Trump Weighs Options In Iran, Minnesota Sues DHS, SCOTUS Trans Sports Cases

0:01President Trump says he's considering military strikes on Iran as its crackdown on protests kills hundreds. Iran wants to negotiate. Is the pressure campaign headed toward diplomacy or confrontation? I'm Steve Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. Minnesota is suing the Trump administration over its immigration operations after an ICE agent killed Renee Macklin-Good. We asked the courts to end the DHS unlawful behavior in our state. The intimidation, the threats, the violence. Are ICE operations in Minneapolis escalating? Also today, the Supreme Court considers two challenges to state laws.

0:43The rules prevent transgender athletes from competing in girls' sports. Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.

0:55President Trump continues to threaten military action against Iran and says he is receiving hourly reports on the violence against protesters as Iranian security forces try to quash growing unrest. A U.S.-based group called the Human Rights Activists News Agency has tried to track the casualties, which is hard given an internet blackout. But the agency says more than 600 Iranians have been killed. So far, that number includes nine children and 133 members of the military and police. After threatening to take military action, Trump says he's heard a response. The leaders of Iran, well, they want to negotiate.

1:31I think you're tired of being beat up by the United States. Trump said Monday he's imposing a 25 percent tariff on countries doing business with Iran. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ardañez is following this, and he's with us now to bring us up today. Good morning, Franco. Good morning, Michelle. So the president says a meeting is in the works with Iranian officials. What can you tell us about that? You know, I think we should remember that Trump warned last week that the U.S. was, quote, locked and loaded and would come to the protesters' rescue if they continued to be killed. Trump says Iran's leadership called after those threats, as you guys mentioned, and his team is working on a meeting.

2:07But he also said they might have to act sooner if the violence continues. Trump's expected to meet with his national security team today. How seriously is the U.S. taking threats from Tehran to retaliate against U.S. or Israeli military bases. Well, Trump says if they do, the U.S. will respond. If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they've never been hit before. They won't hurtfully. I have options that are so strong. And Caroline Levitt, the press secretary, called Iran's threats laughable. She said on Fox News yesterday that the Iranians may be talking a big game publicly, but they're saying something very different privately.

2:46So the president spoke of options. What are those options? Yeah, Trump and Levitt won't forecast what they're going to do, but Matthew Krainig worked on the Iranian file at the Pentagon. And he told me the lowest hanging fruit would be a strike on Iran's missile program. Another possibility, he said, would be strikes against the security services who are leading the crackdown on demonstrations. And Krainig also pointed to the Venezuela operation. And then finally, after the Maduro raid, you can't count out something more creative, some kind of special operations moved by the United States or Israel, say, directly against the Iranian leadership.

3:23Krennicz says it's not something you'd expect from a U.S. president, but Trump doesn't seem to be constrained by traditional norms. Well, to that end, though, the president hasn't made human rights a priority in his foreign policy, except in very rare circumstances. So tell us a little bit more about what kind of deal or what kind of negotiations the president seems to be pursuing. Yeah, he's definitely not put human rights first and foremost. But we should remember that during the first Trump administration, Trump did order military strikes on Syria in response to chemical attacks by the Assad regime.

3:54Trump said he was moved at the time by the images of choking children. That said, what Trump really wants in Iran is a deal that permanently prevents the government from getting a nuclear weapon. And Krainig, who is now at the Atlantic Council, thinks the Iranian supreme leader may actually be willing to agree to a zero enrichment deal if he thinks it will help the regime survive. The next question, though, will be, of course, does the regime actually follow through with that going forward in the future? That is White House correspondent Franco Ardenas. Franco, thank you. Thank you, Michelle.

4:34Minnesota officials are suing the Trump administration trying to end the surge of immigration agents to the state. The state filed the lawsuit on Monday, and many people will know the context here. This is less than a week after an immigration and customs enforcement agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Macklin-Good. NPR Sergio Martinez-Beltran is reporting from Minneapolis, and he's with us now. Good morning, Sergio. Hey, Michelle. So what can you tell us about some of the allegations in this lawsuit? Yes, state officials say that during this federal surge, federal immigration agents have arrested peaceful bystanders, that they've detained U.S.

5:09citizens and fired chemical irritants at demonstrators and others exercising their First Amendment rights. The lawsuit also alleges agents have racially profiled people. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says all of this is unconstitutional. We ask that the courts will end the surge of thousands of DHS agents into Minnesota. We ask the courts to end the DHS unlawful behavior in our state. The intimidation, the threats, the violence. Now, the Trump administration is pushing back on these allegations. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin accused Ellison of prioritizing politics over public safety and called the allegations of racial profiling false, saying, quote, law enforcement uses reasonable suspicion to make arrests as protected under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S.

5:56Constitution. Sergio, you've been out there and you've also reported on immigration enforcement actions elsewhere in the country. So what's standing out to you about the situation in Minneapolis? There are more than 2 ,000 federal agents in the state. So there's a lot of immigration enforcement activity, especially in the Minneapolis area. Yesterday, Michelle, I witnessed multiple instances where immigration officers question people about their immigration status, and it didn't seem like a targeted operation. I saw them briefly detain a man despite him telling them he was a citizen. In another instance, agents questioned drivers who were charging their electric cars in a parking lot.

6:32Joel Kilika is a permanent U.S. resident and he showed proof of it to agents. I talked to him afterwards and this is what he told me. We don't want this to escalate, as you're saying. You know how it's going right now. People are getting killed. Yeah, so we just got to do our best out here to make sure that we live to see tomorrow, you know what I mean? Yeah. In a statement, the DHS spokesperson says ICE does not randomly arrest people or conduct operations without specific objectives, but it's unclear why immigration agents chose to question Kilikai and the others who were charging their vehicles.

7:05They were people of color and all of them produced documentation that showed they are in the U.S. legally. What are you following in the next couple of days. Again, Michel, the way these immigration enforcement actions are being carried out is something to watch for. Another thing that's clear, many people in Minneapolis do not want ICE around. And it's starting to seem like residents are more defiant, willing to protest more. We've already seen federal agents use pepper spray and tear gas to call some of these protests. So the escalation in enforcement and protests is something I'll be paying attention to.

7:37That is. And for Sergio Martinez Beltran in Minneapolis. Sergio, thank you. You're welcome.

7:51The Supreme Court returns to questions about gender and fairness today. They're hearing arguments in two cases. Each case tests laws banning transgender girls and women from participating in women's sports at publicly funded schools. NPR Legal Affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg is here. Nina, good morning. Good morning, Steve. How have transgender issues come to play such a large role in public debate? They've probably gotten here because, among other things, the rhetoric around trans issues proved very helpful for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential campaign. So now 27 states have laws barring transgender participation in sports, and supporters say these laws are needed to ensure fairness in athletic competition and to prevent trans athletes whose sex assigned at birth was male from having an unfair advantage in women's sports.

8:44Opponents, on the other hand, say these laws discriminate based on sex in violation of both federal statutes and the Constitution's guarantee to equal protection of the law. Okay, this is really interesting. Leading up to the 2024 election, there were a bunch of states that passed laws on this issue. Now two cases are being argued. What's the difference between them? One involves a college student barred by Idaho State Law from trying out for the Boise State University varsity women's track team. The other was brought by a West Virginia middle schooler, and I want to focus on her for purposes of our discussion this morning.

9:19Now in high school, Becky Pepper Jackson was assigned male at birth, but by third grade she was presenting as a girl and she joined the girls' running team. Later on, she would experience puberty as a girl by taking hormones. Trouble was, she was a really slow runner, Steve. And in sixth grade, her coach pulled her aside to tell her that she simply wasn't good enough to be on the team. And she pointed me in the direction of chocolate and discus. Eighth grade is when I really started to get good. And she started to win ribbons. And this is the situation in which a state would say this is unfair competition, right?

9:55Correct. The state says biological difference matters on the field. As State Attorney General John McCuskey notes, it didn't matter much when Becky was in fifth grade, but by the time she was a freshman in high school at age 13 and 14... She is the third best shot putter in the entire state, and that includes 15-, 16-, and 17-year-old girls. Becky's lawyer, Josh Block of the ACLU, counters that there are always winners and losers in sports. The elephant in the room, he says, is Donald Trump and his executive orders. You have waiting in the wings the Trump Department of Justice that is suing states, withholding funds in order to bully these states into banning transgender girls, even if it conflicts with state law.

10:42Attorney General McCuskey replies that sports are unique. Competitive athletics are incredibly important to our society and to the growth of young women. and we believe that that space in this instance should be reserved for biological girls. Not everyone agrees with that limited objective. John Birsch of the conservative alliance defending freedom is one of the lawyers representing Idaho in the college sports case. This question is actually bigger than sports and it's about whether those who support the gender ideology movement are going to be allowed to continue harming children, women, and adults.

11:17Nina, one question here. You said these cases are rare. How many other kids are there like Becky in West Virginia? As far as we know, there's only one, and it's Becky. NPR's Nina Totenberg. Thanks so much. Thank you.

11:33And that's Up First for Tuesday, January 13th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Steve Inskeep. If you enjoy starting your day with Up First, as so many people do, consider signing up for NPR+. That's a subscription service which helps keep the NPR network strong. It supports local public radio stations, including the one in your community, through a recurring donation. You get some cool perks, too. Add free listening, bonus episodes, early access to some NPR content. Visit plus.npr.org to sign up. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Rebecca Metzler, Gigi Duban, Krishna Dev Kalamur, Mohamed Elbardisi, and H.J.

12:11Mai. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Katie Klein. We get engineering support from Simon Leslow Jansen. Our technical director is Zach Coleman. Our supervising senior producer is Vince Pearson. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

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