Special Report: Surveillance and snatch squads in Trump's new America
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Minneapolis right now, there are more ICE and border patrol agents than there are police officers. The national guard - the army - is on standby to deploy to the city.
Everybody in the city has a story about being targeted by ICE. Many now carry passports on them when they leave the house. If they are fortunate enough not to have been stopped themselves, they will know a neighbour, a friend, a colleague or a relative. Some Minnesotans literally do not know where their family have been taken.
State senators have told The News Agents there is "a war against the State" being waged by the federal government.
And in this new kind of authoritarianism, there has been a remarkable reaction. Citizens taking to the streets on patrols, huge community mobilisation, delivering food and goods to those too afraid to leave their homes. Plane spotters, monitoring ICE deportation flights that the administration no longer publicly records.
If that all sounds like a democratic breakdown - there is a good case to be made that this is exactly what is happening, what Donald Trump is intent on unleashing on a Democratic stronghold that is home to America's largest Somali community.
Lewis has this special report from Minneapolis and St Paul in Minnesota.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK commercial banking, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.6 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:13.2 | A quick note before we start, we were staggered by the response to our reporting from Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Twin Cities. |
| 0:20.3 | But we came home with far more material than we could fit into any main show. |
| 0:25.5 | So here is a snapshot. |
| 0:27.4 | One day in a place where 24 hours now feels like a political lifetime, |
| 0:32.9 | 24 hours in Minneapolis and St. Paul, inside Donald Trump's surveillance state. |
| 0:40.3 | This is the reality of life in Minneapolis right now. |
| 0:46.3 | The most politicized city in America living under a shadow of daily repressive fear from the state. |
| 0:59.7 | A state that this city has effectively forced, or been forced, to mobilize against the federal government. |
| 1:10.6 | And it has become part of the rhythm of daily life. |
| 1:15.5 | This is a special report from Minneapolis. |
| 1:19.1 | Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:25.6 | The news agents. |
| 1:34.3 | We are standing outside the belly of the beast. At least that's how these people would see it. |
| 1:36.3 | We are standing in front of the Bishop Whipple Federal Office building, |
| 1:41.3 | which is an innocuous name for something that is anything but |
| 1:44.7 | innocuous politically in this city, Minneapolis, in this state, Minnesota right now. |
| 1:49.5 | People are scared. People are terrified. They're not leaving their homes. People are having to |
| 1:55.8 | deliver groceries to their neighbors. People are not going to school. Kids are not going to school because they're terrified. |
| 2:03.6 | I've been here protesting. I'm actually an immigrant from Guatemala, but nothing can stop us. I don't even care. I have my face out here. You know, I'm disabled. And it's just like the white people aren't going to do it for us. upper class isn't going to do it for us. So I'm here for my own people and I'm here for everyone else because this is terrorism that is happening in this country and I refuse to let it go on. I don't appreciate ice here. I don't appreciate what they're doing and I want them out of my city and frankly out of my country. I don't know who would take them, but we are sick of them terrorizing us. This is Minneapolis, y. You come out here, you show them we're not afraid. You push them every second you got. They clear the street, you come right back. They shoot pepper balls at you. You bring your friends tomorrow. That is what we're doing here. You got Second Amendment here. We make them scared. You come to my house with a bullshit |
| 2:51.6 | warrant. I'll fucking kill you. Huh? You hear that ice? I'll fucking kill you. |
... |
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