A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
We have very limited information this morning about a shooting in Portland, Oregon. Federal immigration authorities say agents shot a man and a woman during a traffic stop, and the two wounded people then drove off.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We do know that Portland officials have called this part of a pattern of violence. This is after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis. So how much of a pattern is there? It can be hard to judge by one or two news events like we've had this week. So in this story, we take a wider view.
MARTÍNEZ: Let's go to NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán. Sergio, you've covered shootings by immigration authorities before. How often do they happen?
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: You know, A, it seems like they're becoming more frequent. According to The Trace, which is a nonprofit news organization that focuses on gun violence, there have been at least 14 shootings in ICE raids since Trump took office last year. Now, NPR hasn't independently confirmed all of these incidents, but we've reported on some of them. The Trump administration has, you know, definitely ramped up its immigration crackdowns in a big way. We heard Vice President JD Vance yesterday say immigration agents in Minneapolis were going door to door to find undocumented immigrants, which is unusual. Usually, ICE operations are targeted, and these shootings could be a terrible side effect of this approach.
MARTÍNEZ: Yes. Tell us more about these shootings by Homeland Security officers.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah. You know, last year in Chicago, a Mexican immigrant was killed after attempting to drive away from immigration agents. Also in Chicago last year, Border Patrol agents fired at a woman while she was still in her car, injuring her. So what happened in Minneapolis this week, A, is something we've been seeing since President Trump launched his immigration enforcement operations. That's according to Deepinder Mayell, the executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota.
DEEPINDER MAYELL: This is really part of a broader pattern of misconduct, and the Trump administration has essentially emboldened federal forces to act with impunity.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: That misconduct can be seen in the way ICE is arresting people, Mayell says. Others tell me it's palpable in the way agents deal with protesters.
MARTÍNEZ: So on that, I mean, are ICE agents prepared? Do they know how to handle how to engage with protesters?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Crowd control is not the role of ICE agents. In fact, they are not trained to do it. That's what John Sandweg tells me. He served as ICE's acting director during the Obama administration.
JOHN SANDWEG: The way in which this administration is deploying the agents, the way in which - you know, and especially with tasking the agents with being the front line on the crowd control, you're creating a toxic stew there.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: And Sandweg tells me that ICE has made millions of arrests in nearly two decades, but this uptick in shootings is new.
SANDWEG: And it's a direct byproduct of this shift in tactics that we saw, you know, really beginning in March, where the administration started promoting and these surges of agents for these very flashy, high-profile operations in cities.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: And this is an important point, A, because, you know, people in law enforcement I've talked to say that publicizing in advance operations like the ones in Minnesota makes things dangerous for both the ICE agents and the public. And that's where we are right now.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. And the administration, though, seems to be doubling down on this.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah, yeah. Vice President Vance defended the actions of the agent who shot Good. Vance says the agent did it in self-defense. Meanwhile, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has said the shooting will not deter her agency from carrying out enforcement operations across Minneapolis and the country.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, that's NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán. Thanks a lot.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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