ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Residents of the Twin Cities have been on edge for nearly a week after an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis last Wednesday. At least 2,000 federal immigration officers are now deployed in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, and hundreds more are arriving this week. And today, the state, as well as the cities of both Minneapolis and St. Paul, announced they are suing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other federal immigration officials in an attempt to block that surge of officers. NPR's Meg Anderson is in Minneapolis to update us on what's been happening since the shooting happened. Meg, first, tell us about this new lawsuit.
MEG ANDERSON, BYLINE: Yeah. So the lawsuit alleges that the surge is, quote, "driven by nothing more than the Trump administration's desire to punish political opponents" and to sow fear in the community here. They also allege that the tactics of federal officers here have been unlawful and are creating dangerous and chaotic circumstances and making people afraid to leave their homes. And I've been hearing that a lot from community members, as well.
SCHMITZ: Yeah. I grew up in the Twin Cities metro area, and my Facebook feed has lit up with concern. How would you describe the mood there in the Twin Cities?
ANDERSON: Yeah. It is really tense here. People are afraid and unnerved at what feels like a military-style occupation of their city. There's also a sense of anger, too. Hundreds of community members have joined neighborhood watch groups. They're coordinating together to track federal immigration officers, sharing license plate information and the locations of those officers, and then observing them when they try to detain people. So when officers exit their vehicles, many of the observers are there nearly immediately honking horns, blowing whistles, filming. Here's what that sounds like.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame...
(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLES BLOWING)
SCHMITZ: Wow, Meg. That sounds really tense.
ANDERSON: Yeah. It absolutely is. And the sound you're hearing was a particularly tense exchange this afternoon in South Minneapolis. Immigration officers in a vehicle hit another car. I was there shortly after and could see that the back left side of the car was smashed in. My colleague Sergio Martínez-Beltrán and I interviewed the driver and his wife, who was in a separate car. They told us they're both U.S. citizens. They live in a northern suburb with their children. They were driving to drop off one of their cars at a mechanic and said the federal officers chased the husband, Christian Molina, before hitting him. His wife, Lorena Molina, says her husband was angry and didn't want to show his identification. She felt like she had to pacify the federal officers.
LORENA MOLINA: I was very scared. And so I had - I felt like I had the need to talk to the officers and say, hey, please ignore whatever he's saying. Let him live. And - yeah.
ANDERSON: Let him live...
SCHMITZ: Woah.
ANDERSON: ...She said. Yeah. So - and, you know, after that, there was a standoff there between hundreds of protesters and dozens of federal officers. Those officers eventually used tear gas to disperse that crowd. They left without detaining anyone. NPR has reached out to ICE for comment, but we have not heard back.
SCHMITZ: So this sounds very tense on the ground, and observers are still showing up to confront ICE officers?
ANDERSON: Yeah, they are. So an observer I spoke with - he asked not to be named because he fears for his safety for publicly criticizing the government - said the work has felt very dangerous. He's seen ICE officers driving erratically, speeding through intersections, hopping curbs. But he says, you know, the people who are watching, they're just normal people who care about their neighbors and want to protect them. And I should note - it's not illegal to film a federal officer or to make noise around them.
SCHMITZ: That's NPR's Meg Anderson. Meg, thank you.
ANDERSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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