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The fatal shooting of Renee Macklin Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis has ignited a national debate about immigration enforcement, especially in the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota, where Democratic Senator Tina Smith is retiring, and the candidates vying to replace her are trying to meet the moment. Minnesota Public Radio's Dana Ferguson reports.
DANA FERGUSON, BYLINE: U.S. Democratic representative Angie Craig says it enraged her when fellow Minnesota representative Tom Emmer, a Republican, reacted like this just after the shooting.
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TOM EMMER: People need to understand that there is a ICE officer standing directly in front of the car when it starts to accelerate.
FERGUSON: That was Emmer, the House Republican majority whip, on Fox News last week. He said Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who shot Macklin Good, acted in self-defense. And the Trump administration agrees, with Vice President JD Vance saying Good's death was of her own making. To Craig, ICE officers escalated the situation. At the U.S. Capitol in D.C., she confronted Emmer that afternoon, yelling as colleagues intervened to pull them apart.
ANGIE CRAIG: Simply told him on the House floor that this political stunt by this administration got a woman killed in Minneapolis today.
FERGUSON: Later, Craig reflected on the exchange.
CRAIG: We have a number of Republicans across this country who refuse to stand up to this administration, refuse to call for the rule of law. And, you know, I'm not going to let Tom Emmer or anybody else get away with it.
FERGUSON: Craig is a moderate Democrat from a swing district that hugs the St. Paul suburbs and spans down into farm country. She's running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. Her Democratic opponent in the race, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, quickly seized on Craig's voting record on immigration, and her campaign said Craig's dustup with Emmer was a political stunt.
PEGGY FLANAGAN: Well, I think this is actually one of the clearest points of contrast between me and my primary opponent, Angie Craig.
FERGUSON: Flanagan points to Craig's vote a year ago in support of the GOP-led Laken Riley Act. The policy allows for detention of people without legal status who are charged with crimes ranging from minor theft to assault on law enforcement.
FLANAGAN: I just - I think that Minnesotans have a really clear choice. Do you want someone who votes along with Donald Trump and the - you know, the agents who are terrorizing our communities, or do you want someone who, you know, believes that we can have secure borders, comprehensive immigration reform, a pathway to citizenship?
FERGUSON: Craig defends that vote by saying the law provides for due process before deportation. And she says Flanagan would have problems of her own if she faced Republicans in the fall.
Minnesota's tracked hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud in state government programs, and the Trump administration has pinned blame on Governor Tim Walz for not doing more to prevent it. Craig says as Walz's second in command, Flanagan could take heat for that.
CRAIG: Pushing Governor Walz in front of that bus by himself, as she has been his partner for seven years, is kind of disgusting, quite frankly.
FERGUSON: Flanagan's campaign says Craig is the one refusing to take accountability and is putting the seat in jeopardy. For their part, Republicans in the running are standing behind the ICE officer who shot Macklin Good.
DAVID HANN: You can't keep encouraging people to defy the law and not see bad things happen.
FERGUSON: That's David Hann, a candidate who is former chair of the Minnesota Republican Party. He faulted Democrats for demonizing federal law enforcement. Republicans hope that this moment where Minnesota's blue leaders are under fire can help flip the seat that's been in Democratic hands for 16 years.
For NPR News, I'm Dana Ferguson in St. Paul, Minnesota. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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