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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Monday, January 26th. I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show that appreciates that in the midst of horrifying events in Minneapolis and a potentially generational storm in the Eastern and Southern United States, President Donald Trump is laser-focused on his ballroom. He posted on Truth Social Sunday morning, quote, “I’m building on top of everything else that I’m doing, one of the greatest and most beautiful ballrooms anywhere in the world, with more than $300 million of great American patriots’ money and,” alright, that’s enough from him. [music break] On today’s show, the chances of a partial government shutdown loom larger, as Senate Democrats vow to oppose a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. And after President Trump pulls the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, California becomes the first U. S. state to join forces with the WHO in defiance. But let’s start with Minnesota. Another American citizen has been shot and killed by federal law enforcement this weekend, and yet again, the federal government is lying about it. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday that the city is tired of this bullshit. 

[clip of Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara] The Minneapolis Police Department went the entire year last year recovering about 900 guns from the street, arresting hundreds and hundreds of violent offenders, and we didn’t shoot anyone. And now this is the second American citizen that’s been killed. It’s the third shooting within three weeks. People have been speaking out, saying that this was going to happen again. And I think everyone is kind of waiting um for folks on both sides to come together and just figure this thing out. This is not sustainable. 

Jane Coaston: Here’s what happened. On Saturday, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old registered nurse at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Minneapolis, was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents. According to multiple bystander videos reviewed by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Pretti who had a gun permit was filming interactions between protesters and federal law enforcement. After seeing a Border Patrol agent use pepper spray on a woman nearby, Pretti moved to defend her. He was then wrestled to the ground by Border patrol agents. One of whom removed Pretti’s gun from his waistband. Then another agent shot Pretti in the back, and yet another agent appeared to start shooting as well. In total, at least 10 shots were fired. There were countless eyewitness videos, so the federal government decided to just make stuff up, I guess. The Department of Homeland Security alleged on its Twitter feed Saturday that Pretti, quote, “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a gun,” when videos clearly show he didn’t. White House Deputy Chief of Staff and reigning Worst Person Alive Stephen Miller called Pretti a quote, “assassin.” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Saturday Pretti was trying to kill law enforcement while citing absolutely no evidence. And Border Patrol Chief and competitor for the title of Worst Person Alive, Gregory Bovino said during a press conference Saturday that Pretti, the guy surrounded by federal agents was the real danger. 

[clip of Gregory Bovino] In what looks like a situation, again, where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement. 

Jane Coaston: Bullshit. But as violence from federal law enforcement is becoming increasingly more common, I’m wondering, who the hell is joining these agencies? Who is looking at all of this and thinking, I gotta get a job with these people? Because despite spending millions of dollars on recruitment and offering massive signing bonuses, the percentage of new immigration and customs enforcement recruits that are actually ready to be deployed is not very high. Some ICE recruits are going into training programs with criminal records and failed drug tests, and thousands are failing the ICE fitness test. A few months ago, freelance journalist Laura Jedeed applied for a job with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And she got a final offer, despite not doing the required paperwork and undergoing what she put as minimal vetting. She wrote about her experience for Slate, and then the Department of Homeland Security said she was lying. So Laura did what journalists do and brought out the receipts. I spoke to Laura before the shooting of Alex Pretti about her background, the ICE recruitment process, and what questions she still has. Laura, welcome to What a Day! 

Laura Jedeed: Hey, thank you for having me. 

Jane Coaston: Just to start, can you tell me a little bit about your background and how you became a journalist? 

Laura Jedeed: Yeah, uh so it’s been an odd path. I grew up in a household that votes Republican. I watched a lot of Fox News as a kid and really believed in the whole War on Terror thing. So right out of high school, I joined the military, went to Afghanistan, realized that we were not the good guys here. We were telling people what to do who didn’t want to be told what to do. And I don’t blame them. I don’t like being told what do either. So it made me wonder what else I’d been lied to about. And over the next several years, I changed almost everything that I believed at the time. And this, after you know kind of a meandering path, led me to journalism because I like to write and also because I remember what it’s like to believe things that I no longer do. And I wanted to write about why people believe what they do, especially the American conservative movement. That’s been kind of my beat for a long time. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, that’s actually how I got into writing about American conservatism. You know, I grew up in a very liberal household that was surrounded by conservatives. 

Laura Jedeed: Yes. 

Jane Coaston: And I was like, all of these people must have gotten somewhere. And I want to know where their path took them and why mine didn’t take me to the same place. But I want get to your story. And this story started last summer when you went to an immigration and customs enforcement career expo in Arlington, Texas. What was that event and what was your goal going into it? 

Laura Jedeed: Yeah, so I just wanted to write about the event. I thought it would be interesting to write about how ICE was hiring people, what kind of questions they were asking. So rather than go in as a journalist and get some canned answers, I decided to apply, which I thought I could get through round one. You know my military background, I look pretty good on paper. Also though, I’m a very Google-able person. I have a very unusual name and I have a pretty big internet presence. If you type my name into any computer. You’d find that I am a very outspoken critic of the Trump administration and a very outspoken critic of ICE specifically. So I assumed that I would, you know, get through the first interview, they’d run my name through a computer and that would be the end and I’d write about what the expo was like. That was the plan. 

Jane Coaston: You talked to and observed a lot of people at that event. What struck you the most? And I have to ask, what kinds of people did you meet? 

Laura Jedeed: So I didn’t actually chat with any of the applicants. Nobody was very chatty, which I think is interesting. People were mostly keeping to themselves or if they’d come with friends, like an obvious friend group, they would be talking amongst themselves. But it was not, not a friendly crowd. A lot of people with former law enforcement experience uh who were getting priority uh with processing for this on-the-spot hiring event. You know, like the kind of thick neck types, like look like they do steroids, but maybe don’t know how to work out. Then you had a couple, like, you know, real muscular guys who look like they do know how to work out, the big spec ops beard. Clearly wanting to be that kind of person. And then honestly, just a lot of kind of dorky looking guys, pretty even split racially between Hispanic and white people with a smattering of other racists to round it out and almost no women. I’m sure that comes as a shock to everybody. 

Jane Coaston: The Washington Post reported on the same event you attended and said 3,000 people showed up to submit resumes. Did it seem crowded to you? 

Laura Jedeed: No. And I am curious whether that number came from DHS or not. And I don’t know. Like I went for three hours of a two-day event and it’s possible maybe day one was mobbed and maybe the afternoon was mobbed. But when I was there, it was in no way mobbed, there was no line to get in, no line to get through security. There couldn’t have been more than 150 people there at any given time while I was there and people were going in and out. But it didn’t seem like a very big event to me. 

Jane Coaston: What was your interview like? 

Laura Jedeed: So the interview itself for ICE um lasted about six minutes. It was the most basic questions you could imagine, you know, name, date of birth, military, like was like retired or did I get out after one tour, stuff like that, um and where I wanted to be stationed, but there was no interest in anything else. And I mean, honestly, I thought it was a pre-interview. I thought when she finished up that was like, okay, I’ve like cleared this. Now the real interview will happen, but that is not the case. Then I had the option to talk to an ICE agent. That was not part of the hiring process. It was just a thing that you could do if you wanted to. And there was no line for that. So I went ahead and talked to an agent about the job. And he really wanted me to understand that I wouldn’t be out there cracking heads right away, that there would probably be some paperwork I’d need to do. There are other jobs that aren’t getting out in the street. And he said directly, you know, I’ve talked to a lot of people who are like, I want to get out there and put people in cuffs right away, but I try to temper expectations. And I mean, that speaks to the motivation. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah. That says something about the fact that he was like whoa whoa whoa you won’t be able to start denying people their constitutional rights right away. 

Laura Jedeed: Be patient be patient yeah. 

Jane Coaston: So how did you find out that actually you had been offered the actual job? 

Laura Jedeed: It was very strange. So I got an email about a week after the expo that you know said, you have a tentative offer. You have 48 hours to accept. Here’s a bunch of paperwork. And it was paperwork you would expect. You know have you committed any domestic violence? We need you to sign an affidavit that says you haven’t. Some medical clearance stuff, background checks, um stuff like that, you know like just basic paperwork. I didn’t see the email because I wasn’t looking for it. I kept an eye out for the first couple of days. When it didn’t come then I was like, okay, well they Googled me and this is the end. So I missed this email completely, filled out none of those forms, none of the paperwork ever went in. A couple of weeks later, I did see an email that said, you know, for the next step of your application, we need you to take a drug test, which, you know I didn’t realize there was a next step and it was unfortunate to the timing a little bit. Cannabis is legal in New York. I’d partaken about six days before the date, but I decided why not waste their money a little bit and see what happens. So I went in and at this point, I am expecting to hear back. Cause if you fail a drug test, they’re supposed to tell you. When I didn’t hear back, I ended up logging on to the ICE hiring portal through USAjobs.com. And what I found, according to this portal, I received a final offer. I had accepted the final offer, and I had an entry on duty date, an EOD date that was three days before I checked. It was September 30th was the date that I supposedly entered ICE. 

Jane Coaston: So to be clear here, according to the jobs portal, you not only got the job, you accepted the job and you had your first day of work scheduled. 

Laura Jedeed: Yeah, I mean I’m sure there was more paperwork to do after the EOD day, but that’s the official beginning. You know, when they calculate your retirement, that’s the date they use. So, yeah, without signing a single piece of paper, the mind boggles. It really does.

Jane Coaston: I mean I’m I’m boggled right now, but when you looked through the jobs portal, what concerned you the most? 

Laura Jedeed: The thing I found the most concerning was, you know, obviously I clicked through to try to figure out what had happened. And a couple of things like, you now, physical fitness was listed as pending, drug test was still listed as a pending, but my background check was listed as completed and it was listed as completed as of three days in the future. So this was October 3rd, background check completed October 6th. And to me, Look, maybe if I’d gone forward with the process, I’d accepted the tentative offer, which was the last step I needed to do. Weirdly, I’d apparently accepted the final offer, but the tentitive offer still had to be accepted. Maybe if I done that, they would have run the background check. Maybe that was a glitch, but it sure looked to me like they weren’t gonna run one. 

Jane Coaston: So you didn’t take the job, which on the one hand seems like the most obvious decision to make. But on the other hand, I’m sure as a journalist and as someone who’s very interested in what this would look like, there must have been some part of you that thought about, like, I could click the green button, I could take this job, I could go through ICE training until somebody eventually maybe Googles me and is like, hang on a second. Was there a temptation to just be like, let’s just see how far we can go with this? 

Laura Jedeed: Oh, yeah. And to this day, I’m not sure I made the right decision. I went back and forth. I stared at it for a while. Um. Ultimately, my concern was it wouldn’t even have to be ICE themselves that Googled me. If I went to training and some classmate put my name into a Google doc, it just seemed impossible that eventually the jig would be up. And if that happened while I was in an ICE training facility, I mean, I am not a domestic terrorist sent from Antifa headquarters. That’s not a real thing. But they’re high on their own supply. And I was very worried. That they would decide that I was and that it would go very, very poorly for me. 

Jane Coaston: The Department of Homeland Security actually responded to your piece on Twitter, writing, and I quote, I can’t do a Tricia McLaughlin imitation, but imagine I am. “This is such a lazy lie. This individual was never offered a job at ICE. Applicants may receive a tentative selection letter following their initial application and interview that is not a job offer. It just means they are invited to submit information for review, similar to any other applicant.” Which one, it’s kind of telling that you got that far anyway. They’re kind of acknowledging like, yes, this person would have gotten that. But you posted a great response. Could you tell me about that? 

Laura Jedeed: Yeah. Well, I mean, the thing is they did send me a tentative offer. That part’s true. That’s not what the article was about, though. The article was about the final offer and the EOD date. So I just posted the screen grab video that I took of the portal. I just said, you sure about that? Because again, look, if final offer means something different to them, I’d love to hear about it. I reached out for comment before the article published, heard nothing. Haven’t heard anything about the response. But um, I mean they just haven’t responded to the actual article and the actual thing that happened. 

Jane Coaston: What do you want people to know after you had this experience? And and what questions do you still have? 

Laura Jedeed: Well, I’d love to know how this happened. I would love to know if this was just me, which I find very unlikely, or how widespread this is. Was this just this event? Um. Is this widespread? Are they doing background checks at all? And that to me is is the big takeaway, the most obvious one is like we have these people, they’re running around in masks, they’re armed, they’re on our streets, they are acting with de facto absolute immunity because the DOJ won’t prosecute them. And not only do we not know who they are, it seems like ICE might not know who they are. And that should bother everyone, including ICE, frankly. If I was in charge of ICE, I would be very concerned that we maybe hadn’t vetted everybody. I wouldn’t immediately write it off. And I think that is the kind of unprofessional, cavalier indifference that we’re seeing towards the wellbeing of really everybody in America. They just don’t seem to care. 

Jane Coaston: Laura, thank you so much for taking the time. 

Laura Jedeed: Yeah, wonderful to be here. Thank you for having me. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with freelance journalist Laura Jadeed. She writes a sub stack, firewalledmedia.com. We’ll link to her work in the show notes. Yes, there’s more news to get to. Don’t worry, we’ll get through it all together. If you like the show, subscribe, share with your friends, and leave a five-star review wherever you’re listening. And watch us on YouTube because podcasts are a visual medium now. More to come after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of Senator Senator Amy Klobuchar] The way that this agency has been functioning is completely against every tenant of law enforcement. So before us right now, we have a bill about funding them, giving them more money. I’m not voting for that. 

Jane Coaston: Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and other Democratic senators are vowing to oppose a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, increasing the chance of a partial government shutdown by the end of the week. Democrats were already hesitant to support the bill after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month, but it was the public killing of Alex Pretti over the weekend that prompted Dems to take a more forceful stand. Senator Klobuchar spoke to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday about ICE’s budget. 

[clip of Senator Senator Amy Klobuchar] No, I am not voting for this funding. And what could we do to overhaul them? Oh, let me start. New leadership, stopping these surges across the country, not just in my state. Training them like they were supposed to be trained. Not just 47 days, which the president picked out because it’s his, he’s the 47th president. Mandatory body cameras. Stopping ramming into people’s houses without a judicial warrant, and I could go on. 

Jane Coaston: Washington Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, initially pushed her colleagues to vote for the DHS bill. But after the shooting, Murray wrote on Twitter that she would not support the bill as it stands and called for it to be split off from the larger funding package. This is where things get tricky. The House sent several funding bills to the Senate as a package. Along with the D.H.S. funding, the measure includes funds for other agencies like the state, health, and labor departments. Since the bills are packaged together. Stripping out the DHS portion would be difficult. The deadline to avoid a shutdown is Friday. 

[clip of Tim Walz] This is, again, as the attorney general said, Donald Trump telling everybody that the election was rigged, who started all this nightmare for America, um has nothing to do with it. And I just, I would just give a pro tip to the attorney-general, there’s two million documents in the Epstein files we’re still waiting on, go ahead and work on those. 

Jane Coaston: On Sunday, Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz clapped back at Attorney General Pam Bondi after she sent a letter of demands to, quote, “restore the rule of law in Minnesota.” Bondi’s ransom-like letter comes as the Trump administration has spent weeks pressuring Minnesota to give ICE more access to local penitentiaries. And if Minnesota plays ball, Bondi suggested immigration operations could be scaled back. She’s like a mob boss, but with more guns. Bondi also demanded access to Minnesota’s voter rolls, claiming the Justice Department needs to verify the state’s registration practices comply with federal law. Minnesota’s Secretary of State Steve Simon said Bondi’s letter was, quote, “an outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of U.S. citizens in violation of state and federal law.” Simon said the answer to Bondi’s request is no. The U.S. said it finalized its withdrawal from the World Health Organization last week, further isolating America on the international stage. The WHO is the United Nations’ specialized health agency. Its job is to coordinate the response to global health threats like MPox and Ebola. It also provides technical assistance to poorer countries and sets guidelines for hundreds of health conditions. Nearly every country in the world is a member, but on Thursday Trump made good on his promise to pull America out. The WHO said in a statement that the action, quote, “makes both the United States and the world less safe.” So what to do now? Well, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom has a plan to counter Trump’s decision. Newsom announced that California became the first American state to join the WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. Newsom said being a part of the group will in part help California, quote, “foster partnerships across the globe and remain at the forefront of public health preparedness.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to explain President Trump’s latest tariff threats while speaking with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on Sunday. 

[clip of ABC News’ Jonathan Karl] There’s confusion from President Trump on this. I mean, we heard from him just, I think it was nine days ago, eight or nine days ago, he had this to say about Canada negotiating with China. 

[clip of unknown news reporter] How do you see the deals, Canada and China, I’ve just signed trade deals between the two partners? 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Well, it’s okay. That’s what he should be doing. I mean, it is a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, he should do that. 

[clip of ABC News’ Jonathan Karl] Okay, so he gives a green light to a deal with China, just after they do it, and then nine days later, he’s saying that’s it, 100% tariffs. 

[clip of Scott Bessent] Well, no, there’s a possibility of 100 percent tariffs if they do a free trade deal. 

Jane Coaston: I am still confused. Over the weekend, Trump threatened to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if Canada went forward with a trade deal with China. But Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney noted his recent agreement with China merely addresses tariffs between the two countries. Carney very calmly told reporters on Sunday he had no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. Earlier this month, Carney cut Canada’s 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian products like canola oil. Makes sense to me. And that’s the news. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, stand with the good people of Minneapolis, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, not just about how the Minnesota Timberwolves held a moment of silence in honor of Alex Pretti on Sunday, and fans, well, they said what needed to be said. 

[clip of Minnesota Timberwolves speaker] Please join us in honoring the life and memory of Alex Pretti with a moment of silence. 

[clip of crowd shouting at Timberwolves game] Fuck ICE!

Jane Coaston: Like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston, and stay safe, Minnesota. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Emily Fohr and Chris Allport. Our producer is Caitlin Plummer. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Ethan Oberman, Greg Walters, and Matt Berg. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of news and politics is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]