MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
As the Trump administration steps up immigration enforcement, some ICE agents are encountering protests by bystanders. As NPR's Martin Kaste reports, a couple of those confrontations have become heated. Protesters say ICE tactics are heavy-handed, while the government is warning the public not to interfere with agents.
MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: There have been showdowns recently between civilians and ICE agents in Minneapolis, Chicago and, last Friday, San Diego...
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #1: (Crosstalk).
KASTE: ...Where ICE raided an Italian restaurant with employees that the government suspected of working illegally with fake documents. Angry bystanders swarmed the agents' cars, and agents used flash bangs to disperse the crowd.
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SEAN ELO-RIVERA: It got out of control because of the way that they showed up.
KASTE: Sean Elo-Rivera is a San Diego council member. After the raid, he posted a photo of the agents on Instagram, calling them terrorists. That got him angry backlash online, but he says the purpose of that operation was intimidation.
ELO-RIVERA: They wanted to make a show of it, so they did it on Friday night at dinnertime. They wanted to make a show of this, so they showed up with assault rifles. They wanted to make a show of this, so they showed up in far more numbers than they needed to. And the use of masks, I think, is incredibly concerning.
KASTE: Masks have been a big issue for a lot of people, as more ICE agents seem to be hiding their faces with neck gators or other coverings.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TODD LYONS: I'm going to answer the mask question.
KASTE: This is the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, at a press conference earlier this week about ICE operations in Boston. He says agents have been doxed online and been the targets of death threats.
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LYONS: So I'm sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line and their family on the line because people don't like what immigration enforcement is.
KASTE: At the same press conference, the Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge for New England, Michael Krol, added this.
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MICHAEL KROL: I caution those who try to impede or obstruct operations or those who dare to threaten or assault our law enforcement officers.
KASTE: And he warned of potential investigations and prosecutions. Still, civil rights groups say bystanders have the right to observe, protest and shout questions. Kate Evans is director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Duke Law. She says ICE agents don't necessarily have to answer questions from bystanders, but those questions can still be important.
KATE EVANS: I mean, they're essentially functioning as kind of Fourth Amendment observers and informing the people who are actually the subject of the seizure, the arrest, that they have the right to request a warrant.
KASTE: ICE agents have to show a warrant signed by a judge, not just another ICE official, to enter private spaces without permission. But they don't necessarily need a warrant to arrest someone in a public space. They can often do that based on probable cause and the risk of flight. And these distinctions can be confusing.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Abolish.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #2: ICE.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Abolish.
KASTE: Also confusing? Sometimes ICE agents take part in broader criminal investigations, which bystanders assume are immigration raids. That seems to be what happened in Minneapolis on Tuesday, when crowds turned out to oppose federal agents who were searching a taco restaurant. Officials later said it was a criminal matter involving multiple agencies. Ryan Perez is one of the people who turned out.
RYAN PEREZ: The thing is, if you don't want to confuse people, why would you send ICE agents to the scene?
KASTE: Perez works with a nonprofit called COPAL, which trains what it calls constitutional observers to monitor ICE raids. Perez says the group is cautious because sometimes people will issue false alarms about ICE raids that are actually something else. But at the same time, he says, you have to understand people's response when heavily armed ICE agents appear on the street.
PEREZ: They intentionally brought armored vehicles in a residential area and a business corridor in front of, like, very high-trafficked areas. That's a stunt to me.
KASTE: And standing there on Lake Street in Minneapolis, Perez says the crowd's response to those agents felt a lot like the response to police back in 2020 after George Floyd.
Martin Kaste, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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