← The Briefing with Jen Psaki
The Briefing with Jen Psaki
Americans grow more outraged as Trump's ICE grows more outrageous
00:41:16
While the Trump administration releases a steady stream of gaslighting statements about ICE arresting "the worst of the worst," Americans are seeing with their own eyes the abuse and cruelty of Trump's anti-immigrant agenda directed at innocent members of close, caring communities. An elderly man, barely clothed, dragged from his house, small children being detained from their parents and used as bait to trap family members. Americans are so thoroughly disgusted and outraged at what Trump and his lackeys are doing that they are braving inhuman cold by the tens of thousands to make their displeasure seen and heard.
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Part of your New year's goals. With LifeLock, save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com SpecialOffer Terms Apply There was big breaking news. There is big breaking news tonight, which is that the Trump Justice Department wanted to investigate the victim. This is what I was talking about when I said just it's not shocking, it just remains disgusting. They wanted to investigate Renee Goode and we knew they had no interest in investigating the ICE agent who shot and killed her. We knew that. We learned that shortly after she was shot. We knew they wanted to investigate her widow. We also learned that. But thanks to incredible new reporting from my colleagues Ken Delaney and Carol Leonig, we now know they wanted to investigate Renee Goode herself after she was shot three times and killed by an ICE agent. Now, the Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty. I just mentioned this to Chris, who was shut out of this investigation by the Trump Justice Department, is standing by with her reaction to that breaking news. The great and one and only Andrew Weissman is going to join me as well. That news is. I keep saying this, but it's worth repeating. It is so shocking and it is disgusting. That news makes me want to say lots of words I cannot say on tv, even on a Friday. But what has been clear from the moment Renee Goode was killed is that the Trump administration was going to do anything they could to lie and gaslight their way through this. What has also been clear is that the American people know what they saw when the ICE officer was killed, Renee Goode. And they know what they have seen as ICE has continued to terrorize their communities ever since. Wanna know How I know? Well, this was the scene on the streets of Minneapolis today. You can see it. And there's so many like this. Thousands upon thousands of people taking to the streets as part of an ICE out protest demanding federal immigration agents leave their city. And I know it's hard to get a true understanding of this by just looking at video, but those thousands of people took to the streets on one of the coldest days of the year. And wherever you're preparing for Snowmageddon, I promise you, it is colder. It was colder than that in Minneapolis today and across Minnesota. The high today, the High was negative 9 degrees Fahrenheit. The wind chill got as low as 35 degrees below zero. I kid you not. It genuinely got so cold that our MSNow camera on the ground froze. Not like the picture froze technically like that. The camera got so cold, it stopped working. That's how cold it was in Minneapolis today. And so the crowds of protesters there were massive. They were this massive. Look at. Look at the screen right now. These were the crowds outside of the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport this morning, protesting the airport allowing ICE to fly deportation flights out of one of its terminals. Protesters also said they were trying to send a message to the airline's Delta and signature aviation, which operate out of the airport, pressuring those airlines to join them in pressuring the airport to stop cooperating with ICE. And roughly 100 clergy members formed the front lines of that protest. And you can see them on the screen kneeling and praying, singing and peacefully refusing to leave on the road outside the airport's main terminal. They were all arrested today peacefully and without incident. Now, today, we also saw hundreds of businesses shut their doors across the city of Minneapolis in solidarity with the protesters. It was part of a general strike with organizers urging residents, no work, no school, no shopping, ICE out. And we're gonna speak with one of those business owners who shut his doors in solidarity. I just mentioned this to Chris, too, a little bit later in this hour. Now, organizing a protest, this massive, Organizing a general strike, getting businesses that have already suffered from weeks of diminished business because of this ICE crackdown, getting so many of them to shut their doors in protest, all of that is extremely hard on any day. But on a day when the high was negative 9 degrees, organizing something like that feels, well, nearly impossible. And yet the people of Minneapolis did it. Thousands of people took off work and took to the streets in the bitter cold to demand ICE get out of their city. And that tells you a whole lot about the people of Minneapolis, of course. And the people of Minnesota, including how pissed off they are at ice. And the reasons keep multiplying. There are a lot of reasons they're pissed off at ice. I mean, we brought you the news earlier this week of masked federal agents dragging a US citizen, Chong Lithao, out of his home in St Paul over the weekend, forcing him out into the bitter cold while he was wearing nothing but his boxers and slip on shoes. Now, d just claims that the arrest was made amidst an attempt by ICE to detain convicted sex offenders they believed lived at his address. But Mr. That was not a sex offender. He says he has no criminal record at all and he's a fully naturalized US Citizen. And to make matters worse, we have since learned that the man ICE claims they were looking for was already in prison. In fact, he has been locked up since September of all the way back last year. And ICE was aware, or should have been aware that the guy they claimed they were targeting was in prison because the agency had already requested that he be put into their custody upon his release next year. They were tracking all of it somewhere there. But despite all of that, they grabbed this poor man, they dragged him out into the freezing cold and detained him and questioned him for an hour. Anyway, we've all heard a claim about what this is all about. I'm so sick of hearing this over and over again from ice, from the Trump White House, from anyone who's speaking on their behalf or defending them, that they are only going after the worst of the worst. They are only targeting people who aren't following the rules. But the thing is, over and over again, that is proven to be a complete lie by now. You've also likely seen the images of this adorable 5 year old little boy, Liam Ramos. Now that's our picture of him on Tuesday when mass federal immigration agents detained him and his father outside their residence as Liam was returning home from preschool. Now, a local school official says that the federal agents told Liam to knock on the door to his home to see if other people were inside, essentially using a five year old preschooler as bait. I mean, the idea that any administration, anyone would use a five year old to lure people out of a home all in the name of their cruel immigration policy is so disturbing it is hard to imagine anyone with a soul sees a photo of that little boy in his bunny hat and feels like this is all okay, how is that even possible? His family and his lawyer also say that Liam and his father were asylum seekers. They basically say that they entered the US Legally at an official border crossing site. With the government's permission, they had requested asylum and the case is reportedly still active. So even by the Trump administration's own cruel logic, Liam and his father were following the rules. Now, the Trump administration has made all sorts of claims to justify why they arrested Liam and his father. All of them so far are contested.
- [08:20]
D
The facts are actually that this little.
- [08:23]
E
Boy was abandoned by his own father.
- [08:25]
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His own father was being approached by.
- [08:27]
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ICE agents when he darted, ran and abandoned the child. Our law enforcement, in these frigid temperatures.
- [08:34]
D
Stayed with the child, tried to bring.
- [08:36]
E
Him into custody with the mother, who actually would not take the child into custody, which is so sad, so horrific.
- [08:43]
A
When they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran. So the story is that ICE detained a five year old. Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five year old child freeze to death? First of all, both of those two people have to sleep with themselves at night. So there is that. But that is the administration line. They claim Liam's father ran and that no one at the scene would take the five year old. So they did for his safety. That's what their claim is. Now, local school leaders dispute that account, saying that several bystanders saw Liam's father run not away from his child, but towards his house to alert his wife not to open the door. An adult who lived in that home but was outside at the time told the Washington Post that they begged the agents to leave Liam with them. The chair of the local school board even arrived at the scene while this was all unfolding. She said that she and others also told federal agents that school officials could help, saying, quote, there was ample opportunity to safely hand that child off to adults. But they didn't. They arrested 5 year old Liam in his bunny hat. And we have since learned that they have flown Liam and his father to the South Texas Family Residential center in Dilley, Texas. And here is how. Greg Bevino, the Border Patrol commander in charge of the operation in Minneapolis, who you can see her personally throwing a gas canister at protesters earlier this week. Here's how Greg pavino justified sending 5 year old Liam Ramos to an immigration prison.
- [10:11]
B
That child is in the least restrictive setting possible. When I say that we're experts, both Border Patrol and ice, in dealing with immigration cases that involve children, probably the most experienced anywhere in the United States by any domestic law enforcement agency, challenge any other law enforcement agency anywhere nationwide to show me the fantastic care that ICE and U.S. border Patrol provide children.
- [10:38]
A
I cannot even. But let me just start with the facts here. Now, while dhs, as you just heard, claims the facility where Liam and his father have been brought in Texas meets federal detention standards and undergoes regular audits and inspections, just last month, court filings painted a very bleak picture of the same facility. Lawyers who visited this facility and spoke to the families detained their alleged horrific conditions, such as denial of critical medical care and worms and mold in the food. Court filings about the facility described one child who had not received appropriate treatment for an ear infection and was experiencing hearing loss and another child who had food poisoning and was told to only return for medical care if they vomited eight times. Now, no surprise, ICE, of course, disputes all of that. But that is where Liam and his father are now, despite no evidence that they did anything wrong, despite them going through all of the proper processes to request asylum, despite Liam being just a five year old preschool kid. Again, the reasons to be furious with ICE right now, particularly in Minneapolis, keep multiplying. People are mad about immigrants, about how immigrants are being treated. People are mad at how US Citizens are being treated. People are mad at how protesters protesting all of this are being treated. And underpinning all of this, at the core of the outrage in Minneapolis tonight is still the rage over the ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good. And tonight, we unfortunately have even more outrageous news on that front. Like I said, at the very top of the show tonight, Ms. Now's Carol Leonig and Kendelane and report that the Justice Department sought to investigate Renee Goode herself, despite the fact that she was dead because of an ICE officer killed at the hands of a gun from an ICE officer. And I just want to read directly from that piece. It says, quote, after Good was killed earlier on January 7, FBI agents initially drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an ICE officer shot into the vehicle. They were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of the investigation from a civil rights probe investigating the ice age into an investigation into a suspect assault on an officer, meaning an investigation into Renee Nicole Goode. A federal magistrate judge rejected that warrant, noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant. Now, the situation was so outrageous, and it is outrageous, clearly, just even knowing those details, that two sources say an FBI supervisor in the Minneapolis field office resigned over it. And for what it's worth, an FBI spokesperson tells Ms. NOW that it does not comment on personnel matters and that the facts on the ground do not support a civil rights investigation. Okay, but when the federal Government is snatching people off the streets of Minneapolis and lying through its teeth basically, every time they open their mouths, when they're going after kids and using them as bait to meet their arrest quotas, when they are refusing to investigate a fatal shooting by one of their own agents and are digging up dirt to smear the victim, I think it's pretty clear why an entire city would shut down to protest in subzero temperatures. And now the whole country is watching, as they should. Joining me now is Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty. Her office has jurisdiction over homicide investigations in Minneapolis, including any potential prosecution of the federal agent who killed Renee Nicole. Good. Thank you so much for being here with me tonight and for being with all of us and helping people understand who are watching and are not living in Minneapolis. What exactly is going on on the ground. I just want to start. There's so much news that's always breaking on this, and I just want to start by asking you about news that broke tonight that The FBI and U.S. attorney's office were instructed to change the subject of their probe, which was initially a civil rights investigation into the ICE agent, of course, and investigate Good herself for criminal liability, even though she was already dead. This is obviously horrific for anybody, even who's not a lawyer, to hear, but as a longtime prosecutor, what's your reaction to that?
- [14:39]
E
Excuse me. It's not surprising because we had had conversations with both the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office to make sure that there was a joint investigation with our state law enforcement agency, the bca, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the FBI, they had worked together. They worked together frequently. And so we had that worked out, and then it suddenly got revoked. And we had heard that that came from the US Attorney directly, and clearly that was on political grounds. And so it does not surprise me at all that an FBI agent who actually was on the ground and felt that there should be an investigation was so upset about it and I would say probably had so much integrity that she chose to resign. So that part of it isn't surprising, I guess. You know, I heard you say it's not surprising, but shocking that they would then turn the investigation on Renee Goode or her widow.
- [15:35]
A
Yeah, that is the part. The resignation doesn't shock me. I think the part about it is that they would be so galling as to try to change that. Todd Blanche and others would be directing local FBI officials and the local U.S. attorney to change the focus of the investigation onto a woman who was killed by an ICE agent. That part Feels just galling to me.
- [16:02]
E
There are a lot of things that are galling here and I would say to begin with, this whole thing is justified because there are claims that these people ice are out getting the worst of the work, whatever that means. I don't like that phrase. But you've brought up some great examples of the people that they have targeted, including the elderly Hmong gentleman who was, is a citizen and was dragged out of his home in his boxers and his Crocs. And the only reason he had that blanket around his shoulders was because one of his family members tried to drape it on him before he went outside into the freezing weather. It's about humiliation and there's just no caution at all. And it just, you know, the story about the 5 year old child that is relatively shocking in that his father did everything he legally could do to comply with what our government asked him to do. He had permission from our government to be here and go through the process to seek asylum. So they were here relying on our own government. His father has no convictions whatsoever. So what is the point of targeting him? How do you justify that in terms of public safety? And it's really frustrating actually to hear people talk about the fact that this five year old has been detained because what do we mean when we say detained? We're talking about a jail, we're talking about a cage, we're talking about a five year old child. And I know the administration keeps saying, well, what else were we supposed to do? And I can tell you it's not take the child, not take the father. Understanding that they were undergoing or going through the asylum process, there was absolutely no reason to detain, arrest either one of them. And now they're both in Texas, apparently in a facility. And I'd ask anybody out there in the administration, if that was your five year old child, would that be okay? And I think the truth of it is it would not be okay, but.
- [18:05]
A
It is okay for this administration, which is incredibly telling. And there were a number of people through a range of reporting that were willing to take this five year old child, including people from the school board. I know you have been, you have the ability, okay, your office has the ability to file charges of court in this investigation. You don't have cooperation, as everybody knows out there, and we try to repeat from the FBI and then providing information, what should people know about, that's obviously incredibly difficult. But the impact of that and the likelihood that you will be able to have enough information to actually make a decision about filing charges so what people.
- [18:43]
E
Should know about it is that contrary to what the administration keeps saying is there is nothing such as absolute immunity, that is not a thing. If an ICE agent violates our criminal laws, under state law, we do have jurisdiction to charge. So I think that that's really important because the administration keeps repeating this lie about the fact that they have absolute immunity. They do not. Now, when a Minnesota police officer takes the life of a community member, our bca, that Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, steps in. By law, they do a complete and thorough investigation. They don't make recommendations, but they submit the investigation to the county attorney. We're called county attorneys in Minnesota, by the way. Everybody else calls us DAs, but they hand it over to the county attorney. And then we decide after looking at it and applying the law, is our charges appropriate or not? And an important thing here in Minnesota, and I think across the country, is that the BCA's investigation, once the case is all done, is public. They actually post it so people can go online and they can see exactly what the investigation showed. And when we take a look at these types of cases, we are very transparent about what our decision is and why we made the decision. And I think that that's appropriate. How else do people in this country respect and trust a government unless they're being transparent? So, you know, the. The federal government did take the car, the gun shell casings, but this is not a case about how she died. So, you know, the autopsy report will be very important. We have created a public portal, and we received a substantial amount of information from Community, which has been helpful to us. So I would say to people, yes, it would be a lot nicer if the FBI would share whatever they had, although we know they stopped their investigation. So I'm not even sure how far they went. But the BCA is doing interviews right now. We are coordinating with them. We speak multiple times a day. So they are collecting all of the information that's available to them. We're collecting information from the community. There are a lot of people out there that have information, but they're afraid. You know, who do we give it to and are we going to be outed and are we going to be threatened and targeted? So we are working with Community on that. You know, it's important here to get this decision right. I want to be clear about that. And so when we reach a point where we think we have all the information we're going to get, we will make a decision about whether we have enough information to charge, if we do charge, or if we don't charge, we will be very public and transparent about that decision and why.
- [21:27]
A
It sounds like that's a very helpful explanation, understanding for everybody out there, including myself, it sounds like what you're saying is charges are still possible. You just have not reached the point where you have enough information quite yet. But charges are certainly still possible.
- [21:40]
E
Absolutely. We have jurisdiction here. I think it's very complex in that, and this is very unusual. Should we charge, the likelihood is that Ross or the government will try to remove this case to federal court. But the interesting thing about that is even if that happens, state law applies and our office would still be prosecuting it. So our office not is not removed from the case and state law applies. And so there are some federal defenses. And that's something we're doing intensive research on right now because we want to make sure we understand what the law is and what we would be facing if we did. Go ahead. I think the big differences would be we would have a federal judge and a jury pool would be drawn from all of Minnesota instead of just Hennepin County.
- [22:31]
A
Mary Moriarty, thank you for what you do and thank you for helping explain it to all of us as well. I really appreciate you being here tonight. Very busy weeks.
- [22:38]
E
Thank you.
- [22:39]
A
We have to sneak in a quick break, but we are continuing to follow this exclusive breaking news from Ms. Now, the Trump Justice Department tried to investigate Renee Good for criminal liability even after her death. It is so crazy every time you say that. Andrew Weissman is the former general counsel at the FBI, as you all know, and he joins us next.
- [23:01]
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- [24:23]
A
As we continue to digest the news tonight that the Trump Justice Department wanted to investigate Renee Nicole Goode even after she was killed, it's important to point out that so many career DOJ officials quit their jobs over the way the Trump administration chose to handle this investigation. Six leaders at the Civil Rights division of DOJ quit. Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota quit. And tonight we learned that the FBI agent who actually tried to investigate the ICE agent who killed Renee Goode quit too. And the avalanche of career DOJ officials who have resigned in protest over the handling of this investigation is to say nothing of the career officials who are simultaneously being pushed out. I mean, earlier today we learned Trump's FBI director, Kash Patel launched another purge at the FBI. Emma Snow reported that as many as six agents in Miami were forced out over their connection to the FBI search of Mar? A Lago. So was the special Agent in charge in Atlanta, and so was the assistant Director in charge of the New York field office. So that's where we are right now. Just over a year into this administration, people are resigning after refusing to do the wrong thing and they're getting pushed out for doing the right thing. Joining me now is Andrew Weissman. He's the former general counsel for the FBI and a well known and well loved msnow legal analyst. Andrew, there's always so many things to ask you about. I just wanted to start by asking you about this new reporting. I don't want to brush over it because it is so galling to me that Trump's DOJ wanted to investigate Renee Good for criminal liability. It feels, and that it was directed, it sounds like from the reporting from, of course, Todd Blanche and from kind of main HQ there to the US Attorney and to the local FBI office in Minneapolis. But what was your reaction when you read the reporting? What do you make of it?
- [26:12]
B
I had two reactions. So one is I wanna make sure people understand what is normal so they. And how abnormal and outrageous this is. What is normal is that there is an investigation of the shooting and of the agent who did the shooting. And that is, that happens all the time. That is standard operating procedure. Even when you might know at headquarters that it's unlikely that the officer did anything wrong. Wrong. The agent knows, everyone knows there's going to be an investigation to make sure that there was nothing wrong there. And, you know, who wants to know that? Obviously, the public wants to know that. The organization wants to know, did everything go right? If not, what else could be done to make sure this, like, if something went wrong, that it doesn't happen again, what policies need to change? The agent, if nothing happened, the agent wants it because the agent wants to be cleared and showed that they were in a terrible situation and that not they didn't do anything wrong. The only reason to not have an investigation is one that is hard to think of. Let's say there's no good reason for it. And then contrast that with the idea that you would open an investigation of the actual victim. And to me, that is a playbook that we've seen over and over again. And, you know, let's just go back to Mr. Brago Garcia, who is the man who was illegally extracted from this country where court after court said he was taken and removed and shoved into a prison in El Salvador illegally. The Supreme Court, 9 to 0, thought that. When has that ever happened in this day and age? And what was the reaction of the administration? It was to tell the Trump lawyer who at the Department of Justice, that they were to go to court and say that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and that attorney is now a whistleblower and said that he refused to do that as there was no evidence, just to support that. It's the idea that if you can tarnish the victim, if you can tell the public, oh, this is a bad person, that somehow it was all right to do something wrong. And that, to me, is unbelievable. For the Department of Justice, of all agencies to have that view. You know, criminal defendants generally have done something really bad, and it doesn't mean that they're not entitled to full due process under our law.
- [28:51]
A
I wonder. I just talked about this a bit, and I'm sure many people watching have read or have heard about this new purge that, that Kash Patel has undertaken as well. So it's these kind of intermingling of stories. At the same time, you have resignations and you also have people who don't want to do the wrong thing. They're being asked and people being pushed out who are doing the right thing. You have worked within these departments. What is the impact of that? All kind of on the overarching work of the Justice Department and the FBI.
- [29:25]
B
So I'd just like everyone to think about. Is that making the country safer?
- [29:31]
A
No.
- [29:32]
B
That is supposed to be the number one goal, the selection of who should be the FBI director who is in leadership positions. You want the most experienced, the people with the best judgment. You want adults in the room getting rid of that brain trust. And that experience is something that you are doing not with the safety of America as your number one priority. I have told this story, but when I first got to the FBI and I saw the volume of true national security threats, it is. It is sort of numbing as to how serious the. The potential crimes are and what could happen in this country. And I was so thankful that Robert Mueller and the senior team around me was looking at this and had the experience to know what to do, what to take most seriously. And I don't think that you can say that Kash Patel is the person that you would have picked as the best person to be in that job performing that function.
- [30:48]
A
I will say it. He's waiting for instruction from daddy in the White House, who is certainly not an expert himself. Andrew Weissman, thank you. As always. Thank you for being here and providing so much clarity and understanding to all of us. Thank you. Coming up, the streets of Minneapolis were full today. We've already shared some incredible visuals of that with you. Full of thousands upon thousands of people protesting the Trump administration. But they started the day empty because of one of the most unbelievable feats of organizing in modern times. Someone at the center of the biggest citywide strike in decades joins me now. Next. Flowers die in three days. Matching underwear from Meundies. That's a gift that lasts. Meundies creates matching prints for couples and friends. Same adorable designs and different cuts for each of you. All made from their signature ultramodal fabric that feels impossibly soft. With 90,000 five star reviews, MeUndies matching prints are the perfect gift. Valentine's Day is February 14th, so don't wait. Get exclusive deals up to 50% off@meundies.com sxm code sxm. That's meundies.com code sxm. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well, from roof repair to emergency plumbing and more done well. So the next time you have a home project, leave it to the pros. Get started@angie.com Tyler Redicure from 2311 Racing.
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No purchase necessary. VGW Group voidware prohibited by law. CTC's 21 plus sponsored by Jumba Casino. Today in the Twin Cities, the day started with streets that were empty. Hundreds of schools in the area closed. Many of Minnesota's largest museums closed. Hundreds upon hundreds of restaurants, shops and other businesses closed as well. But then those empty streets filled up, not with the usual Friday crowds starting their weekends, but with protesters and marchers in sub zero temperatures all saying with one clear voice that ice should get out of their communities. One of the many, many businesses to close up today was a bar called the Black Heart. That's H A r t of St. Paul. It's both a gay bar and a soccer. And that's something that has some extra resonance in the Twin Cities these days because if you go back across the Mississippi river from St. Paul to Minneapolis and back to the morning of January 7th, on the back windshield of a red Honda Pilot was a sticker for a sports team, the Kansas City Current, a pro women's soccer team. And the car with the sticker was driven by a new Twin Cities resident who had recently moved from Kansas City with her partner, a queer soccer fan named Renee Nicole. Joining me now is Wes Burdyne. He is the owner of the Black Heart of St. Paul, one of the many, many businesses closed in today's general strike. Wes, it is great to see you. Thank you for being here with me and for what you did today. Let me start by asking you about your decision to close your bar and take part in this citywide strike.
- [34:07]
C
Yeah. Well, thank you for helping tell the story of the Twin Cities and all of Minnesota. It's not an easy time to close on your busiest day of the week, in the slowest time of the month or of the year. And I think it just shows the fact that you have over a thousand businesses that are shutting down, small businesses who are struggling. It shows you how important and historical this moment is. And so it's something I'm proud to do. There's lots of businesses all around us who are having to shut down every day involuntarily because of the economic terrorism going on by the Trump administration. And people are too afraid to show up at work.
- [34:46]
A
I know that people are it's impacting your business anyway in general because people are Afraid to show up at work. People are afraid to leave their homes. It's just. I can't be overstated what is happening to the community there. You were also, as I understand it, at the march in downtown Minneapolis today. It is. It is so, so cold in the Twin Cities today. Maybe not to you, but to most people, a high of negative 9 Fahrenheit is very, very cold. But we've been showing video and photos, but tell us about that march and what it was like.
- [35:18]
C
You know, they said it was cold, but all I felt was love out there. It was about 50,000 people, I'm told. I couldn't see the end of it. It was amazing to watch. It's just an incredible moment right now, seeing the Twin Cities, all of our band together and neighbors come together and protect our other neighbors who are afraid. And it felt amazing to be out there, to be honest. It was something I was deeply proud to do.
- [35:46]
A
Your business was open yesterday, as I understand it. There was a. You hosted a comedy show and a dance party to benefit anti ice efforts. That sounds fun and amazing. I wish I could have been there last night. You're gonna be open tomorrow. What's so interesting to me is that. But it also seems like there's a story of businesses supporting people, people supporting people. Tell us what that support has looked like. I mean, you said it's the slowest time of the year. It's tough to close on a Friday night. No question. Other businesses face this challenge, but how are people working together to kind of keep each other afloat right now?
- [36:26]
C
Yeah, well, some of it is just being able to keep sane. Right. The drag king show that we had last night was a blast. We had amazing time, and it is really important to keep sane. We also had people bought from around the world, bought $1,000 tab for all the people of the Twin Cities who wanted to come out and enjoy themselves. So that's one thing. But the real story is that in every neighborhood, you have businesses and people and neighbors stepping up with whatever resources they have. You've got things like just the tiny neighborhood that we're in, the Midway in St. Paul. They've raised $72,000 for diapers, and now they're a diaper distribution group. And it's amazing to see. You know, mutual aid gets thrown around, charity, all these things, but it's really neighbors coming and supporting one another. And that's why there's two emotions going on, and one is pure rage. Because we are being attacked. Our children are being targeted by these Sicko creeps. And then there's also this intense joy because neighbors taking care of one another is an amazingly beautiful thing.
- [37:33]
A
It's so I think we've all learned so much about the strength of the and I don't just mean in the negative 9 degree, but the strength of the people of Minneapolis. It's been really beautiful to learn about. I hope if we come to Minneapolis, we can come visit your bar. It sounds like an amazing place. Thank you for being here with me tonight and sharing with our viewers just what's going on on the ground because it's really hard to know unless you're there. I really appreciate you being here.
- [37:56]
C
You're welcome anytime, Jen. Thank you.
- [37:59]
A
Thank you. We'll be coming. Okay. Up next, as the people of Minneapolis and people all over the country continue to register their outrage with the Trump administration, we're going to show you some exclusive reporting and exclusive video that the Trump administration definitely does not want you to see. We'll be right back. Every day we see headlines describing mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents being kidnapped off the streets or ripped from their homes and workplaces. And it's not just five year old Liam Ramos in his blue bunny hat. This is happening all over the country. According to the Marshall Project, since Trump took office one year ago, at least 3,800 children under the age of 18, including 20 infants, have been held in ICE custody. Emma Snow correspondent Antoni Hilton recently traveled to Houston, Texas, where she spoke with a 16 year old boy named Arnaldo Bazan, an American citizen who was chased and injured by masked immigration agents as they tried to arrest his undocumented father.
- [39:06]
D
Within seconds, a fear the 16 year old US citizen had long suppressed comes to the surface. His undocumented father might be taken by federal agents.
- [39:19]
A
Almost. We didn't know what was happening. They were still chasing us. And that's when they started hitting her.
- [40:09]
C
Car, trying to flip us.
- [40:11]
D
As Arnoldo continues to film, agents appear to ram into the Bazan's car at least four times.
- [40:28]
A
Joining me now is Ms. Now correspondent and co host of the Weekend primetime, Antonia Hilton. Antonia, that was, I've seen it before and it just still, it's gut wrenching every time you watch that video. And it's just incredible work and journalism you did. So thank you for bringing it to all of us. Let me start there. It's such a pleasure to work with you. Let me start by asking you. The documentary is both harrowing and important as people could see from just the sliver there. And they can watch the whole thing. But explain to us what happened next to Arnaldo and his father after they were chased by ice.
- [41:05]
D
Jen, what happens next after what you see in the car there as agents ram into their vehicle. By the way, Arnulfo, the father in that scene there, he's on his way trying to take his son to school in the morning. This happens around 7:30 in the morning on a Thursday back in October. And shortly after the car rammings that you see there, they end up stopping at a restaurant depot. The father tries to go inside. He has friends who are there. He thinks he might be safe. But agents very quickly follow after him and they tackle both him and his 16 year old US citizen son to the ground. And it's an incredibly violent encounter. Both of them are held to the ground. Arnoldo describes seeing his father get kicked and punched repeatedly. And we obtained three different angles of bystander video that shows that Arnoldo was held in a chokehold, which for the most part within DHS has been banned, especially when used against minors. And in the aftermath of that, he ends up having to go to a hospital, a trauma center in Texas where he receives treatment. And we obtained 911 calls showing that nurses even called the police in Houston to report that this boy had been choked and beaten. And while he's getting treatment in the hospital after that, Jen, his father is transported about an hour away to Conroe, Texas where agents booked him. And he alleges that agents told him, you know, if, if you don't immediately sign your deportation papers, we're going to go after your son and send him to juviegen.
- [42:40]
A
I know. And this is what's so powerful about seeing it on video and hearing you describe it. It's. We are seeing it with our own eyes here. But I know you did receive a statement from DHS regarding that. What did they say?
- [42:54]
D
Well, first gen, they deny that agents assaulted Arnoldo and Arnolfo. But for anyone who has opportunity to see the documentary both on MSNOW's YouTube channel and on our website, but it's also going to air tomorrow on msnow at 7pm eastern time. You can see the images of what happens to the father and the son and judge that for yourself. The other interesting piece of their statement to us, Jen, is that they say that actually Arnulfo is the person who rams his car into the federal agent's vehicle. When I informed DHS that I had actually obtained the video, the exclusive video that you just showed there, showing that it was the other way around, that agents actually rammed into their car four times. They stopped answering the majority of my questions and they had previously been willing to do an interview with me. But after I told them that I had this video along with other evidence, police reports, as well as a police report showing that the boy's cell phone was taken from him during this encounter with federal agents and then later discovered to be sold in a tech for cash pawn shop kiosk right near the detention center where the agents happened to take his f. They wouldn't answer any questions about that either. Jen.
- [44:06]
A
Antonia hilton, it is so incredibly powerful, I think for anybody who's trying to understand this moment and what is happening to families and the trauma that this is inflicting, what we're all trying to report on every single day. This is a must watch. It's disturbing and stirring, but that's exactly why people should watch it. Thank you so much for what you do and for your reporting and of course, for being here up late with us tonight. Thank you again.
- [44:32]
D
Of course, Jen. Thank you.
- [44:34]
A
Okay, we've got to sneak in a very quick break, but we're going to be right back. That does it for me tonight. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co founder of angie. When you use ANGIE for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well, from roof repair to emergency plumbing and more done well. So the next time you have a home project, leave it to the pros. Get started@angie.com.