From 9/11 to Minneapolis: How ICE Became a Paramilitary Force

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Washington, News, Politics, President, Wickenden, Wnyc, Barack, Obama, Lizza

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Washington Roundtable is joined by the journalist and historian Garrett Graff to trace how post-9/11 immigration policy, which led to a surge in Border Patrol hiring, set the stage for today’s crisis in Minneapolis. The panel examines how ICE and C.B.P., created to protect Americans from outside threats, have been unleashed in America’s cities as what Graff calls "a fascist secret police." “The Border Patrol has never been intended to be a force that is routinely interacting with American citizens,” Graff says. “Full stop, period, let alone routinely patrolling American cities.”

This week’s reading:

“Operation Trump Rehab,” by Susan B. Glasser
“The Green Monster,” by Garrett Graff for Politico, 2014
“Why Minnesota Can’t Do More to Stop ICE,” by Garrett Graff for Wired
“The Schoolchildren of Minneapolis,” by Emily Witt
“What ICE Should Have Learned from the Fugitive Slave Act,” by Jelani Cobb
“Do Federal Officials Really Have ‘Absolute Immunity’?,” by Isaac Chotiner
“Witnessing Another Public Killing in Minneapolis,” by Vinson Cunningham
“The Cruel Conditions of ICE’s Mojave Desert Detention Center,” by Oren Peleg
“Maybe the United States Can Be One of Mark Carney’s ‘Middle Powers,’ ” by Bill McKibben
“Trump’s Greenland Fiasco,” by Joshua Yaffa
“What MAGA Can Teach Democrats About Organizing—and Infighting,” by Charles Duhigg

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Transcript

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0:00.0	By the way, guys, did you see this morning that they arrested Don Lemon? I feel like it's this
0:07.3	moment we've been bracing for where they're actually criminalizing journalism in America.
0:12.0	It is totally terrifying, honestly. And you remember what happened, which was Trump's people
0:18.0	tried to get him arrested in Minneapolis, and the judges up and down
0:23.0	the line said, no, we're not going to issue an arrest warrant. So he goes to California and they
0:27.7	arrest him there.
0:28.9	Yeah. I mean, the idea of federal agents arresting a journalist is one of those threshold moments.
0:34.8	And I think, you know, one of the things that we're all thinking about right now is
0:37.9	what are the threshold moments? And I'm keeping reminded of this. There was a quote that I wrote years
0:44.2	ago about China describing how tyranny arrives. And I said it doesn't arrive in an instant. At first,
0:50.0	your eyes adjust. It's sort of like twilight. And now all of a sudden that dynamic seems like
0:56.3	it's how I have to think about this country, which is pretty mind-bending.
1:04.5	Welcome to the political scene from the New Yorker, a weekly discussion about the big
1:09.3	questions in American politics. I'm Jane Mayer,
1:12.4	and I'm joined by my colleagues, Susan Glasser and Evan Osnos. Hi, Susan. Hey, there. So great to be
1:19.5	with you. Hi, Evan. Good morning, guys. So we had planned to be off this week, but what's happening just felt too consequential to sit out.
1:32.9	Americas, and in fact the world's eyes are on Minneapolis.
1:37.4	Last weekend, the federal agents that Trump sent to Minneapolis killed a second American citizen
1:43.7	in less than three weeks, Alex
1:46.4	Prattie. The streets of the city are now surging with armed and masked ice and border
1:52.9	patrol agents as protesters turn out and droves to resist the unprecedented federal
1:59.1	paramilitary presence there.
	...

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