Politics and views in the United States.

Minneapolis Mayor demands ICE leave, after woman is shot. Minnesota officials testify on fraud investigations and a new Republican-led January 6th panel makes plans for its first hearing.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

People are being hurt.

Families are being ripped apart.

Long-term Minneapolis residents that have contributed so greatly to our city, to our culture, to our economy are being terrorized, and now somebody is dead.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry is demanding ICE leave the city after an officer shot and killed a woman protesting a raid. 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was killed during the protest with ICE officials saying she attempted to run them over and was "a violent rioter."

However, bystander videos circulating on social media show officers surrounding the car and opening fire at close range while she was trying to drive away.

More than 2,000 ICE agents are in the city as part of a sweep aimed at the city's Somali community, members of which are accused of widespread child care fraud.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Frey are prioritizing criminals over children.

Defending the agents' work, she calls Good's actions and those of the other protesters domestic terrorism.

They were attempting to push out their vehicle and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle.

An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him.

Members of Congress are calling for Noem to testify about the shooting.

Walls says it was predictable and avoidable.

He and other state leaders are urging protesters to remain nonviolent to avoid further incidents.

Community groups are training people about their rights during the sweeps.

UDO with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee warns the shooting is making a bad worse for an increasingly fearful community.

We're talking to teachers who are seeing such a decrease in the level of attendance in their classrooms because they don't know if their students were the ones who were picked up or if their parents were picked up.

She says immigrant-owned businesses are seeing a sharp decline in foot traffic, but some of those businesses are accused of stealing government benefits.

State officials testified Wednesday before a U.S. House committee on the potential misuse of funds.

Minnesota Representative Marian Rarick said a legislative investigation reached out to a whistleblower group on X.

She said their message about how fraud allegations handled was consistent.

Instead of focusing on fraudsters, DHS leadership instead focused its surveillance on employees.

Since then, their expressed fear of retaliation has intensified under an avalanche of fraud in Minnesota.

Federal law enforcement say it investigated multimillion dollar fraud schemes in a number of states, leading to charges against more than 90 people.

Meanwhile, a Republican-led congressional panel will hold its first hearings for a new investigation of January 6th.

Democrats say President Donald Trump and his allies are whitewashing the insurrection with information about the event being removed from government websites.

New York Assembly Member Charles Levine says some of the same congressional lawmakers trying to rewrite history were hiding in fear when the rioters breached the Capitol.

These people don't have the moral fiber, they don't have the patriotic strength to stand up and call Trump out for what really happened on that day, that they saw an experience.

That boggles my mind.

That is un-American.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Pacifica Network and public news service.

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