Americans Are Now a Target in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:00)
Hey, it's Jess.

**Ryan** (0:01)
And Ryan.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:02)
Before we kick off today's episode, we have a fun announcement to make. We are doing a live show again.

**Ryan** (0:08)
We love doing our live show in New York so much that we decided to take it on the road. This time we'll be in Los Angeles at the El Rey Theater on Tuesday, April 28th.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:18)
And just like last time, we're going to have special guests. And since we'll be in LA, you can prepare for a night of money, business and power conversations about Hollywood. And after the show, Ryan and I will stick around to meet you all.

**Ryan** (0:30)
Tickets go on sale this Wednesday, March 25th at 10 a.m. Pacific. You can find the link in our show notes.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:37)
And again, the show is going to be at the El Rey Theater in LA on Tuesday, April 28th. Tickets go on sale this Wednesday, March 25th. Hope to see you there.
A word of warning. This episode contains strong language, including unbleaped curse words. Please be advised. Can you introduce yourself and tell us what you cover?

**Hannah Critchfield** (1:03)
Sure. I'm Hannah Critchfield and I'm a reporter on the investigations desk here at The Journal.

**Jessica Mendoza** (1:09)
And at a very high level, Hannah, what have you been working on recently?

**Hannah Critchfield** (1:14)
I and a team of other reporters have been looking into claims that the government has made in the last year about an increase in assaults on federal officers, oftentimes immigration officers. Government officials were talking about seeing a 300% increase in assaults, a 500% increase in assaults on officers.

**Jessica Mendoza** (1:36)
In the last year, federal immigration operations have increased across the country as part of President Trump's immigration crackdown. And claims of assault against federal officers have gone up as well. Now, Hannah and her team's investigation has found that American citizens have become a target. American citizens who are often bystanders and demonstrators near those immigration operations.

**Hannah Critchfield** (2:03)
Our team analyzed more than 200 videos associated with these assault allegations, from police body camera footage, to bystander recordings, from social media, and many of them cast doubt on the federal government's claims that agents were assaulted. We also found that of the 181 American citizens that the Trump administration accused of attacking federal officers, close to half were never charged with assaults, and none had been convicted at trial.

**Jessica Mendoza** (2:32)
What did these findings tell you?

**Hannah Critchfield** (2:34)
You know, they show that US citizens are caught in the crosshairs of an aggressive government campaign to detain and demonize detractors, including by calling them terrorists, rioters and agitators. The Department of Homeland Security, which was created in 2002 to protect Americans, has turned its force against US citizens.

**Jessica Mendoza** (3:00)
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Monday, March 23rd. Coming up on the show, how the Department of Homeland Security is cracking down on American citizens.
To analyze the US government's claims about assaults on federal immigration agents, The Wall Street Journal reviewed more than 100,000 posts on X, posts made in the last year by accounts linked to government agencies and senior government officials.

**Hannah Critchfield** (3:48)
Each time the government identified a person on a post, we tracked that case through the legal system. So, you know, what charges were brought? Under what statute were those charges later modified? What happened to the person in the case?

**Jessica Mendoza** (4:04)
The Journal team also tracked videos made by witnesses and bystanders of the alleged assaults. You can find a link to the full visual investigation in our show notes. One of the cases Hannah and her team looked at was that of Sidney Laurie Reed. Reed is a 44-year-old veterinary assistant in DC and a US citizen. In July, Reed went to a jail to witness an immigration enforcement action. Federal officers had gone there to arrest two migrant men, and Reed said she felt a duty to document it.

**Hannah Critchfield** (4:38)
So she ends up going over there to record what's going on. Essentially, she has her phone out and she is documenting.

**SPEAKER_4** (4:45)
What's your name?

**Hannah Critchfield** (4:47)
Tell me your name!

**Jessica Mendoza** (4:49)
What you're hearing now is a mix of footage Reed recorded herself and body camera footage from law enforcement officials on the scene.

**Hannah Critchfield** (4:57)
So there's this handful of federal agents at the jail, and she's recording them, and she moves for a clear review, and an agent grabs her and pins her to a wall. Other federal agents come up to assist. There's ICE agents, there's also an FBI agent, and they arrest her.