The Ezra Klein Show Minneapolis Reveals Where Trump's Deportation Agenda Is Going
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Jan 23, 2026 
Caitlin Dickerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at The Atlantic, breaks down the vast changes in U.S. immigration enforcement under Trump. She reveals how ICE shifted from targeting serious criminals to expansive, fear-inducing operations. The conversation touches on aggressive recruitment of inexperienced agents, the unsettling reality of family raids, and the implications of a military-sized budget on enforcement. Dickerson also discusses traumatic community impacts, evolving tactics, and how fear has become a tool for self-deportation.
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From Targeted Arrests To Broad Interior Sweeps
- The Trump administration removed ICE's strict arrest priorities and now allows arrests of any undocumented person without prior desk vetting.
- That change shifted arrests from planned pre-dawn takedowns to aggressive public confrontations designed to spread fear.
A Rapidly Recruited, Less Experienced Force
- ICE hired roughly 12,000 people since the administration began, many with little enforcement experience.
- Recruitment messaging uses patriotic and racially coded language that appeals to far-right groups.
Public Messaging Lowers Restraint Incentives
- Senior advisers publicly signal immunity for aggressive tactics, changing officer incentives toward force.
- Caitlin Dickerson says that encouragement makes officers fear being punished for insufficient aggressiveness, not excess force.
