Americans Are Now a Target in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Business News, Daily News, News

4.2 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2026

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn more about our L.A. live show here! Click here to see the Wall Street Journal’s full visual investigation. American citizens are being targeted in the government's immigration enforcement operations. That's according to a Wall Street Journal visual investigation that reviewed thousands of videos, social media posts, and court documents. WSJ's Hannah Critchfield breaks down the Journal's findings, and explains how the government's actions are impacting free speech in the U.S. Jessica Mendoza hosts. Further Listening: - Kristi Noem’s $200 Million Mistake - The Florida Cops Who Act as ICE AgentsSign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Jess. And Ryan. Before we kick off today's episode, we have a fun announcement to make. We are doing a live show again. We love doing our live show in New York so much that we decided to take it on the road. This time we'll be in Los Angeles at the L. Ray Theater on Tuesday, April 28th. And just like last time, we're going to have special guests. And since we'll be in L.A.,
0:22.6	you can prepare for a night of money, business, and power conversations about Hollywood. And after the show,
0:28.8	Ryan and I will stick around to meet you all. Tickets go on sale this Wednesday, March 25th, at 10 a.m.
0:34.4	Pacific. You can find the link in our show notes. And again, the show is going to be at the L. Ray Theater in L.A. on Tuesday, April 28th.
0:42.5	Tickets go on sale this Wednesday, March 25th. Hope to see you there.
0:51.7	A word of warning. This episode contains strong language, including unbleeped curse words.
0:57.6	Please be advised.
0:59.5	Can you introduce yourself and tell us what you cover?
1:02.9	Sure. I'm Hannah Critchfield and I'm a reporter on the investigations desk here at the journal.
1:09.2	And at a very high level, Hannah, what have you been working on recently?
1:14.1	I and a team of other reporters have been looking into claims that the government has made in
1:19.3	the last year about an increase in assaults on federal officers, oftentimes immigration
1:25.6	officers.
1:27.3	Government officials were talking about seeing a 300% increase. on federal officers, oftentimes immigration officers.
1:32.3	Government officials were talking about seeing a 300% increase in assaults, a 500% increase in assaults on officers.
1:37.0	In the last year, federal immigration operations have increased across the country
1:41.6	as part of President Trump's immigration crackdown.
1:47.8	And claims of assault against federal officers have gone up as well.
1:54.3	Now, Hannah and her team's investigation has found that American citizens have become a target.
2:00.0	American citizens who are often bystanders and demonstrators near those immigration operations.
2:07.5	Our team analyzed more than 200 videos associated with these assault allegations,
2:13.8	from police body camera footage to bystander recordings from social media,
	...

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