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00:00Happy to have you here tonight as President Donald Trump and the Trump administration
00:05bend and then break under pressure that it turns out they cannot handle.
00:11They underestimated the people of Minnesota and the strength of feeling in this country right now
00:18in support of the people of Minneapolis. Tonight, the Trump administration is pulling
00:24Border Patrol official Greg Bovino and some number of Border Patrol agents out of Minneapolis.
00:30We do not know if this is the end of what they've been calling Operation Metro Surge,
00:35this sustained, very large-scale paramilitary attack on the cities of Minneapolis and St.
00:43Paul. We don't know if it is the end of that operation full stop, but we know it's the end
00:48of something. Our latest reporting here at MSNOW, per our reporters Carol Lennig and Mark Santia,
00:53is this, quote, according to two officials briefed on the matter, Gregory Bovino is expected to be
00:59removed from commanding the operation in Minnesota, possibly as early as tomorrow, meaning Tuesday.
01:06There will also be a reduction of Homeland Security officers and agents in the state. Again, that's
01:12new reporting from MSNOW. We're also aware of new reporting in the Atlantic tonight, and this is
01:18reporting that we have not confirmed ourselves, but I'll tell you that reporter Nick Miroff, who has an
01:23excellent reputation at the Atlantic tonight, he reports this under the headline, quote,
01:29Greg Bovino loses his job. Quote, Greg Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol
01:36commander at large and will return to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected
01:43to retire soon, according to a Homeland Security official and two people with knowledge of the change.
01:49Bovino's sudden demotion is the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration is reconsidering
01:55its most aggressive tactics after the killing Saturday of 37-year-old Alex Preddy by Border Patrol
02:02agents under Bovino's command. Nick Miroff reports, quote, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem
02:10and her close advisor, Corey Lewandowski, who were Bovino's biggest backers at Homeland Security,
02:16are now also at risk of losing their jobs. Miroff citing two sources to advance that story about
02:26Kristi Noem and Lewandowski potentially losing their jobs as well. Again, reporting from reporter Nick
02:33Miroff, he's formerly of the Washington Post, but he's now at the Atlantic. Tonight, the Homeland Security
02:39Department spokesperson said that Bovino, quote, has not been relieved of his duties.
02:46Chief Gregory Bovino has not been relieved of his duties, which sounds like pushback, but if you think
02:52about it, it doesn't exactly answer the question. I mean, that assertion that he has not been relieved
02:57of his duties might, in fact, be quite consistent with the reporting in the Atlantic that Mr. Bovino has
03:04been sent home to California, where he is expected to retire soon. That could also be true, while
03:09tonight he has not been relieved of his duties. I don't know. We don't know what heads will roll or
03:18exactly in which direction they shall roll. We shall see. But clearly, President Trump and the Trump
03:24administration are in retreat on what had been a violent occupation, I think it's fair to say,
03:34of a major American city that they essentially hoped to be the front page news headline that
03:40everybody remembered about the Trump administration at this time at the start of Trump's second year
03:45in his second term in office. They went big with this on their own terms. Nobody asked for this.
03:51Nobody put them up to it. They decided to launch this in order to show off what they could do.
03:57And now they are in full retreat with it being viewed both as a practical debacle and a moral
04:04debacle. And they are paying a considerable political price for it. If you were one of millions
04:09of Americans who protested ICE out of Minneapolis, you should know tonight you are winning this thing
04:16and is worth understanding the power of what you have done. President Trump today and tonight held
04:23conciliatory phone calls with the Democratic governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, and the Democratic mayor
04:29of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry. Both of those elected officials were demonized by Trump and by the Trump
04:35administration up until like 30 seconds ago. Once Trump started criticizing both of those elected
04:41officials, his U.S. Department of Justice naturally put both of them under federal investigation of
04:47some kind since that's how federal law enforcement works now. The president gets mad at you or wants
04:52to hurt you for some reason. And bingo, magically, you're instantly the subject of a federal criminal
04:56or civil investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice. Even with those threats,
05:03though, even with those investigations launched against them, those threats against Minnesota
05:07elected leaders seem to have had the opposite of the intended effect on them. It seems to have
05:12caused them to dig in and fight harder. It definitely increased their political support,
05:17both in their state and around the country. Similarly, the federal government's threats to the people
05:22of Minneapolis. Federal agents increasingly unhinged and explosive violence toward the people of
05:29Minneapolis. They're killing people, protesting and observing and filming federal agents in Minneapolis.
05:34That also seems to have had the opposite of their intended effect.
05:39It caused more people to commit more to being in the streets more of the time,
05:45to come out in larger numbers, to come out with more resolve and honestly with more emotion.
05:53It definitely sent support for them soaring all around the country.
05:59On Friday, you'll recall there were huge marches and demonstrations in Minneapolis,
06:05a day in which the whole city of Minneapolis basically shut down. Kids home from school,
06:09people didn't go to work, people agreed that they would spend nothing that day, transact no business
06:15that day. They instead spent the day in prayer and protest and finding new ways to stand up for each
06:22other, including these dozens of members of the clergy who were arrested Friday morning at the
06:27Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. They were there urging Delta Airlines and Signature Aviation and other
06:32companies with business at the airport to stop cooperating with ICE. Peaceful civil disobedience by
06:40members of the clergy, dozens of whom were arrested at the start of the day, Friday morning, in that
06:45bitter, bitter, bitter Sub-Zero cold. It was the next day, Saturday, when Trump's federal agents killed
06:55Alex Preddy in the street. And the streets filled instantly in response, in protest, and anger, and
07:01grief. And by that night, there were protests and vigils all over the city and on Sunday as well, just
07:08everywhere in Minneapolis. At the site where they killed him, at Whittier Park in that same neighborhood
07:16where they killed him, in downtown, at Minneapolis City Hall, and communities all over the city,
07:23retirement homes, right, where octogenarians came out into the bitter minus 20 degree weather to hold
07:29candles in vigil for Alex Preddy and for their city. Still today, this was a walkout today at the
07:37University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. But it wasn't only Minneapolis standing up for
07:43themselves. I mean, this was Davenport, Iowa. This is six hours away from Minneapolis. We stand with
07:50Minnesota. This was 600 miles away in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the cold and the snow. Grand Rapids
07:56stands with Minnesota. This was 1,600 miles away in Orlando, Florida. ICE murders again. This was Green
08:05Bay, Wisconsin, where Alex Preddy went to high school. The high temperature was a grand total of
08:09seven degrees. See all the people there on the bridge? People came out in the cold and the ice
08:15and marched in his name and to stand up for Minneapolis. In Phoenix, Arizona, protests convened at the ICE
08:23field office in Phoenix. Big protests there Saturday night. Salt Lake City, Utah, protests convened at the
08:31federal building there. Look at that. Again, Saturday. This is instant. No advance notice. People just
08:36convened there on an emergency basis, essentially, after hearing the news. They were everywhere on zero
08:43notice. In anger at ICE and at the Trump administration and in memory of Alex Preddy and in support of
08:50the
08:51people of Minneapolis. Here was Milwaukee, Wisconsin this weekend. Here was New York City. Really big
09:00protest in New York City convened on zero notice Saturday afternoon after Alex Preddy was killed
09:05Saturday morning. Here was Seattle. Here was Tampa, Florida. Tampa on the right there. Seattle on the
09:13left. Here was Colorado Springs, Colorado in the bitter, bitter cold and the snow. Here was Boise City Hall
09:20in Idaho. And Idaho, deep red Idaho, actually had more protests than just Boise. Also in Twin Falls,
09:26Idaho and Idaho Falls and Coeur d'Alene. There was a huge, huge protest in Chicago. And of course,
09:33Chicago has been through it themselves. But a huge number of Chicagoans turned out in the cold and the
09:40snow to stand up for Minneapolis as well. In Omaha, Nebraska, they came out. In San Francisco,
09:46California and Los Angeles, California and Sacramento, California. In Charleston, South Carolina. In
09:52Lantana, Florida. Traverse City, Michigan. It was absolutely frigid. They had 2,000 people out. We
10:00stand with Minneapolis. And, you know, at every protest I've ever been to, every protest I've ever
10:07covered, as long as it's a protest that's happening in the English language, everyone I've ever been to
10:13or seen. Somebody at some point starts up the chant, this is what democracy looks like, right?
10:18We've all heard that so much. It has become like protest wallpaper. It almost feels like generic
10:24sentiment, right? This is what democracy looks like. But it is literally true. It is what democracy
10:33looks like. Peaceful protest is a core part of democratic action, small d, democratic action.
10:39And the unromantic, strong, simple truth of the matter is that in our country right now,
10:45every small d democratic muscle that we have is flexing. And it turns out that that's way stronger
10:54than Donald Trump and way stronger than the worst designs of the Trump administration. United, persistent,
11:03earnest, creative, peaceful protests that have not relented for a minute in Minneapolis, right?
11:11Everybody from clergy to professional sports teams, to unions, to school parent groups, to school kids
11:19themselves, to indivisible groups, to Native American activists, to people who had never previously
11:25protested a single thing in their lives. I mean, every day, nevertheless, protesting, demonstrating,
11:30telling Trump's agents to get out, never giving them a moment's peace, spontaneous, instinctual,
11:38and then ultimately organized, mutual aid, community support, alerting people to the presence of federal
11:43agents, walking people's kids to and from school, dropping off groceries to families too afraid for good
11:50reason to get out of their house, doing know your rights trainings everywhere, responding in person when people
11:56are being attacked or taken, not being afraid when Trump's masked agents turn those very things into
12:02life-threatening confrontations, or being afraid, but still doing it anyway.
12:10And from the ground up, that huge effort by regular people in Minneapolis and people supporting them
12:17all around the country, it set everything in motion. And now we are seeing what's called political pushback.
12:25That is so widespread, and that is so relentless, and that is so strong, there is no resisting it,
12:32even if you, say, don't believe in democracy. Local elected officials encouraging the peaceful
12:39protests, asking people to keep recording everything they can about the behavior of these lawless
12:45paramilitaries. You'd then see local elected officials out among the people. I mean, this was
12:50Governor Tim Walz and his wife had a vigil for Renee Good. This past Friday, Senator Amy Klobuchar
12:58and her husband at the huge peaceful protests in Minneapolis. We're going to speak with Senator
13:02Klobuchar in just a moment. I mean, you have, you have democratic force massed on one side of this
13:10issue. And on the other side, they have guns and tear gas and physical brutality and menace
13:17and their propaganda about how terrible immigrants are and how terrible, you know, how everybody's
13:23against them as a, as a communist or whatever. I mean, that's what they've got. They've got physical
13:26force, weapons, menace, and propaganda. That's what they've got on their side. But there is
13:34massed, committed, small d democratic force of great resolve against that on the other. And guess
13:41which side wins? And so after they killed Alex Preddy on Saturday, we very quickly saw it all fall
13:49apart for them. Not because somebody defeated them in physical battle, right? They're the ones who are
13:58geared up like the way they're going to win, the way they're going to overthrow this democracy
14:01is in some kind of war, right? They can just have just the right military gear and just the right
14:08threatening, physical, intimidating force. That'll be how they win, right? That's how they think they'll
14:14win with guns. The people of this country on the other side, the opponents of that overthrow,
14:23the population of this country that is committed to, you know, no Kings and they're never being a
14:28dictator here. They know that the way they're going to win is not with guns, it's not in a war.
14:35The people on the other side of this fight, they know the way they're going to save American
14:40democracy is by using American democratic means to do so. And that means protest and speech and
14:48political power. After months of protest, what happened when they killed Alex Preddy?
14:58There was a small d democratic flex against which the Trump administration just crumpled.
15:07Republicans in the Minnesota state legislature, quote, it's clear that Operation Metro Surge is
15:12causing more harm than good. It needs to end. We need to, quote, de-escalate. We need to, quote,
15:18pause targeted operations. Again, that's Minnesota Republicans in the legislature. A leading Republican
15:25candidate for governor in Minnesota drops out of the race for governor today. A surprise announcement,
15:31quote, Republican Chris Madel made a stunning exit from the Minnesota governor's race today,
15:36saying he cannot support the National Republican Party's stated retribution on the citizens of our
15:41state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so. The lead in the Star
15:49Tribune,
15:50quote, in a surprise video announcement, he said, United States citizens, particularly those of color,
15:56live in fear. U.S. citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship. That's wrong.
16:02Madel called ISIS Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, quote, an unmitigated disaster,
16:08saying at the end of the day, quote, I have to look my daughters in the eye and
16:11tell them, I believe I did what was right. And I'm doing that today. As he quit his race for
16:17governor as a Republican, saying he could not stand right now to run in Minnesota as a Republican.
16:25It's also Republicans in Congress, quote, the events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing.
16:30The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. There must be a full joint federal and state
16:34investigation. We can trust the American people with the truth. Quote, a thorough investigation
16:40is necessary to get to the bottom of these incidents and to maintain Americans' confidence
16:44in our justice system. Republican governors, Republican governors, too, quote, enough.
16:52It's not acceptable for American citizens to be killed by federal agents for exercising their
16:57God-given and constitutional rights to protest their government. At best, these federal immigration
17:03operations are a complete failure of coordination of acceptable public safety and law enforcement
17:08practices, training and leadership. At worst, it's a deliberate federal intimidation and incitement
17:13of American citizens that's resulting in the murder of Americans.
17:18Another Republican governor, quote, what we're seeing on TV, it's causing deep concerns over federal
17:24tactics and accountability. Americans don't like what they're seeing right now. Another Republican
17:28governor, the Trump administration needs, quote, to recalibrate on what needs to be done.
17:37Recalibrate. The Democrats in Congress moving to on the Senate side, even Democratic senators who have
17:45sided with Republicans in the past who have voted to fund the Trump administration when other Democrats
17:50didn't want to do that. Even those Democratic senators, basically all the, you know, the so-called
17:55moderates, the conservative Democrats, they came out and said they will not vote to fund the Department
18:01of Homeland Security and ICE. And that is a vote that has to happen this week. Democrats saying they are
18:06not going to do it even if they have done it before. In the House, the number of members of
18:12Congress who are
18:13signing up to an effort there to impeach Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security Secretary,
18:18that races up to well over, look at that, 140 co-sponsors. I was going to say over 100 now.
18:25It's now at 140 co-sponsors of the resolution to impeach Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary.
18:34And last week, there were a handful of House Democrats who did vote to fund the Department
18:40of Homeland Security. Those handful of House Democrats who voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security
18:45last week have this week started apologizing for it. Democrat Tom Suozzi in New York, quote,
18:52I failed to view the Homeland Security funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct
18:59of ICE in Minneapolis. I hear the anger from many of my constituents, and I take responsibility for that.
19:04I have long been critical of ICE's unlawful behavior, and I must do a better job demonstrating that.
19:11Some Democrats changing their previous position to say now they will not vote
19:16to fund ICE, and some Democrats who already voted to fund ICE saying,
19:20oh, wow, that was wrong. I'm so sorry. I didn't get it. I'll do better.
19:27This is called political change.
19:30And even in the sinkhole of sniveling cowardice that has been America's business so-called leaders,
19:40even there, they're starting to ever so tentatively squeak that maybe, possibly, if nobody minds,
19:46they might want to express that they're mildly uncomfortable with what Trump and the Trump
19:50administration are doing.
19:52Chief executives of Target, Best Buy, General Mills, Cargill, Land O'Lakes, Hormel, U.S. Bank Corp.,
19:59the Mayo Clinic, 3M, and dozens of other large Minnesota employers issued a public letter Sunday
20:05calling for, quote, an immediate de-escalation, an immediate de-escalation in their state.
20:12And yes, that is too little. And yes, that is too late. But it is way more than they were
20:18willing
20:18to do before. So take it, bank it, and build on it.
20:23We even saw some of the old graybeards of U.S. politics rouse from their retirement pastimes
20:31and diversions to say something. President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton each issuing
20:37pretty stirring statements condemning Trump's attack on Minneapolis and praising the strong,
20:44peaceful protests of the people there in response.
20:49And, you know, we are conditioned to be bored and underwhelmed by anything done in Congress.
20:59And honestly, you know, by Congress, by candidates, by brand name politicians,
21:04by even state elected leaders, we are conditioned to expect that the actions of anyone in politics
21:10who is not currently the president are just, you know, not very powerful actions. They're just
21:16not very important. But we are conditioned to believe that in a way that is not actually keeping
21:22faith with who we're supposed to be as a country. Because what we inherited from the founding fathers
21:28of this country is a democracy that was explicitly and purposefully designed to be decentralized and
21:34divided and responsive to the people. And when the people push in a concerted way, what we are seeing
21:41is that the country is working the way it's supposed to. The levers of power are moving. There is a
21:46political response, a small d democratic response. And, and yes, that means the president's poll numbers
21:54sink further into the bedrock, including on immigration, which he really at one point wanted to be his signature
22:00issue. And he is now running from. But the other forces of political gravity start to work on him
22:09as well. He may not want to be subject to democratic force, but he is. And in Congress and in
22:17state
22:17government and in party politics and in business, which to them all means money as well as power, you are
22:22seeing political shift happening. And that is because of the people. It is, it starts with the people. It
22:31starts with the protests that we have seen, principled, peaceful, relentless protest. It works.
22:38That is the source of this shift. Peaceful, powerful, relentless, principled protest works.
22:48It uses democratic means to save democracy.
22:55That is what made all of that. That is what has made all of this political shifting happen. That
23:00is what has forced the Trump administration to change course. That is what has forced Trump to back
23:05down. Principled, peaceful, relentless protest is the democratic means of saving a democracy. And that
23:14is the only way to win for the long term. So as they pull Gregory Bovino and federal agents out
23:24of
23:24Minneapolis tonight, be very clear on why this happened. If you were part of those protests,
23:34if you were part of the peaceful democratic advocacy to get ICE out of Minneapolis tonight, you are winning.
23:43And there's a lot going on. There's a lot to cover tonight. We've got an update tonight on
23:47the places all over the country where Trump is trying to put new immigrant prison camps. They
23:52want to build a whole new network of massive prison camps that are effectively black sites where there's
23:59little to no legal access, where they want to indefinitely imprison men, women and children.
24:06And we are now seeing in red states and blue states, in urban areas and suburban areas and
24:10small towns and rural areas, everywhere they are trying to site one of these prison camps.
24:15You are seeing Americans of all stripes, even local Republican officials standing up and saying no to
24:20that, saying, no, we are not going to let you build one of your camps here where we live. So
24:25we're going to
24:25have an update on those efforts tonight. Also, some striking imagery out of Texas. This weekend,
24:31there was an uprising in one of these camps in Texas. Men, women and children held in one of
24:37these Trump prison camps, rebelling this weekend in Texas, demonstrating they were calling explicitly
24:44for the children in that camp to be set free. We're going to talk tonight with a lawyer who happened
24:50to
24:50be there when that peaceful uprising happened. The authorities rushed him out as soon as it started.
24:55They forced him to leave, but not before he was able to capture some of it on video. We're going
25:00to
25:00speak live with him in just a moment. We've got Senator Amy Klobuchar joining us live from Minnesota.
25:06We've got a lot to get to tonight. Democracy at work. Stay with us.
25:13The high, the hottest part of the day, the high was negative nine degrees. The low was negative 20.
25:22If you factor in the wind chill, it was in the negative 40s. It was quite literally one of the
25:27coldest days in Minneapolis in years. But thousands of Minnesotans came out to protest anyway. Organizers
25:34estimate that somewhere between 50,000 and 75,000 people turned out in Minneapolis on Friday to
25:42insist that ICE and Trump's federal agents get out of their city. Among them in that brittle bitter cold
25:48was Minnesota Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar marching with her constituents,
25:52demanding an end to the chaotic violent surge of federal agents in Minneapolis and around that
25:58state. Again, that was Friday. It was less than 24 hours later when Trump's federal agents shot and
26:06killed 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Preddy on those same streets. Alex Preddy is the third person federal
26:13agents have shot in Minneapolis in three weeks. He's the second person they have killed.
26:20Amy Klobuchar has represented Minnesota in the U.S. Senate since 2007. And she's now wearing
26:26two very important hats in the politics of that state. In addition to representing Minnesotans in
26:31the U.S. Capitol currently, she's also at least considering a campaign to try to become Minnesota's
26:37governor. Last week, she filed the preliminary paperwork required to run for governor. She hasn't
26:42announced that she is running, but by filing that paperwork, she is at least keeping the option open.
26:49And so with Trump's federal agents forcing her state into a state of chaos,
26:56Senator Klobuchar now finds herself with a large and interesting and complex role to play as both
27:01a leader in the Senate and a potential future governor. We have warned this administration,
27:10I have personally warned them, that there would be more deaths, that more of this
27:14would happen. And clearly, they're not listening. So we ask people around the country to talk to
27:20their Republican representatives to make clear that this is not the America
27:27that is ours. This has got to stop.
27:32Joining us now live is Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota. Senator, it's nice to
27:37see you. Thank you for being with us tonight. I know it's a really difficult time.
27:41First, let me ask you.
27:43I appreciate it. Go ahead. Go ahead. Well, I just appreciated how you captured this
27:49idea that Minnesota is, yes, been the center of America's heartbreak, but we have also been the
27:55center of America's courage and America's hope and how ordinary people have just done the most
28:01extraordinary things that have gotten to this point. They have stood up, they have marched,
28:06they have brought food to their neighbors, and they have not blinked. And I think it is something
28:11that we have learned now about how you take on this kind of just abuse of power where they have
28:19crossed the line of legality, morality and decency. And it is a long way from a victory. But the fact
28:26that they are pulling out the federal agents as we speak and Bonvino, who is just in this same TV
28:33studio I'm in today, 24 hours ago, was in the same room with me, is now gone.
28:41Let me ask your, I guess your reaction, your understanding of what kind of change the federal
28:47government is making. And I know that you said publicly at the press conference this weekend,
28:52there's been reporting that you have had some communications with the Trump administration.
28:56Did you have any word that this was going to happen? Did you have any sense in advance that
29:01this was going to be what they did? Yes, this morning I got a call early from the White House
29:08and some texts from the president's chief of staff later in the day about what was going to happen
29:15here. And this is a long haul of standing up publicly, calling them out, standing with our police
29:21chiefs who have been very strong, Minneapolis, suburban areas, our mayor, our governor, our attorney
29:27general, Keith Ellison, and all of us saying enough is enough, our congressional delegation on the
29:32Democratic side, and then pleading with our Republican colleagues. And finally, this weekend,
29:38after the horrendous murder, followed, of course, after the murder, the killing of Renee Good,
29:44and now you have the killing of Alex Preddy, talking to his parents last night when they told me how
29:51offended they were, crying the entire time about the lies about him when he had devoted his life
29:59to taking care of our veterans. And they go out, administration officials, calling him a domestic
30:05terrorist, calling Renee Good a domestic terrorist. So all of this just has culminated in this moment
30:13where people across our state, regardless of political ideology, mounting time and time again,
30:19have said enough. We have had enough. Get ICE out of our state and stop these abusive tactics,
30:27taking Hmong elders out of their homes, dragging them out in their underwear, and then figuring out
30:33they had the wrong guy because he was already in jail, taking two-year-olds, sending them to Texas,
30:38my office up through the night, trying to get that kid back on a plane, which we were able to
30:44do so
30:44she could be united with her mother, five-year-olds with Spiderman backpacks. It just goes on and on and
30:51on. And it is the biggest abuse I have ever seen of people's civil rights. And the fact that there
30:56is
30:56now some de-escalation and that they are willing now to talk to our leaders and our police officers and
31:04let them do their real jobs and get ICE out of our state is truly a moment. But we have
31:11to see it
31:11bear out to its finality. And they can't keep doing this all around our country as well.
31:19To that point, there is a decision that needs to be made at the U.S. Senate this week in
31:24terms of
31:25funding DHS. It's a bill. They call it a minibus. It funds like five major components of the government,
31:35a little more than half of the total operations of the government, including DHS.
31:39What's going to happen there? What's your expectation this week for that bill? And what
31:43would be the impact if that funding for DHS didn't pass? Well, as you pointed out,
31:49there are more and more Democrats. I've signaled my opposition, as did Senator Smith, weeks ago to
31:56this and voted against that big, beautiful betrayal of the bill that was $75 billion added to the ICE
32:02budget. So they are now bigger than the FBI. And now we have had a number of Democrats, Senator
32:09Schumer, Murray, others, that have made it very clear that we are not voting for that bill as it is.
32:15What we would like to see is there are some bipartisan bills that fund other parts of the
32:20government that could pass and then separate out this ICE funding. Too much money. The surge has to
32:28stop. The illegal entries into people's homes have to stop. They have to wear mandatory body cameras,
32:36which that agent in the Rene Good killing was not wearing. He had a cell phone on. The unbelievable
32:44bounty system they have where they're picking up legal citizens, putting them in a car. And then
32:49we think they get some kind of bonus for doing it. The training, which was five months going down to
32:5547
32:56days in honor of President Trump being the 47th president. And that's just the beginning of the
33:02overhaul, the complete overhaul that must be made to our immigration and border enforcement.
33:08We just you can't just sit there and say life goes on as normal. When I've had
33:14two of my constituents who are innocent, no criminal record killed. And two of the three
33:21homicides in Minneapolis were committed by federal agents.
33:29Minnesota U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator, it's always a pleasure and an honor to have you with
33:35us, but particularly right now. Thank you for your time tonight. Thank you.
33:37Thank you. It was great to be on. Thanks, Rachel.
33:40All right. More news ahead. Stay with us.
33:46Everywhere the Trump administration tries to put new camps, new ICE facilities and ICE prison camps,
33:52they're being pushed back. Now, this is something we've been trying to cover here on this show in
33:57recent weeks. I do feel like we're sort of starting to get our arms around it. But I just want
34:02to say
34:02to our friends in the national media, we could use some help on this story. I think this is an
34:07important story and it'd be great to have more national media attention to it. The Trump administration
34:12really is trying to build Trump prison camps all over the country. And if you look, you will find that
34:18people all over the country, including in very unexpected places, almost uniformly are pushing
34:24back everywhere they're trying to do it. And they're pushing back in diverse and interesting ways. This is
34:30a really interesting emerging story. And again, we could use some more reportorial help with it.
34:36But let me tell you what we know. Last week, for example, it was Durant, Oklahoma. Local people there
34:41packed a meeting to say they don't want ICE turning a local warehouse into a giant prison.
34:46The local government in Durant, Oklahoma, then passed a brand new ordinance that gives them
34:51the power to say no to such a facility. Tomorrow, City Council in Oklahoma City is planning to address
34:58local concerns about a proposed proposed ICE prison there on the south side of Oklahoma City.
35:05Up in New Jersey, Roxbury, New Jersey, locals there started protesting like mad against ICE,
35:10reportedly wanting to convert a half million square foot warehouse in Roxbury into an ICE prison camp.
35:17After those protests, the all Republican local government in Roxbury, New Jersey,
35:21passed a resolution saying, no, you are not allowed to build that here.
35:25Down in Texas, Hutchins, Texas, again, a local protest against a proposed ICE prison,
35:30followed by the mayor in that city saying they are not going to allow anything like that to be built
35:36in
35:36Hutchins, Texas. In New York State, Republican leaning Orange County, similar story, packed town halls,
35:42packed public meetings, and then local elected officials saying, no, you will not be allowed to
35:48build a prison camp here. Kansas City, Missouri, after ICE said they wanted to build a prison in KC,
35:54the city council passed a five-year ban on building any non-municipal detention facility,
36:01any non-city detention facility. Social Circle Georgia, local Republican officials saying they will not
36:08let ICE turn a vacant warehouse there into a huge prison camp as well. Protests in Salt Lake City,
36:14Utah reported last week on dozens of people turning out in the early morning in deep, dense,
36:20cold fog because they heard that ICE was coming to inspect the local warehouse site
36:24there as a potential location for a new ICE prison. Locals then protested a local real estate company
36:31that was reportedly handling the potential sale of that site to ICE. Well, now that local real estate
36:37firm has announced this weekend that they have no plans to sell that local warehouse to the federal
36:42government for any purpose. And the list of communities pushing back keeps growing. Protesting
36:48in Hagerstown, Maryland, this past week, Senator Chris Van Holland and their congresswoman April
36:53McClain Delaney in attendance. In Hudson, Colorado, which is about 35 miles east of Boulder, protesting
37:00against a planned ICE prison there. In Merrimack, New Hampshire, which is a scrappy, no-nonsense New
37:06England town where I've got family ties, hundreds of people packed a Merrimack, New Hampshire town meeting,
37:13denouncing a proposed immigration prison there. And now the Merrimack Town Council has written to
37:18state and federal officials opposing that planned facility. And in the state legislature, Democrats
37:23in the New Hampshire state legislature are pushing legislation that would prevent any state or local
37:28funds being used for immigration prisons anywhere in the whole state. In Hanover County, Virginia,
37:34watch for this this week. Residents in Hanover County are preparing to attend their board of
37:39supervisors meeting the day after tomorrow, this Wednesday, January 28th, to tell their board of
37:44supervisors that they need to stand against a new immigrant prison facility that is planned for that
37:50county as well. Again, that's Hanover County, Virginia. And those are very disparate locations
37:57with very different politics and very different diverse communities. But you see pushback everywhere.
38:06Even as all these local residents all over the country and all these different kinds of places are
38:10all pushing back against the Trump administration's efforts to build new camps, to build ice prison
38:16camps and ice facilities in their towns and cities, even as that happens. Something really, really
38:24remarkable happened this weekend inside one of the camps they've already built, inside one of the largest
38:30immigration prisons in the country. A witness who was there to see what happened, who got tape of what
38:37happened, is going to join us here live next. Stay with us. We learned it was happening when a lawyer
38:45named
38:45Eric Lee arrived at one of these camps, at what they call the South Texas Family Residential Center
38:54in South Texas, in Dilley, Texas. Eric Lee arrived there for a meeting with his clients, but then while he
39:00was
39:00waiting, he was suddenly rushed out of the building by guards. And Mr. Lee then began filming what was
39:07happening. I'm outside of the Dilley facility here in South Texas. There's a demonstration of detainees
39:18taking place inside right now. We were all asked to leave. There's a drone flying up ahead right now.
39:27It's an extremely bizarre situation. You can hear them shouting. Can you hear that?
39:41They're shouting, let us out, let us out. There's people in blue shirts. Again, there's drones flying up ahead.
39:57There appear to be hundreds of people through the crack that I can see.
40:03That was Saturday in Dilley, Texas. And we do have an aerial shot of what was happening behind
40:09those walls. The Associated Press used a drone to capture these remarkable images of this,
40:16effectively, prison camp, this detention facility and the protest within it. These are immigrant families,
40:21men, women and children, effectively imprisoned at this Texas facility, and they're holding their own
40:28peaceful protest inside the prison walls this weekend. The signs they're holding included ones
40:34that said in Spanish, liberty for the kids, libertad para los niños. Let the kids go from this prison.
40:43According to what lawyer Eric Lee was later able to learn from people inside, he says,
40:48the prisoners had heard about the huge protest and general strike in Minneapolis on Friday,
40:55and they wanted to support it all the way down in South Texas behind prison walls. Joining us now is
41:02immigration attorney Eric Lee. Mr. Lee, thank you very much for being here. I appreciate your time.
41:06Thanks for having me. Hi. What should we understand about this Dilley facility and what happened here
41:14on Saturday? I could tell from your affect when you were filming this that this struck you as a really
41:19remarkable occurrence. Well, it was. And if I can show an image that my five-year-old client drew today
41:28that she wanted me to show this program, their name is the Elgamals. They've been detained in Dilley for
41:35eight months. They are two five-year-old twins. You can see at the top, I am five years old,
41:41and the sad detained children behind bars are saying, let us go, let us go. This is a family
41:48that has been persecuted by the Trump administration, not for anything that they did, but because of the
41:53crimes of a relative. They are suffering immensely, calling almost every day, begging for help,
42:00begging for the American population to pay attention to the conditions that exist inside
42:05this facility. And last week, an immigration judge denied them bond, claiming that because
42:10they had insufficient assets and insufficient property, that these children were going to
42:16remain in detention, possibly for years as we continue to exhaust their appeals. Their name is
42:21Elgamal. We urge everybody who's watching to fight for their release and for the release of every single
42:26child, mother and father in this terrible facility. How much transparency is there about the
42:37quality of life inside these facilities and the way people are being treated? How much do you
42:41feel like you have visibility into how people are living there? Well, what we know is from the
42:48detainees. They tell us that the water is putrid. Mothers have to mix baby formula with water that stinks.
42:55There's bugs in the food. My client, one of my clients in this Elgamal family was vomiting from pain in
43:03the
43:03hallway as he suffered from appendicitis. And the officials there told him, take a Tylenol and come
43:08back in three days. That's the type of treatment that is happening in this facility. And I have to say
43:16that it was referred to earlier as Trump prison camps.
43:19This facility was founded by Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in 2014. This is being expanded
43:27by Trump, certainly. The conditions are worsening. There's no question about that. But this is a
43:32bipartisan policy, the product of 30 years, 25 years of mass detention by Democratic and Republican
43:38administrations alike. This facility was open, as you said, during the Obama administration. My
43:46understanding is that it was closed during the Biden administration and then reopened by Trump.
43:52That that facility, though, is right now one of just a number of large scale prison camps that the
43:59Trump administration wants to operate all around the country. Access to the kind that you have to
44:03support your clients is key to us understanding the scale of what they're trying to do here. Eric Lee,
44:08thank you very much for being with us. I appreciate your time tonight.
44:11Eric Lee, thank you. All right. We'll be right back. Stay with us.
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