Minneapolis Protests ICE Shooting; Protests in Iran; States Preparing for Midterms

0:02Protests continue in Minneapolis over a fatal shooting by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Questions remain over the killing of Renee Good and the community there wants answers. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Sasha Pfeiffer, and this is Up First from NPR News.

0:19This week's killing in Minneapolis was only the latest in a string of violent incidents in the state of Minnesota. We'll tell you how the community is trying to cope. And in Iran, protests continue to royal cities fueled by the country's crumbling economy. We'll look at the regime's response. Also, how big a role will the federal government play in the upcoming midterm elections? We'll tell you how states are preparing. So stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend.

0:57President Trump's immigration actions in Minneapolis continue to draw protests after a fatal ice shooting resulted in the death of a local woman, Renee Good. Hundreds of people marched through the city's downtown district last night. More protests are expected today. NPR's Sergio Martinez Beltran has been covering the story in Minneapolis and joins us now. Sergio, thanks so much for being with us. Glad to be with you, Scott. You were out in the streets last night. What did you hear from people? Yeah, this particular protest I went to last night started outside a hotel where organizers say they believe ICE agents are staying.

1:31And it moved around downtown to a few other hotels. Now, some of the protesters tried to breach at least one hotel and vandalized at least one building, and that led to multiple arrests. Now, most people I talked to say they were out in the streets marching for two reasons. One was to honor the life of Renee Good. They wanted to remember her and process her killing together as a community. The other reason was to send a message to the Trump administration that Minnesotans do not want immigration agents in their city. That's what Minneapolis resident Dan Craigie told me. The city is not safe right now with them here.

2:05I want my voice to be heard. I want my presence to be seen. And I want my daughters to see what's happening and to see what strength and resilience looks like. Craigie also mentioned something others have told me, Scott. The city of Minneapolis has gone through so much trauma in the last five years and they're tired of fighting. Before the killing of Renee Good, Minnesota had had several mass shootings just in the last year. And of course, we recall the murder of George Floyd at the hands of local police. Does this come up in conversations you have with residents? A hundred percent. Residents here told me that they're sad, angry and hurt.

2:43And there's this feeling that this shooting could have the same effect and inflict as much trauma as the killing of George Floyd, which sparked some of the largest racial justice protests since the civil rights movement. Yesterday, I went to the spot where Renee Goode was killed. It's now a makeshift memorial full of flowers, art, and candles. And there I met Ashley Burris, who lives in Minneapolis. She says this moment is sad, but also heartwarming, because the community is coming together. We saw it happen after the murder of George Floyd. We're seeing it happen again. No one is stronger than Minnesotans.

3:16We stand by each other, we protect each other, and we do right by each other. Sergio, remind us why President Trump sent a surge of immigration agents into the city in the first place. Mostly to target the Somali community in Minnesota, which is the largest in the U.S. Last month, Trump called Somalis, quote, garbage and said he does not want them in the country. And right-wing influencers and other conservatives have been accusing Somalis of committing fraud in the state. Now, those allegations gain traction within the Trump administration and are part of the reason for the surge in immigration agents.

3:49However, despite all of this, the Somali community continues to push back. That's what Khalil Omar, a Somali activist, says. This administration is bringing a lot of fear, and I think that's their goal. But as Somali Americans, as Minnesotans, we're not going to fall for that. We're going to stand up because we're greater than fear. We believe in that, you know, this storm is going to pass. Omar says the Somali-American community is also standing up for Rene Good. And certainly the Trump administration has said it will continue its crackdown in Minnesota, right? Yes, the administration claims they're making the community safer by launching this operation.

4:32And they're certainly not backing down, Scott. In fact, I witnessed something kind of surreal happen yesterday. A rally was taking place where Rene Good was killed and at least one SUV with federal immigration agents drove by the memorial. That SUV was trailed by a car with anti-ICE activists who were honking. Again, surreal, but this is Minneapolis right now. And Pierre Sergio Martinez Beltran in Minneapolis. Thanks so much. You're welcome.

5:09Internet access remained shut down in Iran after the government there imposed a blackout. This came after tens of thousands of people took to the streets and said it's across the country chanting anti-government slogans. A number of protesters have been killed by security forces, according to rights groups, with hundreds more being detained. NPR senior international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam has been following developments, joins us now. Jackie, thanks for being with us. Morning, Scott. It sounds as if the protests have grown increasingly large and more urgent since they started nearly two weeks ago.

5:42What do we know about last night's? Well, as you mentioned, there is an internet blackout in Iran, but there are still ways to get messages and videos out. And our contacts are saying last night's protests were huge, especially in the capital, Tehran. They started earlier than normal, and people were chanting death to the dictator, meaning Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The protests were actually in many parts of the country, including Mashhad, where Khamenei comes from. You know, people have been pulling down statues of Iranian leaders and generals. And last night, some mosques were set on fire.

6:16Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the former Shah, has been urging on the protesters. But, you know, it's unclear how much support he has. It does look like the security forces have started to crack down now. There are videos showing dead bodies on the ground and at hospitals. And yesterday, Khamenei, in a national address, warned the protesters to stop, saying they were destroying public property to try and please President Trump. But more protests are expected later today. And Iran has had many protests over the past decade and even longer. What seems to have begun this one, and what are protesters calling for?

6:54Well, this one started at the end of December, when shopkeepers turned out in large numbers to protest against the economy. inflation is red hot, close to 50%. And the local currency, the riel, has lost half its value since September. But, you know, the economy is often the trigger for protests in Iran, but this one quickly spread. I spoke with Gisu Nia, and she's a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, but she's also a human rights lawyer who works on Iran. And Nia says Iranians want regime change. She says these are the largest protests in years. But what's different this time around is the external pressures.

7:30You know, not only Israel bombing Iran in the summer, but those strikes also killed many senior members of the security forces and intelligence services. Here she is here. That is a major differentiating factor than prior rounds of protests that we've seen, because there can be no doubt that the Islamic Republic officials are looking at that and wondering what will happen if they engage in further violence. And then, Scott, of course, we have President Trump weighing in saying the U.S. will hit hard if Iran kills protesters. And after the Venezuela operation, you know, this cannot be taken as an empty threat.

8:06As you know, the protests have been going on since the end of December. We have seen uprisings of this order in the past, only to have them dissipate over time. Any sense of these ones will take hold? It's impossible to say. You know, there's been protests over the years where hundreds of people have been killed, but then fizzled out. These protests come at a time when the regime is particularly weak. So we could be seeing the beginning of the end. It's just as likely the regime could double down. NPR's Jackie Northam, thanks so much for being with us. Thank you, Scott.

8:49The earliest of midterm elections this year begin in March, but already a lot of attention is focused on the polls. Who can vote? When and how can people vote? And to what extent might the federal government interfere? That's right. And at this point, election officials are considering every possibility. NPR's voting correspondent, Miles Parks, has been looking into how states are preparing for the midterms. And he joins us now. Hi, Miles. Hey, Sasha. Miles, your reporting shows that voting officials are already preparing for the possibility of federal interference. Tell us about that prep process.

9:21Yeah. So, I mean, early last year, it became clear to local officials, and I should say from both parties, that the federal government, helmed by President Trump, wanted a bigger role in local processes. Just two months into his second term, he signed an executive order aimed at adding new voting restrictions, for instance. Most of that has been blocked by the courts at this point. But he also, his administration laid off much of the election security staff, the Department of Homeland Security. And I was talking about all of that with the secretary of state of Minnesota, Steve Simon, who's a Democrat.

9:49And he said the idea of federal interference is on election officials' minds as they game plan out every scenario. We in the election space have to just use our imaginations as we would, to be clear, for any threat, whether it's from a foreign actor, whether it's a natural disaster that we can't quite predict. This falls into that category, too. Miles, it's noteworthy that you have a state voting official there referring to federal government action as a threat, in his words. Did the Minnesota secretary of state say what specifically he's worried about? Well, something Simon talked about, and this is also something I've heard from a number of other Democrats that they're concerned about as well, is the possibility of federal troops being deployed to polling places this year.

10:33I asked the White House about this. A spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, referred to these sort of scenarios as baseless conspiracy theories in a statement to NPR, but she didn't categorically rule it out. And the National Guard deployments last year obviously crystallized this as a thing that local officials feel like they need to prepare for, even if this sort of scenario would clearly break federal voting laws. The other possibility that voting officials are talking about is immigration enforcement. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, but people in Trump's orbit have toyed with the idea of having ICE agents at polling places or involved in the election in some other capacity to guard against non-citizen voting.

11:13And any of these scenarios obviously could potentially have a suppressive effect if they make anyone scared to vote. President Trump has talked a lot about wanting to ban mail-in ballots, voting by mail. What power, if any, does he have over the rules of how people will vote this year? Essentially none. The Constitution is very clear on this. States set the rules for how their voters vote, and Trump's allies have acknowledged this. But in the fall, Cleta Mitchell, who's a notable far-right election attorney, indicated that Trump could consider a sort of workaround by declaring a national emergency based on election integrity.

11:50Here's Mitchell talking on the podcast Washington Watch with Tony Perkins. The president's authority is limited, except that where there is a threat to the national sovereignty of the United States, then I think maybe the president is thinking that he will exercise some emergency powers to protect the federal elections going forward. Legal experts I've talked to say there's no way this could actually work in practice. But I have heard from voting officials, including local Republicans, who say they're shoring up their relationships with their local and state attorneys' offices in preparation for the potential of legal fights.

12:24They're preparing for the possibility of attempts to access their election equipment. And I'll also note that more than a dozen states are already engaged in lawsuits with the Justice Department over requests the Trump administration has made for their voter data. Miles, a bigger picture question. Trump is not on the ballot, of course. Lay out why he's so interested in how local officials conduct elections. I mean, at the most basic level, if Republicans lose control of the House of Representatives in midterms, it just becomes very, very difficult for the Trump administration to get anything done legislatively.

12:55But this week, Trump also made it clear that his investment in the midterms is personal. He said he thinks that if Democrats win, he will be impeached for a third time. And he's also made it clear that he is willing to mess with the Democratic process to advantage himself. Right. I mean, we just had the anniversary, the five year anniversary of January 6th and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. And even this cycle, we saw Trump spur on this unprecedented mid decade redistricting. And so for many local election officials, this is not abstract or hypothetical, this idea that Trump would mess with a system to advantage himself.

13:29That is NPR's Miles Parks. Thanks for covering this. And we'll keep talking throughout the year. Thanks, Sasha.

13:37And that's up first for Saturday, January 10th, 2026. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Sasha Pfeiffer. Dave Mistich produced today's podcast with help from Gabe O 'Connor, Danny Hensel, and Elayna Tworek. It was edited by Deepar Vaz, along with Jacob Fenston, Benjamin Swayze, James Heider, and Gigi Doban. Andy Craig is our director. Our technical director was David Greenberg. with engineering support from Jay Sizz, Zoe Van Genoven, Damian Herring, and Simon Laszlo Jansen. Our senior supervising editor is Shannon Rhodes. E.B. Stone is our executive producer. And Jim Cain is our deputy managing editor. Tomorrow on the Sunday Story, Aisha Roscoe speaks to NPR's Frank Langfitt about growing numbers of liberals in the U.S.

14:20buying guns because they fear unrest. And for all the news you need, stories that maybe you had no idea you ever needed or wanted, And tune into NPR. You can find your local station at stations.npr.org.