SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
People are taking to the streets across the country today to voice opposition to the Trump administration - it is the third iteration of the No Kings protests. The demonstrations are occurring amid a new war with Iran, a partial government shutdown that has crippled air travel, and after the aggressive immigration operation in Minnesota that left two U.S. citizens dead. NPR's Meg Anderson joins us from the Twin Cities now. Meg, thanks so much for being with us.
MEG ANDERSON, BYLINE: Thanks for having me.
SIMON: Why are these protests happening today?
SIMON: What are the organizers demanding?
ANDERSON: Organizers have highlighted federal officers arresting immigrants without warrants, President Trump taking military action abroad without congressional approval, and threatening to nationalize the country's elections, which goes against the Constitution. Bethany Winkels is with Minnesota AFL-CIO. That's one of the main organizers of today's protest. And she says all those issues might seem unrelated. But...
BETHANY WINKELS: Those things are connected because they are an assault on our democracy, and so people should, hopefully, bring their own issue. But if we don't understand that none of these can be taken as individual instances, we are nowhere.
ANDERSON: And, you know, there is evidence that a lot of Americans are not happy with the job President Trump is doing. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week, only a little more than a third of Americans said they approve.
SIMON: Organizers are calling the rally in St. Paul the flagship of today's protest. What are people there telling you?
ANDERSON: Well, you know, on the one hand, there is a lot of energy for these protests. The community was really galvanized during the ICE surge here. And so the protest is expected to be very large. There will be some big names in attendance - Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Jane Fonda, Bernie Sanders. I spoke to one woman named Amy Carpenter (ph). She's a retired first-grade teacher. She lives in a Minneapolis suburb. She told me the ICE campaign was a big motivator for her to go to the protest today.
AMY CARPENTER: The stuff that was happening with ICE in Minneapolis was just incredibly upsetting. There's still incredible amount of fear and trauma in people, and it's just so wrong. It's just so wrong.
ANDERSON: And local organizers, you know, that includes activists and immigrant rights groups, are billing it as a day of healing and remembering the two American citizens killed by federal officers here.
SIMON: Meg, during the height of ICE operations there, you talked to a lot of Minnesotans who said they were fearful of going outside, let alone protesting. Do you hear any of that now?
ANDERSON: Yeah. So when you talk to Minnesotans in the aftermath of all of this, you know, they often say, it's a lot quieter, but it's not over. As of early March, there were still around 650 immigration officers in the state. That's about three or four times the size it normally is. So people are still on edge. You know, there are still immigrant families here who are mostly staying home, and a lot of people witnessed or experienced immigration officers using a lot of force against protesters and people observing them. And so, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if some people who would normally go to this protest don't go.
And on the national No Kings website, there is some level of vigilance about being targeted by the federal government. In the event's tips on how to prepare for a protest, they talk about using encrypted communications apps, scrubbing metadata from photos and videos before posting them online and avoiding taking photos of other protesters' faces.
SIMON: NPR's Meg Anderson. Thanks so much.
ANDERSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
