JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
A 37-year-old woman was shot dead by an ICE agent today in Minneapolis. She was not the target of immigration enforcement. That's according to local police. But the circumstances around the shooting are hotly disputed. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the woman attacked federal immigration officers and attempted to ram them with her vehicle. A DHS statement says an ICE officer feared for his life and for public safety and fired defensive shots.
Now, there is bystander video of the event. Democratic politicians from Minnesota who have seen that video strongly contradict this account. Democratic Governor Tim Walz called the federal government's claims propaganda. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says it was an agent recklessly using power and used several expletives to underscore his disgust. We've now reached U.S. Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota. She's also a Democrat. Thanks for being here.
TINA SMITH: Thank you so much. I'm sorry to be with you under these circumstances but so glad to talk with you.
SUMMERS: Very much the same. Senator, you wrote on social media that Homeland Security's description of what's happened in your state does not match up with the video. Let's just start by talking about it. What did you take away from what you saw?
SMITH: Well, I mean, first I start from this 37-year-old woman, Renee Nicole Good, who's lost her life. She was in her car in a neighborhood that is only a few miles from where I live in Minneapolis. And it's inconceivable and so reckless that Secretary Noem, within just, you know, minutes or hours of this terrible shooting, would go out and say exactly what she thinks happened. And this is why we have investigations in situations like this.
And I'm glad that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigation Unit in the state of Minnesota will be looking into this. But I can tell you that what I saw on those bystander videos is nothing like what Secretary Noem or President Trump, for that matter, described. And it just further challenges people's trust in these institutions, these federal institutions and this administration. I can tell you, in my home state of Minnesota, people are just racked with grief and anger and fear. And it's a very bad moment.
SUMMERS: And I want to just jump in here and put out there what President Trump's view is on this. On social media...
SMITH: Yeah.
SUMMERS: ...He called this woman a professional agitator. He said the woman was acting - and these are his words - very disorderly, obstructing and resisting. How do you respond?
SMITH: Well, there's nothing that I have seen that would suggest that that's the case. I'm waiting for them to show us what that really means. This is a woman who was in her car on a neighborhood street in Minneapolis. And what I saw are these ICE agents who appear to be engaged in escalating a situation rather than de-escalating a situation. There's been a lot of question about the training of these individuals and what do they actually know about the communities that they are going into. And what I have seen suggests that they were reckless, and they were escalating a situation and making it more dangerous. And certainly, it's because of them that this woman lost her life.
SUMMERS: I just want to back up for a second here. The Trump administration had already been deploying as many as 2,000 federal immigration agents...
SMITH: Yes.
SUMMERS: ...To the city of Minneapolis this week. I am sure that you heard, as we all have, Mayor Frey demanding that ICE leave the city, the state immediately. Senator, do you see any role for immigration agents to play in your state?
SMITH: Well, of course, there's a role for federal immigration in our country and in our state. But what is happening here is outside of the bounds of how immigration should work. They are going willy-nilly into neighborhoods. They are terrorizing communities. They are failing completely to coordinate with local law enforcement. So, for example, this violent and ultimately fatal incident in a otherwise quiet neighborhood in Minneapolis, the local law enforcement had no idea that those ICE agents were even there.
And so what I see is that these agents are contributing to worsening public safety in my community, rather than improving public safety. And I agree. I think that Mayor Frey had it exactly right. They should leave. They should get out of there. They are not helping us to keep my community safe.
SUMMERS: And your state's governor, Walz, said that he could soon mobilize the state's National Guard in response to the shooting, what has happened there today. Do you agree?
SMITH: Well, we have so many painful memories of the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. And I believe that the governor and the mayor are correct to be prepared. I, of course, fully support my neighbors' rights to speak out and to demonstrate against what they've seen. And that needs to happen in a peaceful way. And I think it's important that we protect people's safety as that will, I think, inevitably unfold over the coming days.
SUMMERS: We have just about 30 seconds left, so I want to end with this. Do you know where the investigation goes from here? And do you have confidence it will be handled impartially and fairly?
SMITH: It is hard to have trust in a federal investigation when the secretary has already described to everybody what she thinks happened. That suggests that she is already completely biased. I'm grateful, though, for the local law enforcement, the local FBI agents on the ground in Minneapolis, who I have trust in, and of course, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in Minnesota.
SUMMERS: OK. Minnesota Senator Tina Smith, thank you for being here.
SMITH: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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