start with this - what has surprised each of you since you got to Minneapolis? Jasmine, I'll start with you.
GARSD: Sure. So I've been covering these operations for the last year. I came pretty prepared for what was happening. I think I was surprised by the scope of the campaign in Minneapolis. I mean, it is not a city as big as Los Angeles, and there are at least 2,500 agents on the ground here.
DETROW: Wow.
GARSD: So the scope is really something like we haven't seen. You know, Greg Bovino from Border Patrol, he has had very frequent press conferences. You know, on Thursday, he gave a press conference in which he said that the government is here to defend Ma and Pa. And he said this over and over again, Ma and Pa. We're here to protect Ma and Pa. But what I'm seeing on the ground is that Ma and Pa are protesting.
DETROW: And Kat, what are you seeing?
LONSDORF: Yeah. I mean, I think that's a really good point that Jasmine just made about Ma and Pa. You know, it's also really cold here, so people aren't necessarily, like, out on the streets protesting. Obviously, today, they are. But, you know, they're really connected in this kind of underground way - through these Signal chats, these huge networks. You know, people are getting up early to drive teachers to school. They're getting up early to drive restaurant workers in their neighborhood to their jobs, delivering groceries, reworking all their schedules just to, like, be helping their neighbors. And, you know, I'm hearing from all these people that are doing that stuff that for them, that is their form of protest.
DETROW: Yeah. I think a big theme of the past decade is how much we all live in silos. And, Jasmine, as you reported, especially so much, Trump promised to basically do all of this, and it was popular with a lot of voters. So I'm wondering, as you're both in Minneapolis, have either of you come across anybody who is supportive of what ICE is doing?
GARSD: No. I have not. And it's hard to overstate how widespread the animosity towards this operation is. People in Minneapolis are not happy about this.
LONSDORF: Yeah. I mean, I was talking to an Uber driver the other day - who was an immigrant, by the way, came from Liberia some 30 years ago - but he was telling me that, you know, before all of this, before the election, he was pro-Trump. He said, you know, I like what he was saying. He said it straight, that kind of thing. So I asked him, you know, would you go back and vote for Trump, you know, again, if you could? And he said, no, absolutely not. He hates what's happening in the city right now.
DETROW: Kat, this is something you and I have talked a lot about with a lot of different stories. You talk to so many people, and there's conversations that stick with you weeks, months, even years later.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
DETROW: And saying - you're right in the middle of it, so maybe it's hard to say, but at this point in time, what's sticking with you?
LONSDORF: There is one woman who I really think is going to stick with me for a while. We're actually going to hear from her in another part of the show in a different piece I have. But this woman who's 27, she is a U.S. citizen. She has two young kids. They're also U.S. citizens. Her husband is undocumented and from Mexico. And I met with her in her home, and they're all together as a family not leaving their house right now. This is really common. You hear this a lot from people that you meet.
And, you know, she leaves to go to a retail job and comes back because she needs to earn money for the family, but, you know, her husband doesn't leave. Her 8-year-old son was going to school, but recently, they pulled him out, and he's online schooling right now. And she told me that her 4-year-old daughter - this is a 4-year-old who is a U.S. citizen - has not left the house since late November or early December. That's almost two months.
DETROW: Hasn't left the house.
LONSDORF: Has not left the house - not playing in the backyard, not walking the family dog. She has not left the house.
DETROW: Jasmine, your reporting this week has been really powerful and really, at times, visceral, and I'm wondering what - what's sticking with you?
GARSD: To me, what's really sticking with me is this underground network of volunteers. It is really cold here, even by Minneapolis standards. And the other day, I went to this neighborhood where there was - it was prayer at a mosque. And I stood with these volunteers who were standing in the blustering wind to protect their neighbors who wanted to pray, and their age ranges were 69 to 81. And I think the story of Minneapolis is the story of neighbors organizing to protect neighbors. And I asked one of them - I asked her, you know, why are you standing out here in the cold? Why did you choose to come out here? And she said, I don't feel like I have a choice. I feel like this is my only choice.
DETROW: You know, I want to end with this - we're trying in this conversation to get a sense of the big picture here, but we all tell the story piece by piece, story by story, and at times, some context gets lost there. I'm curious, like, Jasmine, what to you is a dynamic that you're seeing that's hard to convey in a single story that you file?
GARSD: I think the escalating nature of what is happening. It is escalating. I mean, I have been covering this from city to city for the last year, and I think, you know, it's easy to see this as, you know, these operations travel from city to city, state to state. It's always kind of the same. It's not. They are getting heavier handed. You know, we are now seeing, you know, a memo that was leaked that agents can go into people's homes without a judicial warrant. We are now seeing 2,500 agents deployed into the city. There is now talk of the Insurrection Act. And, you know, to put it more bluntly, you know, in a city not so far away from you, there are children who are hiding in their homes. And so, I mean, this isn't a static situation. This is a situation which, as a reporter who's been covering this for the last year, feels like it is devolving.
DETROW: That was NPR's Jasmine Garsd and Kat Lonsdorf. They've both been covering the ongoing federal immigration operation and backlash to it in Minnesota. Thanks to both of you.
LONSDORF: Thank you.
GARSD: Thank you.
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