Special Report: Surveillance and snatch squads in Trump's new America

27:31Ordinary people watching the police officers to stop them from doing harm. It is an inversion of the proper political order. Again, it is not supposed to happen in democracies, but then the list of things that are not supposed to happen in democracies happening in America right now is long. So we're in a cab on our way, actually, to meet with some local politicians. And we just noticed, and again, it just adds to this sense that this is such a kinetic, such a moving story where the intensity is just ramping up and up and up. Just notice the Minnesota Star Tribune, which is the state paper, tweeting out that the Minnesota National Guard is being mobilised and will be staging to support local law enforcement and emergency management services and the personnel, the National Guard, being called up for at least 72 hours as of last night.

28:18And that is just representative of how this battle, which is seemingly about ICE and immigration, is actually about so much more. Basically what you're seeing is the state government, led by the Democratic governor, Tim Walts, and the federal government, led by obviously Donald Trump, being set up for a huge clash, which is manifesting itself politically, it's manifesting itself militarily, it's manifesting itself legally, and you are quite literally seeing the state government, in effect, calling up its own people in opposition to the federal government's own police, military force, whatever you want to call them.

29:00You know, there's a word for that. And it's usually complete democratic breakdown. That's what it feels like. That's what it feels like. It feels like you are seeing the breakdown of a constitutional order. And it's very, very hard to see how that resolves because it feels as if one side has got to win over the other. I'm Zayna Mohammed. I'm a state senator in South Minneapolis, the district right across, and this is Doran Clark. I'm Doran Clark, the proud senator of right here, Cedar Riverside in Minneapolis. Do you have any sense, do you know as elected local leaders, Do you know, is there any transparency at all about how ICE select their targets, about how they choose who they're going to raid, where they're going to raid, the manner in which they're going to do it?

29:47Is there any transparency about their rationale and methodology? They have not told us what they're doing, but we know what we're seeing. We know that we're seeing people just get pulled off from a bus stop because they are black or brown. We know that they are stopping in front of the supermercado Latino, grabbing two people, running around the corner, checking their idea and dumping them out. And is it targeted? Yes, it's targeted based on, well, whatever is in the eye of this is what I think a citizen should look like. But they've not had any transparency about how they come to those decisions.

30:16Well, in a normal government, the federal government lets the local government know, hey, we're coming to enforce immigration laws. Here's the duration of the time we're going to be here. And sometimes they'll even tell them who they're targeting. That's ISIS been operating in this state for decades. And nobody said anything because they're going to do what they need to do and follow the rule of law. That's not what's happening here. It is odd that the local government does not know what's happening, what they're trying to do here. Me, as a state senator, I don't know what to communicate to my constituents because I don't know what, I'm not aware of what the federal government is doing.

30:47I don't know what ICE is doing here besides targeting any and everybody. And so there's a lack of communication, there's a lack of cooperation when it comes to working with the local government here. We heard just yesterday while we're here that he's using the Department of Justice to go after Tim Walz and going after the mayor of Minneapolis for, Well, it wasn't entirely clear what they'd done, but I mean, you know, he's basically saying that they're impeding ISIS work and so on. I mean, this is a war against this state, isn't it? It really is a war against the state. It's the full strength of the federal government finding every which way to go.

31:17All right. We don't know if there's anything here, but we're going to show up. We just saw that a toy store in St. Paul yesterday that has filed suit against the federal government has been served with a from the Department of Homeland Security. They got to show all their HR files. it's clear retaliation. And the government, Trump's government, is doing this to the whole state of Minnesota. They're picking on the little guy, the little toy store on Grand Avenue. And that's just part of what Trump does. He punches down because I don't know what he's scared of, but he's scared. The Trump administration, of course, has a very different diagnosis for why they've targeted Minneapolis.

31:53Because of a few very far left agitators, a lot of these guys are unable to do their jobs without being harassed, without being doxed, and sometimes without being insulted. That's totally unacceptable. I don't want them in our country, I'll be honest with you. Somebody would say, oh, that's not politically correct. I don't care. I don't want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don't want them in our country. I could say that about other countries too. If you understand this in context, this is the inevitable consequence of a state and local government that have decided that they're not going to cooperate with immigration enforcement at all.

32:29In fact, they're going to aggressively not cooperate. But I would ask that the governor stops inciting the harassment and illegal obstruction of law enforcement in his state. All ICE and federal law enforcement are trying to do are remove people like this off of the streets of Governor Walz's city in Minneapolis and of his state in Minnesota. If you look at some of the individuals in this photo, these are all illegal alien criminals who came into our country under the previous administration. This is some of the most disturbing crimes you will ever read about. And there's only a few reporters in this room who will actually talk about these individuals.

33:05This is all ICE is trying to do. We could go one way or the other, and we're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. That last point is just a flat-out lie. What's happening with ICE in the Twin Cities isn't really about immigration at all. It's about how far the American state can go, have become a live fire test of federal authority. How many agents you can flood into a liberal city, how aggressively you can operate, how much force you can use, and how little local consent you need to do it. For Trump and MAGA, this is a proving ground. If Washington can impose itself here in a democratic stronghold, with hostile local leaders and sceptical courts.

33:48It can do it anywhere. So this isn't border control. It's better to think about it as a rehearsal for a much more centralised, coercive presidency, one that treats internal dissent the way it once treated illegal crossings. And that feeling of a new authoritarianism is certainly something ordinary Americans are grappling with. Back to that conversation with Ashley. In my opinion, and I think this is a pretty generally shared opinion, I do think that it's an attempt to see how far the militarization of our police force can go. And I think they are trying to normalize this level of state violence because if they can get us to just accept that this is our new reality, then we start looking the other way when they start pushing authoritarianism further and further.

34:33I also think they want to measure what community pushback would be against these tactics. But ultimately, it's all part of a strategy that's not really about immigration. it's genuinely I think about about authoritarianism do you think this is about the midterms some people think it's about the midterms and about you know that you could use ice at some point to just disrupt that process do you think that's likely I do believe so I think if you had asked me a couple months ago if I thought that they would use ice to try and disrupt the elections then I might have felt a little conspiratorial to me me too right but I mean after the last week or so seeing how things have escalated I would absolutely say that yeah it feels like there is an attempt with not just the Trump administration with ICE, but also with supporters who are violent far-right folks who want to instigate violence.

35:17They want Trump to use the Insurrection Act to declare martial law here. And that in and of itself would give an excuse to cancel elections, which I think is part of the tactic. And I don't think I'm saying anything crazy anymore. I think a lot of us are really starting to see that as a possibility. There is, though, another part to this story. This is a tale about Republican radicalization, but it's a story about democratic radicalisation too, or at the very least, democratic party failure. Overnight, Minneapolis on fire. Protesters leaving an auto parts store in flames. Others seen looting a local target.

35:55Tonight was a different night of protesting. All of it after demonstrators approached one of the city's police precincts. We're about to lose the front of the precinct if we don't move this crowd out of the front. Officers in riot gear tried to maintain order. They've gathered hours before. Furious at the death of 46-year-old George Floyd. The first time we are seeing the moments leading up to the arrest of George Floyd. Newly released videos from the body cameras worn by two former Minneapolis officers are shedding new light into the death that set off protests around the world. Tonight, a judge ordering that release of two body camera videos from George Floyd's arrest and death.

36:34Let me see your other hand. Please, put both hands. Do nothing. Before the rain started tonight, thousands of people marched in Minneapolis to protest the death of George Floyd. Protesters were also in Minneapolis looking to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry to defund the police department. Special report. Here's Lester Holt. Good day. We're coming on the air to bring you breaking news. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is about to be sentenced for the May 2020 murder of George Floyd. Floyd was arrested on suspicion of... Mr Chauvin, as to count one, based on the verdict of the jury, finding you guilty of unintentional second-degree murder while committing a felony under Minnesota Statute 609.19 Subdivision 2.

37:17After a two-year investigation, the Justice Department concludes the Minneapolis Police Department has systemic problems that led to the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Two things happened in the Biden years that made what Trump is doing now possible. First, the border really did spin out of control, and that handed Trump the perfect issue to run on, state failure. Second, in the wake of George Floyd, parts of liberal America drifted into a politics that frankly sometimes sounded like it cared more about theory than order. Talk of defunding the police, slogans like no one is illegal, a language that felt to many voters like the state had lost its nerve and its head.

37:56The result was a lethal perception. The government was soft on disorder, but hard on ordinary people. And once that belief takes hold, you just create the political oxygen for exactly the kind of coercive, centralised authority Trump is now unleashing. And even liberalism's most ardent advocates appear to be recognising it. This is Bernie Sanders. You've asked a lot of very important questions, good questions. Let's start off with the basic. so long as we have nation states, right, which we have, you've got to have borders, right? Right. If you don't have any borders, then you don't have a nation, right, in a sense.

38:35So has historically the United States done well under Democrats and Republicans in protecting the border? The answer is no. Trump did a better job. I don't like Trump, you know, but we should have a secure border, and it ain't that hard to do. Biden didn't do it. Those before him did not do it. We should have a secure border. period. I think most people in the Congress agree with that. But then the radicalization on the right is galloping without constraints. And there's another ingredient here, race and the way the right has turned one community into a symbol of something dark. Their country stinks.

39:12And we don't want them in our country. I can say that about other countries too. I can say it about other countries too. We don't want them to help. We got to, we have to rebuild our country. You You know, our country's at a tipping point. We could go bad. We're at a tipping point. I don't know if people mind me saying that, but I'm saying that we could go one way or the other and we're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. MAGA is obsessed with a corruption scandal which was centred in Minneapolis and in the Somali community. And it was bad. Hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps more unaccounted for.

39:47Lost to fraud in a kids' food voucher programme in the COVID era. As I say, it was dominated by Somalian-Americans with over 90 now heading to prison. But it is being extrapolated in a way in which we are perhaps all too familiar. So this is Sita Riverside, which is a neighborhood in South Minneapolis. It is the largest Somali community neighborhood in the country. Probably outside of Somalia, there are like at least, how many people would you say live here? Six, seven thousand. Six, seven thousand. In the buildings right behind you. So like this building right over here is building C, that's building F.

40:25So these are big tower blocks. So the area is sort of synonymous with American Somalis? Yeah, would you say that? For now, but it's been synonymous with American immigrants for 160 years. This is the part of Minneapolis and Minnesota where immigrants first come, get settled, and then go throughout Minnesota. So this has been a home for immigrants as long as Minnesota has been around. Why do you think it is that everyone from Trump down in the sort of MAGA ecosystem, why are they so obsessed in particular with Somalians and Somalian Americans? Because they could pick up on other groups, right? There could be other minorities, whether it's racial or whatever it happens to be.

41:11But, you know, Trump has described people who are living here as garbage. I mean, he's been that explicit. Yes. Why is he and they, are they so obsessed? Scapegoating is when your policies are failing, you blame somebody else. And that's what he's doing. He's trying to blame somebody and punch down. You know, the economy's not doing as well as he claims it is. He's big and pompous and not going his way. Gas prices haven't dropped. He did not stop the war in Ukraine on day one, like he said. So let's distract. And part of his policy, though, isn't just the distract. it's to try to make America look like what he wants it.

41:47And it seems to be that he doesn't want any Somali folks here. Well, guess what? Minnesota does want Somali folks here. They bring up the fraud and the fraud cases which took place. If it was really about fraud, they would have sent 3 ,000 auditors. They sent in over 3 ,000 troops. Well, think about it. In Minneapolis, we've got about 600 cops. In St. Paul, they've got about 500 cops. There are more ICE and Customs Border Patrol folks here than we have police officers. Why is that? They are not here for fraud. They're here to scare and terrorize and try and push us over the edge. And it's also important to know when it comes to the issue of fraud, Somali people reject it.

42:23They don't accept fraud. They don't find it OK. It's less than 70 people who are Somali people who were convicted and who are all going to be serving time as they should. And the community has praised the government for doing that. It's also important to know that fraud is happening across the country in almost every local government. There was just a fraud case in New York City in June where there was over$10 billion in Medicaid fraud committed by a group of Russian people. We're not telling Russian people to get out of here because it's not indicative of the entire community. It is few bad people.

42:50And when somebody commits fraud, we call them criminals. We don't call the entire community fraudsters. That's unacceptable. What is also happening is, you know, this community, there's less than 80 ,000 Somalis in the state of Minnesota, less than 200 ,000 people across the country. We are a fraction of the population. And in America, you also have seen what this federal government has been doing when it comes to ICE agents. They just employed over 12 ,000 new agents. They had also made the requirements to become an ICE agent from a requirement of, I think, six months to 48 days. And the cost of this relentless othering of American Somalians is there for all to see.

43:28We spent an hour or two with some young Somali-Americans on the streets of Cedar Riverside. Hi, everyone. My name is Kosar. I'm a part of the East Cedar Riverside Protection Alliance, part of the founding members of this group, whose really core purpose has been to create some level of normalcy for a community that's been under attack, both nationally and globally. And so we're really in the space of really ensuring that there's emergency response, prevention and mitigation as we really feel the full weight of harm that is being inflicted upon this community. So we are literally now on patrol, that's the phrase you use, on patrol through Cedar Riverside.

44:08So just explain to people, what is the point of being on patrol? Why are you doing it? You're all wearing these high-vis jackets, we can see there's loads more people on virtually every street corner around here. What's the point of it? Yeah, so a few of us folks, most of us folks have actually grown up in the neighbourhood our whole lives, and I feel like this is a time for us younger folks to really take charge and protect our elderly folks that are more at risk. So we are on patrol protecting all the thousands and thousands of people that live in these colourful buildings and we're doing it because we've grown up here and lived here our whole lives.

44:39When you say protect and being on patrol, what practically are you doing? Honestly, just making sure that no one abducts and kidnaps our community members, no one takes advantage, especially from a media standpoint and making sure that our community is protected as we're observing what is going on. So I mean you said it so casually there but you're on patrol to prevent people in your community being kidnapped or being taken away. Yes exactly. Practically speaking what does that mean? So you see ice appear and what happens? What do you do? So as observers we see ice appear and as you can see we are all in these vests as community and we just make sure that one we are protecting our rights in this neighborhood as citizens of America and as people that were born here in America.

45:23It's like a deterrent. It's supposed to be a deterrent effect to us. Exactly, yes. Because they know they're being watched. Yes, exactly. And the more people are outside and the more people that are aware of them, the easier the neighborhood feels safe. It's actually mad to sort of just be here, standing here and seeing, I mean, you are literally on every street corner. Yeah. And you're just waiting for some federal officers to appear out of a car and you're just there to make sure that they're being watched. I mean, it feels mad. It's like militarizing or sort of patrolling your own neighborhood.

45:54Yeah, I think it is mad that they're putting us in this position to be out here. But it is also, we are making sure that they're aware that we're not intimidated at all. And we're here to protect our people. And when I say our people, it's everyone. The Native American community, the Mexican Hispanic community, Somali community. We are all vital to this state. When you hear the President of the United States say that Somalians are garbage, what does that do to you? What do you think? I think it makes me feel sad and it also makes me infuriated because me personally, I'm a veteran. I served this country and I'm Somali-American.

46:34You were in the army? Yeah, I was in the army. I was in the National Guard for this state. So for someone to tell me that I'm garbage when I served this country, it's like we know the agenda. It's not about Somalis. It's about him trying to push this narrative of white supremacy. Because this is not about who's American or not. This is about a certain group of people that is trying to push a narrative towards Somalis when we're all diversified. We have people that are lawyers. We have people that are attorneys. We have people that are nurses. We all are very vital to this community. and for him to just single out and have this hasty generalization towards us shows you a lot about his education and how smart he is.

47:14But he's your president. I mean, he's your head of state. He's your president. He's your equivalent of our king. You know, he's supposed to represent the country. I mean, that is literally the motto of this country, right? Out of many one, the pluribus unum. And yet he's calling you garbage. We as Americans believe in and understand that we have a constitution. States also have their own state rights. and we still believe in we the people, right? We the people means everybody is vital to this nation and this nation building. And so if that looks like we have to re-engineer this and effectively ensure that we strengthen this democracy together from the ground up, we're ready to do that.

47:51And we're going to continue to do that. So regardless of Somalis being garbage, we're here, we're willing to stay, we're going to continue staying and we're going to continue building this nation just like everyone else has historically, those who've been before us. See, the police have just pulled up here. That's the chief of police. That's the chief of police. That's the chief of police. That's the chief of police. So three things really strike me. Stood here in Cedar Riverside, this really diverse Somali-American area of Minneapolis on this street. It is genuine, number one, it is genuinely surreal and weird and bizarre to see basically like the quasi-militarization of the local population.

48:29I mean, they are talking about being on patrol. they are talking about being out protecting people. People are becoming part of a sort of civilian police force, right? Standing on every single street corner, young people, old people, teenagers, mums, nans and grandnads, you know, just standing outside and just keeping an eye because they're that afraid that the federal government will come along and snatch somebody. It is also true to say, and the thing that really strikes you being here is how weary and exhausted people are by it. And who can blame them? It is a weird thing to live with, a bizarre thing to live with.

49:05And yet thirdly, what flows from that as well, is there is undoubtedly a complete galvanisation of people and a really weird hopefulness to it all. I mean, that's the weird thing. There is this exhaustion and there is this weariness. And yet, and maybe this is just really American, there is a genuine sense of togetherness and optimism that it can be defeated. and that is the weird kind of triple truths or duality to all of this thing which is that I suppose as in politics as always is the case there is an equal and opposite reaction to things so as dark as it feels and it does feel dark it doesn't feel pessimistic

49:56The News Agents Look, if you're sat there thinking, this is awful, but this is American, it doesn't have anything to do with me, well think again. Because remember that when America sneezes, Britain catches a cold. Breaking tonight, the Tory party is promising a brand new illegal migrant removals force that would mimic the aggressive ICE deportation team. We're going to need to hire people. We're going to need to make sure that we staff up such a removal force, but it can be done. It's all pretty Trumpian, isn't it? Isn't this a plan that Donald Trump would love? I wouldn't be surprised if he loved it.

50:32A new force to remove 150 ,000 people a year with no right to be here. Trump, whatever you think of President Trump, he has cut illegal border crossings by 97%. They said that it couldn't be done. He has done it. How? Because ICE has gone out and made 150 ,000 arrests and embarked on these deportations. It's just about the political will. ICE type raids? We will use whatever technologies and whatever methods are required in order to track people down. Anyone who is in the UK illegally or any foreign criminal, so somebody who's a citizen of another country and then commits a crime... Sure, but why invoke ICE?

51:08...and that is a completely reasonable position. But why invoke ICE? Two of our main political parties in the UK are actually committed, funnily enough, to the creation of ICE, a version of ICE in the UK to remove illegal immigrants in Britain. Obviously most British people actually, certainly before this and even now, will not be that familiar with ICE and what they are. What would your message be to British politicians or British people, British voters, about the creation of a British ICE? I would say that this should be something that you never allow into your country, especially if you don't have a strong separation of the court system and the executive branch of government and also if you really do care about the people in your community if you're living in multicultural area or if not because ICE isn't just about immigration anymore and you have to think about what's going to happen if your government arms a large group of people and creates the structure for them to operate at will.

52:10When the immigration problem is solved, if you consider it a problem, what's going to happen? They're not going to just want to give up their jobs. They're not going to want to give up the power that they have. So what are they going to use it for next? That's what you have to think about. The possibility that if you create a large military system of people to police your country, what are they going to expand it to do next. That's why I think you really have to think twice before you support what you support having ICE in your country. We are one year in to the second Trump term. The first was a stress test of American political institutions.

52:45This time, those institutions aren't stressed. They're having a full on nervous breakdown. If there is to be a reprieve, I doubt it will come from those institutions. Congress is supine and chiescence, the Supreme Court compliant. If it does come, It will come from American public opinion, apparently united from Republican to Democrat alike, that they don't want to be the sort of country where citizens are afraid to leave their homes for fear of being bundled into cars for not having the right paperwork. Joe Rogan, a bellwether for a certain type of political opinion in this country, seemed to speak for it last week.

53:20You don't want militarized people in the streets just roaming around snatching people up, many of which turn out to actually be US citizens. They just don't have their papers on them? Are we really going to be the Gestapo? Where's your papers? Is that what we've come to? The question is whether President Trump any longer much cares about what anyone else thinks. At the start of that first term, nearly a decade ago now, Trump promised an end to American carnage at home and abroad. I wonder if it has barely begun. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave. The coming years might test whether both things remain true.

53:58So Americans might have to be much braver yet. That is it from us in Minneapolis. This special episode has been produced by our executive producer, Lou Dagenhart, and our editor, Tom Hughes. A film version will be available, made by Shane Fenley. We will be back on Monday. Have a lovely weekend. This has been a Global Player original production.