AILSA CHANG, HOST:
President Trump today threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to suppress ongoing protests in Minneapolis. Tensions remain high after an ICE officer killed 37-year-old Renee Macklin Good last week. Frustrations boiled over last night after a Venezuelan immigrant was shot in the leg by a federal agent who said he was attacked. NPR's Jasmine Garsd is in Minneapolis and joins us now with the latest. Hi, Jas.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: Hi.
CHANG: So what does it feel like right there now? Like, what's the mood like?
GARSD: You know, last night, a Minnesotan asked me, does the rest of the country understand what is happening here? So let me paint a picture. The mood is very tense. Homeland Security says there are more than 2,000 ICE agents on the ground and more on the way. A lot of people out here are terrified of retaliation for protesting and don't want to give their full names. Like this young protester - he asked to go by his first name only, Cameron.
CAMERON: They have the city turned into a war zone just like they want it to be. They're here to scare people.
GARSD: Right now, the streets are fairly empty. A lot of stores have their doors locked. And on every street corner, there are one or two people, citizens, just standing, monitoring for ICE agents. The level of organized resistance to ICE here is like nothing I've seen anywhere else in the U.S. Thousands of people are on messaging apps right now, sharing license plates numbers of cars which they suspect are ICE agents in order to warn their neighbors.
CHANG: Well, last night, as we mentioned, a Venezuelan immigrant was shot in the leg, which I saw led to more protests. And I understand that you got there right after that incident. What did you see?
GARSD: Yeah. Homeland Security has issued a statement saying the federal immigration agent was acting in self-defense after he was attacked by the immigrant and two other people with a shovel and a broom handle. The Trump administration is calling protesters professional agitators and insurrectionists. I met a lot of families there, older adults, different ethnicities. It was a very mixed group. I spoke to a nurse who said she's afraid of ICE retaliation for protesting. She wanted to only be referred to by her first name, Karen. And she asked me, is it normal how scared I am right now?
KAREN: It's my first time out here, but I'm a nurse. And I'm afraid people are going to get hurt, so I'm here to keep my neighbors safe.
(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE BLOWING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: We don't want (inaudible) here.
GARSD: Moments after we spoke, ICE agents started throwing what seemed like flash grenades. There were very loud bangs, and we ran away.
CHANG: OK. Well, as we said earlier, President Trump is now threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act in order to tamp down these protests we're talking about. How are Minneapolis officials responding to that threat?
GARSD: Well, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said there were no grounds to invoke the act. In a statement, he added, quote, "if Donald Trump does invoke the Insurrection Act, I am prepared to challenge that in - action in court." But, you know, people I spoke to out here expressed frustration with state leaders. Last night at the protest, I met a mom who told me she was scared of speaking out against the government. She didn't want to use her full name, but this is her message to local officials.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Step up more. Do something. You know, come outside with the people. Support us some more. Like, you're just doing press conferences for what? Like, you're our government. Like, come outside and help us.
CHANG: But Jasmine, can you just explain for people what invoking the Insurrection Act specifically means? Like, what would that look like?
GARSD: Absolutely. So the president has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act multiple times. And the act is one way for a president to send in the military, but it's different from the National Guard deployments we saw last year in that the Insurrection Act goes further. It allows the military to carry out local law enforcement functions. You know, every person I have spoken to out here has told me they are furious and they have no intention of backing down. So there's a sense here that we're at a boiling point and that invoking the Insurrection Act would only inflame the situation.
CHANG: That is NPR's Jasmine Garsd in Minneapolis. Thank you so much, Jas.
GARSD: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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