Bovino Out Of Minnesota, Trump Refocusing On Economy, Social Media On Trial

0:02Gregory Bovino, one of the few immigration agents who showed his face, is leaving Minnesota. His departure comes as the Trump administration faces outrage over two fatal shootings by ICE agents in Minneapolis. I'm Steve Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Trump visits Iowa today trying to shift focus to the economy as members of his own party question his immigration crackdown. Nobody likes feds coming into their state, and so what's the goal right now? That's the governor of Oklahoma. More Republicans are pressing for an investigation. And social media is on trial today.

0:40A case in Los Angeles examines of tech companies knowingly built apps that harm kids. The outcome could change how apps are made. Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.

1:03currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart. Get wise. Download the wise app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. There's a lot going on right now. Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air. I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media. Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here, and maybe how to head them off at the pass? That's on the media's specialty. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts. This week on the NPR Politics Podcast. For months, the president's immigration strategy has been on full display.

1:49Now, some Republicans are having a hard time defending it. Yeah, I think that's a good weather vane for where the politics are headed in all of this. Cracks in the MAGA Coalition, this week on the NPR Politics Podcast. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. The Trump administration has, at least for now, made some changes to its mass deportation campaign in Minnesota. The administration has removed Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol official who was the public face of the immigration operation. Bovino will return to a previous job in California, and Border Czar Tom Homan will replace him.

2:25The administration has also stopped repeating its false narrative about a shooting without actually retracting any of those false claims. And President Trump called Tim Walz, the governor he previously blamed for the shootings by federal agents on a snowy street. Joining us from Minneapolis with the latest is reporter Matt Sepik of Minnesota Public Radio. Good morning, Matt. Good morning. So we understand that Greg Bovino is no longer leading the Border Patrol. What have you heard about that move? Bovino was the commander at large of the agency. He's made himself visible on the streets during operations here in Minnesota and elsewhere.

2:57Governor Tim Walz says Bovino is leaving Minnesota. Now he's returning to his old post in California and is expected to retire soon. This is effectively a demotion because he's no longer leading the administration's multi-state operation. And President Trump spoke by phone with both Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry. What do we know about those calls? On social media, the president said that he had a, quote, very good telephone conversation with the mayor. Frye said Trump agreed that the present situation cannot continue. And Governor Walz says the president seemed earnest.

3:32Whatever has happened here, there is a definite change of tone. There is definitely a more collaborative tone. I want to make sure that I'm not jeopardizing that, that I'm going to take them for their word right now. Wall says Trump agreed to consider reducing the number of federal agents here and allow state police to investigate the killings of Renee Macklin-Good on January 7th and Alex Preddy on Saturday. And this has been a big point of contention. We've talked about this a number of times. So is the state taking part in any investigations? There is little that state police can do without their federal counterparts, and there's still no indication whether the feds are cooperating.

4:08After Good was killed, the Department of Homeland Security blocked Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from investigating. Then Saturday, DHS refused to let the BCA access the area where Preddy was killed, even after the state got a search warrant. A judge ordered the feds not to destroy any evidence. That order remains in place even as the Justice Department challenges it. In court yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Secret argued that the feds are already preserving the evidence, But state attorney Peter Farrell said he's not so sure because top administration officials called Freddie a domestic terrorist within hours of his death.

4:46So it seems like a lot of things are coming to head in federal court. Where do things stand with Minnesota's effort to halt the operation altogether? During a hearing yesterday, state attorneys argued that the presence of so many federal agents in Minnesota is overwhelming local public safety resources. They also say the Justice Department is extorting the state. They pointed to a letter that Attorney General Pam Bondi sent to Walls on Saturday in which she demands that Minnesota hand over its voter rolls. The DOJ calls the lawsuit frivolous and says the federal government has the right to enforce immigration laws.

5:19In yet another case, Minnesota's chief federal judge Patrick Schultz has ordered acting ICE director Todd Lyons to appear personally in court here on Friday. Schultz says the agency has failed to comply with dozens of orders to provide hearings for people who are alleging that they are being unlawfully detained. Schultz writes, quote, the court's patience is at an end. So Matt, before we let you go, give us a sense of the mood in Minneapolis. People are continuing to mourn the deaths of Renee Macklingood and now Alex Pretty with protests and vigils. And despite the apparent detente, thousands of masked agents remain and many residents are seeking some sort of assurance that the killings will get a proper investigation.

6:03That's Matt Sepik of Minnesota Public Radio. Matt, thank you. You're welcome. President Trump is heading to Iowa today, where he's hoping to change the subject a bit to his economic agenda as his administration faces growing outrage over his immigration crackdown in Minnesota. Yeah, not only Democrats, but more Republicans are calling for changes, at least in Trump's message after a second U.S. citizen was shot dead by a federal agent. Some are also criticizing the substance of an immigration operation that has led to widespread chaos and death. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ardonios will be traveling with the president to Des Moines, and he's with us now.

6:37Good morning, Franco. Good morning, Michelle. So what do we know about the president's trip to Iowa? Yeah, the president is expected to visit a local business and give a speech on the economy. His chief of staff has touted the trip as the beginning of what will soon be weekly travel in support of Republican candidates ahead of the midterms. But as you noted at the top, it's also part of an effort to, you know, wrestle back control of the narrative on his own terms. And look, we've talked about this repeatedly. There is growing outrage about this immigration operation in Minneapolis. So does the trip play into all that?

7:11Or how does this sort of trip work with all that going on in the background? Yeah, I mean, the administration has been struggling to promote Trump's economic agenda amid a number of crises, you know, abroad and here in the U.S. And the situation in Minneapolis has only just made it harder to talk about the things that Trump wants to talk about. I was speaking with Ryan Williams, a veteran Republican strategist. He told me that the trip is clearly part of Trump's effort to turn the page. The primary news story at the moment isn't just the ICE-related shooting. It's the response to the ICE-related shooting.

7:44That's what's going to be the focus. And the president can attempt to focus on the economy, on what he views are successes of his administration on the economic front. But he's going to be stuck talking about this issue for a significant period of time. And again, you mentioned how some Republicans are calling for more investigations into the second death. There are also risks of a government shutdown being fueled by the controversy. Would you say a bit more about the increasing pressure from his own party? I mean, that does feel different considering how reliably Republicans have backed the president.

8:18Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's certainly created some fissures within the party. and not at a good time when election season is coming up fast. As I mentioned, a number of Republican lawmakers are pushing for more details. We also heard this weekend from Republican Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma. He's questioning Trump's broader goals. Here he is on CNN. Now Americans are asking themselves, what is the end game? What is the solution? And, you know, we believe in federalism and state rights, and nobody likes feds coming into their state. And so what's the goal right now? In polls, Michelle, show that more Americans feel ICE tactics are going too far.

8:58So how is the White House responding? Well, at first, top officials rushed to declare the U.S. citizen killed as a domestic terrorist. But Trump is now trying to strike a softer tone. You know, he says an investigation is ongoing and even boasted of a productive call with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, as we heard earlier. But I will tell you, Michelle, his team is not really letting up. Caroline Levitt, his press secretary yesterday, put the blame directly at the feet of Walls and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry for what she called their hostile resistance to the work of federal agents. So tensions around the immigration operations remain high.

9:37That's White House correspondent Franco Ardenas Franco. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle.

9:49Social media apps have long been accused of harming kids. Now, a jury will hear those claims for the first time in a trial kicking off in a Los Angeles courtroom today. A key question is whether tech companies deliberately built their platforms to addict young users. How the jury decides could reshape the tech industry. NPR's Shannon Bond is following the case, and she's with us now. Good morning. Good morning, Michelle. So tell us more about how we got here. What are the details of this trial? Yeah. So this case in California state court is being brought by a teenage plaintiff known as KGM. She says she started using social media at age 10 and she says her excessive use led to mental health problems, including depression and body dysmorphia.

10:28Now, the defendants in this case are Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. And so this trial is going to be a rare look inside how some of the most popular and powerful social media platforms operate. Jurors are going to be presented with thousands of pages of internal documents. That includes research the companies themselves have conducted on children. They're going to hear from expert witnesses. They're going to hear from KGM herself. Here's Matthew Bergman, KGM's attorney. The public is going to know for the first time what social media companies have done to prioritize their profits over the safety of our kids.

11:06And tech executives are also expected to take the stand, including notably Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Instagram and Facebook owner Meta, and Adam Masseri, the head of Instagram. That's quite a list. But Shannon, I'm thinking that we have heard these kinds of claims a lot. Are there other cases like this? Yeah, this case is actually just the first in a wave of lawsuits against social media companies. They've been brought by more than a thousand individual plaintiffs, hundreds of school districts and dozens of state attorneys general. And I should note Snapchat recently settled with the plaintiff in this first trial, but it's also named in these other lawsuits.

11:41Now, broadly, in these cases, the plaintiffs are accusing these companies of designing features like infinite scroll and autoplaying videos, frequent notifications that they say make these apps nearly impossible for kids to put down. And they say in some cases this has led to depression, eating disorders, self-harm, even suicide. And the plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages as well as changes to the way these social media apps are designed. And what do the companies say? Well, as you'd expect, they dispute these allegations. They say they've worked to make their platforms safer for kids. They argue there's no clinical diagnosis of addiction to social media.

12:16And they say a direct link between using social media and mental health problems in kids has not been proven. Now, the companies also say that federal law, including the First Amendment, protects the decisions they make about content, including the design of their platforms. I spoke with Eric Goldman, who's a law professor at Santa Clara University. And he says if juries end up siding with plaintiffs, these cases could really change how not just social media, but the larger Internet works. If the plaintiffs win, the Internet will almost certainly look different. And probably it will be a far less conversational one that we have today.

12:51He's wary of courts or regulators getting involved in these design decisions. Sharon, before we let you go, you said there are more than a thousand plaintiffs bringing similar cases. How does that work? Yeah, because there are so many. These cases have been combined into two big buckets, one in state court here in California, one in federal court. And depending how juries decide a handful of initial cases, including this one starting in L.A., the parties could enter settlement talks that involve all of the plaintiffs. You know, and eventually this could wind up similar to landmark settlements reached with the opioid manufacturers and tobacco companies, which led those industries to pay out billions of dollars to victims.

13:27That's certainly what the plaintiffs are hoping for. That is NPR's Shannon Bond. Shannon, thank you. Thank you. And let me note that Google is a financial supporter of NPR.

13:39And that's Up First for January 27th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Steve Inskeep. Up First gets you caught up and Morning Edition takes you deeper. We're live every morning on your NPR station with reporting interviews and the context behind the headlines. You can download the NPR app and listen anytime, anywhere. Find all of NPR's most popular programs, including Up First, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and more. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Andrea DeLeon, Rebecca Metzler, Brett Neely, Mohamed Elbardisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zia Batch, Nia Dumas, Eva Pukac, and Christopher Thomas.

14:13We get engineering support from Nisha Hainas. Our technical director is Stacey Abbott. Our supervising senior producer is Vince Pearson. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow. This week on Consider This, ICE agents in Minnesota now reporting to Tom Homan, the architect of the president's family separation policy. Who does Homan report to? Up until now, it's been Stephen Miller, but I think the administration is seeing how much trouble listening to Miller has gotten them in when it comes to public opinion. This week on Consider This, listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air You'll see your favorite actors, directors, and comedians on late night TV shows or YouTube But what you get with Fresh Air is a deep dive Spend some quality time with people like Billie Eilish, Questlove, Ariana Grande, Stephen Colbert, and so many more We ask questions you won't hear asked anywhere else Listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WHYY Thank you.