L.A. was first. Now it's your move, America.

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Protests have spread across the country after dozens of workers were swept up in an ICE raid in Los Angeles last week, but the support for the protesters is far from universal.

In this bonus episode, Brittany is joined by NPR Immigration Correspondent Sergio Martínez-Beltrán and author of A Protest History of the United States, Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, to discuss what's happening on the ground, and how Americans understand and misunderstand the concept of protest.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
0:19.5	My team and I were supposed to be sharing some reruns with you all week so we can make some time to prepare the amazing things we have in store for you this summer.
0:28.3	But then this past week hit.
0:36.9	I've seen it, you've seen it for weeks.
0:40.5	I think all of our social media feeds have been full of videos of people going about their daily lives,
0:46.6	walking down the street, taking out the trash, going to work, and then suddenly...
0:50.7	Stop!
0:51.4	Police are coming!
0:58.0	Stop! If you run out of the Lord! They do run out of the Lord!
1:00.0	They're questioned and sometimes violently apprehended
1:03.0	and even arrested by immigration and customs enforcement,
1:07.0	also known as ice.
1:20.4	Last Friday, dozens of ICE agents with weapons and armored vehicles conducted raids throughout downtown Los Angeles in places they believed to have large numbers of undocumented workers,
1:26.0	like Home Depot or the mom and pop shops of
1:28.7	LA's garment district. As word of the raids spread, hundreds of people showed up in downtown
1:34.2	L.A. to protest.
1:35.3	They're doing tear gas right now.
1:39.1	Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on you.
1:47.0	Then, President Jules. Shame on you. Shame on truth. Then President Trump deployed 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to the protests and even accused protesters of being, quote, paid insurrectionists.
1:59.0	A claim backed by no evidence, I should note.
2:03.8	The protests spread to major cities around the country, with a lot of Americans questioning
2:07.9	why it seems like the government can ignore constitutional law and violate the rights of everyday
	...

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