Minnesota ICE Shooting Aftermath, Senate DHS Funding Vote, Icy Weather

0:01A second U.S. citizen was killed in Minneapolis this weekend by federal agents. The Trump administration says the killing was justified because the victim brandished a gun. That's not what video footage shows. Once again, DHS has come out with a predetermined narrative. I'm Laila Faldin with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. The killing is now rippling through Congress as Senate Democrats threaten to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security. When they're killing two constituents in my state and they're taking two-year-olds out of the arms of their mom, no, I am not voting for this funding.

0:35Could that push the government toward a shutdown? And millions across the South and Northeastern U.S. are digging out after a massive winter storm. Power outages, grounded flights, and dangerous ice remain. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

0:56This year on NPR's ThruLine, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. For centuries, America's pursuit has changed the world. Now, 250 years later, who are we? Where are we headed? Join us every Tuesday for a brand new series, America in Pursuit, on ThruLine. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. It was another tragic weekend in Minneapolis. On Saturday morning, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse and U.S. citizen Alex Prattie was killed by a federal agent. It is the second killing of a Minneapolis resident by a federal agent since the Trump administration launched its immigration crackdown in the city more than a month ago.

1:38Preddy's killing sparked a new wave of protest in the city and elsewhere in the U.S. NPR's Jasmine Garst has been bringing us constant updates on all of this, and she joins us now from Minneapolis. Good morning, Jasmine. Good morning. So what do we know about Alex Preddy's killing? Well, over the weekend, the Trump administration repeatedly tried to paint Preddy, who is a VA nurse and U.S. citizen, as a domestic terrorist. Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino said Preddy had a gun and was intent on massacring law enforcement. White House senior advisor Stephen Miller went so far as to call Preddy a, quote, would-be assassin.

2:18But multiple videos contradict that. There is no evidence in the videos, which, by the way, NPR has verified, that Petty was ever brandishing a gun in his hand. What we do see is Petty holding a phone in his hand and then at least six masked federal officers tackling him, beating him, spraying him in the face with a chemical agent. Then they pin him down on the ground. Then one agent appears to pull a gun from Petty's waistband before agents shoot him. We counted 10 rounds fired. This is the second fatal shooting here by federal immigration agents this month. Renee Macklin-Good, also 37 years old, was killed January 7th.

3:03Here's Minnesota U.S. Representative Kelly Morrison, a Democrat, over the weekend. Once again, DHS has come out with a predetermined narrative that contradicts everything we saw with our own eyes. Two 37-year-old Minnesotans are now dead. A poet and a nurse. For what? Now, President Trump has said the administration is reviewing the incident, but there are serious concerns about the investigation's independence. Just walk us through why. Much like with the Renee Macklin Good investigation, state officials say they are being shut out. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said DHS has blocked its investigators from the scene.

3:45They've gone to court to fight that. A federal judge has granted them a temporary restraining order ruling that no Homeland Security officer can destroy or alter evidence related to Preddy's death. Now, this second killing has prompted new protests throughout Minneapolis. It's also prompted reaction throughout other parts of the country this weekend. You were at many of the protests in the city there. What did you see? The Trump administration repeatedly called the protesters anarchists and insurrectionists. And this is simply not the case. I was there. These protests have been massive and overwhelmingly peaceful.

4:24I'll give you an example. The morning Alex Predio was shot dead, neighbors immediately took to the street. They were met with tear gas. I met one protester. As he was washing it out of his eyes, he asked for anonymity out of fear of retaliation from ICE. I mean, people are angry, but it's peaceful. We're shouting. I mean, people aren't saying the nicest things, but what do you expect? Like, it's basically a goon squad going after a residence of this beautiful city. And, Layla, I would describe the mood in Minneapolis right now as grief, anger, and there's a sense that this city is at a breaking point.

5:02That's NPR's Jasmine Garst in Minneapolis. Thank you, Jasmine. Thank you. The second deadly shooting of a U.S. citizen by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis is raising the prospect of a partial government shutdown. Most Senate Democrats say they will not vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security without additional guardrails for immigration enforcement. But that opposition may also stop a$1.3 trillion spending package needed to keep large portions of the federal government open past Friday night. NPR congressional reporter Sam Greenglass joins us now. Hi, Sam. Hey, Layla. So how did this second killing in Minneapolis change the state of play in Congress?

5:43So Democrats had already been raising alarms about the conduct of immigration officers. Last week in the House, all but seven Democrats voted against the Homeland Security funding bill, which includes money for immigration and customs enforcement and customs and border protection. Some Senate Democrats pledged at the time to do the same thing, but not as many, because the Senate has been set to vote on the funding measures as one mega package. So a vote against Homeland Security funding would also be a vote against spending bills for defense, health, and more that have overwhelming bipartisan support.

6:20Then after this second shooting, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that Senate Democrats will not provide the votes if the DHS funding is included. And in the Senate, these bills cannot pass without some Democratic support. OK, so if Senate Democrats withhold support, will that stop the crackdown we're seeing? So Republicans in Congress already gave ICE an extra$75 billion last summer. So Democrats withholding their votes this week is not going to stop the crackdown. But they say they don't want to hand over the$10 billion or so more dollars that's on the line now. Here's Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar on NBC's Meet the Press.

6:59When they're killing two constituents in my state and they're taking two-year-olds out of the arms of their mom, no, I am not voting for this funding. This DHS funding bill also includes money for disaster relief and the Coast Guard, but Democrats are betting the public opinion is on their side here. And Senate Democrats who voted last fall to end the government shutdown, they say they too are now willing to vote no on this funding despite the risk of a shutdown. So Senate Democrats do have some leverage. What do they want? Democrats already secured more funding for officer body cameras and oversight, but they had wanted a lot more, like banning the agency from deploying excessive force.

7:41Schumer wants to peel off DHS funding so lawmakers can keep negotiating and approve funding for everything else to avoid a more sweeping shutdown. But spinning off the DHS funding will take buy-in from Republican leadership. Is there buy-in from Republican leadership? What are they saying? Well, the Appropriations Chair, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, told The New York Times she is exploring all options. But this is really getting down to the wire, in part because of the snowstorm and because the House would have to sign off again. And they are in recess. Speaker Mike Johnson appears unlikely to call members back.

8:18Now, more broadly, a few Republican senators are calling for an independent investigation and hearings. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said the credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. And with the midterms ahead, I will be watching whether we see more daylight on this between Republican lawmakers and President Trump. NPR congressional reporter Sam Greenglass. Thank you, Sam. Thanks, Layla.

8:50more than a dozen states from the deep south all the way to new england are cleaning up after a major winter storm that brought snow ice and freezing temperatures several deaths are blamed on the storm hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses are still without power and airlines are scrambling to get their planes back in the air after canceling thousands of flights. NPR's Joel Rose joins us now with the latest. Hey, Joel. Hey, good morning. Good morning. Where did we see the biggest impacts from this storm? Well, the most urgent issue is that there are still a lot of people without power across the south where this storm brought a huge amount of ice.

9:27In some places, the storm was all snow. In others, it turned into sleet and freezing rain. In much of the south, it left a coating of ice on roads and trees. That made roads dangerous, if not totally impassable. It also brought down trees and branches and power lines that left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power across Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Our colleagues at Nashville Public Radio talked to Alejandro Maron, who lives in East Nashville. Let's listen to a bit of what he said. Trees have been going down everywhere across the neighborhood. In front of my place, there's been three trees, branches that have come off.

10:03So pretty intense. Marone did not have power yesterday. One of more than 300 ,000 people just in the state of Tennessee, according to the website poweroutage.com, more than 200 ,000 of those customers were in the Nashville area. And how are states dealing with this? Yeah, it may take days to get the power back on in parts of the South. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves says this is the biggest ice storm his state has seen in more than 30 years. At one point last night, Reeves said 180 ,000 customers in Mississippi had lost power. That's more than 10 % of all utility customers in the state. Reeves said utility crews are working to get that power back on, but conditions are making that tough.

10:42The real challenges that exist in an ice storm is in many areas, it's not safe for our people to be out and about trying to do things because of the amount of ice that is on the road. Reeves also said the problems will not go away just because the precipitation has stopped. Temperatures are forecast to stay below freezing, which means the roads will still be icy. And he urged people to stay off those roads so that emergency crews can do their work. In the meantime, Mississippi and other states in the storm's path have set up dozens of warming centers, but that may not be a big help to people in the most rural areas.

11:21And also, we should note the storm had impacts far beyond the South. It dumped more than a foot of snow across a big swath of the country, from Missouri all the way up to Massachusetts. Now, this storm also had a huge impact on air travel. What's the latest there? Yeah, this storm brought much of the nation's aviation industry to a halt. Airlines canceled more than 10 ,000 flights over the weekend. Sunday was the biggest single day for cancellation since the early days of the COVID pandemic in 2020, according to the aviation analytics company, Sirium. The vast majority of flights were canceled at some airports in the Northeast around Washington, D.C., New York, and Boston.

11:57American Airlines canceled more than half of its scheduled flights yesterday, Delta and United, more than 40%. Airlines are likely to cancel hundreds or even thousands of flights again today as they try to get their crews and planes back in position so that they can try to return to regular service later in the week. I have a flight later today. Let's see what happens. That's NPR's Joel Rose. Thank you so much, Joel. Good luck.

12:24And that's Up First for Monday, January 26th. I'm Leila Faldin. And I'm Michelle Martin. If you enjoy starting your day with Up First, please consider signing up for NPR+. Your subscription will help keep the NPR network strong and support local public radio stations through a recurring monthly donation. and you get some nice perks like ad-free listening, bonus episodes, and early access to some NPR content. Visit plus.npr.org to sign up. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Eric Westervelt, Krishnadaw Kalamer, Alfredo Carbohal, Mohameda Radisi, and Adam Bearn. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, Ava Pukhach, and Christopher Thomas.

13:02We get engineering support from Simon Laszlo Jansen, and our technical director is David Greenberg. Join us again tomorrow.

13:14Thank you.