Transcript

What Is Your Emergency? | This American Life | Episode 880

From This American Life · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 57 min · 9,414 words · 174 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "What Is Your Emergency? | This American Life | Episode 880", an episode of This American Life published February 2, 2026 (57 min, about 9,414 words). It mentions 18 people, works and ideas, including Ira Glass, ICE, Steven Little Miller, DHS, Chicago.

What this episode is about

exploit fear and confusion among communities by masquerading as service workers to carry out immigration raids. Through collected 911 calls, the narrative provides insight into the emotional toll and panic experienced by residents, highlighting the often chaotic and unsettling encounters between local citizens and federal immigration agents.

Key takeaways

  • When ICE agents go undercover as exterminators, it's not just pest control—it's a game of fear.
  • These 911 calls reveal a stark truth: ICE's presence is a daily disruption, not just a headline.
  • Imagine calling 911 on federal agents—welcome to a new reality where law enforcement is ambiguous.
  • Tear gas in grocery store parking lots: is this the new normal or a striking absence of law?
  • The confusion between 911 callers and dispatchers highlights a breakdown in communication about federal authority.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Charlotte, Chicago, ICE, North Carolina
  2. – 10:00: Ira Glass, DHS, Chicago, Minneapolis
  3. – 15:00: Charlotte, North Carolina, Steven Little Miller, Chicago
  4. – 20:00: Charlotte, Christoal Malttos, North Carolina
  5. – 25:00: Chicago, Minneapolis, Joshua Long
  6. – 30:00: Maramar Martinez, Steven Little Miller, Chicago, Minneapolis
  7. – 35:00: Steven Little Miller, Chicago, Minneapolis, Operation Trojan Horse
  8. – 40:00: El Centro
  9. – 45:00: Memo Torres, Governor Tim Walz
  10. – 50:00: Memo Torres
  11. – 57:24: Ira Glass, National Day Labor Organizing Network

Notable quotes from "What Is Your Emergency? | This American Life | Episode 880"

  • Sometimes, but they're also something else. Together, they're like a portrait of a country where ICE officers and border patrol agents are spreading everywhere. All sorts of…
    about ICE · at
  • This is from Chicago from when it was flooded with federal agents during Operation Midway Blitz. Hundreds of immigration agents all around the city arresting thousands of people.
    about Chicago · at
  • We're from WBZ Chicago. This is American Life. I'm Ira Glass. So, here we all are. Federal officers shooting American citizens, killing two in Minneapolis.
    about Minneapolis · at
  • It tripled ISIS budget, giving them more money than any federal law enforcement agency. And DHS rapidly hired lots of new enforcement officers, 12,000 they claim, more than doubling its workforce.
    about DHS · at
  • Branding of our immigration enforcement and the White House really wants them to deliver. The architect of Donald Trump's immigration policy, Steven Miller, kind of famously…
    about Steven Little Miller · at
  • On my arm and on my leg. I can't no more. This is Marramar Martinez, a US citizen. She was driving around her neighborhood warning people that agents were coming and was shot October 4th, 3 months before Renee Good and Alex Prey.
    about Maramar Martinez · at
  • Memo Torres and Izzy Ramirez are building an archive. Everyday's raids, arrests, sightings of federal agents in Southern California. 230 days in counting. Memo delivers a roundup at the.
    about Memo Torres · at
  • Where you can listen to our entire archive, over 850 shows for absolutely free. This American Life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange. Thanks as always to our program's co-founder, Mr. Tory Malatia.
    about Ira Glass · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Ira Glass — Person · Host / narrator · 3 mentions · first at
    He introduces the episode, frames the reporting, and narrates transitions between acts.
  • Steven Little Miller — Person · Referenced political figure / policy architect · 3 mentions · first at
    Presented as the architect of Trump-era immigration policy, cited to explain quotas, rhetoric, and the enforcement posture behind the raids discussed.
  • Memo Torres — Person · Referenced journalist/archivist (subject of Act Three) · 3 mentions · first at
    He and a collaborator build an archive of raids in Southern California and publish a daily roundup (“Daily Memo”), serving as a key example of community documentation.
  • Maramar Martinez — Person · Referenced shooting victim / 911 caller (Chicago) · 2 mentions · first at
    Named as a U.S. citizen who called for medical help after being shot; used to illustrate the severity of enforcement encounters and disputed official narratives.
  • Christoal Malttos — Person · Referenced civilian involved in Charlotte incident · 1 mention · first at
    Identified as the person pulled from a car by ICE; later charged (then charges dropped), illustrating escalation and legal fallout described via 911 calls.
    Hit an officer with his car mirror and then charged him with felony assault, resisting and impeding. Few weeks later, the DOJ dropped the charges.
  • Joshua Long — Person · Referenced civilian detained by Border Patrol (Charlotte) · 1 mention · first at
    A caller describes being followed and pulled over; he is later named as Joshua Long, detained for hours and accused of assault—an example of citizens caught up in raids.
    Him. They took him. A crowd gathered, upset, filming. The guy's name is Joshua Long. He was detained for 6 hours. Says he was charged with assault on a federal officer.
  • Governor Tim Walz — Person · Referenced public official (governor) used for comparison · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned to contextualize public guidance about recording raids; the transcript appears to refer to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (spelled “Waltz” here).
    Los Angeles was way ahead of Minnesota's Governor Tim Waltz when he called on people to carry their phones on them at all times to record immigration raids.

Companies & orgs

  • ICE — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    Primary subject of the episode, discussing their operations and impact across various cities.
  • DHS — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    Discussed in the context of immigration enforcement and operations.
  • Charlotte Observer — Company · Case study · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a source of information about ICE operations.
    The picture that you get from these 911 calls, Ryan Orley and Julia Coin collected them for the Charlotte Observer. Jim Dailyaly did at the Southside Weekly at Chicago. We requested some ourselves. The picture.
  • National Day Labor Organizing Network — Company · Case study · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of supporting day laborers affected by ICE operations.
    E Y Ewing, Mariah Wolfful, Scott Ducharm, Peter Mancina, the Central American Resource Center, organizers at the LA Tenants Union, Patriceio Ameiliano, Vincencio Odonahue, and Kadij Nikoy. Our website thisamericanlife.org.

Places & events

  • Chicago — Place · Setting · 7 mentions · first at
    One of the cities where ICE operations were discussed.
  • Charlotte — Place · Setting · 5 mentions · first at
    One of the cities where ICE operations were discussed.
    Observer. Jim Dailyaly did at the Southside Weekly at Chicago. We requested some ourselves. The picture that you get in these calls of immigration officers is different from…
  • Minneapolis — Place · Setting · 5 mentions · first at
    One of the cities where ICE operations were discussed.
  • North Carolina — Place · Setting · 4 mentions · first at
    State where Charlotte is located, discussed in the context of ICE operations.
    Back when federal immigration agents launched big operations in North Carolina, this is back in the middle of November. One of the things that local reporters did to get a sense of what ICE.
  • Operation Midway Blitz — Event · Key argument · 1 mention · first at
    A specific operation discussed in the episode.
    This is from Chicago from when it was flooded with federal agents during Operation Midway Blitz. Hundreds of immigration agents all around the city arresting thousands of people.
  • Operation Trojan Horse — Event · Key argument · 1 mention · first at
    A specific operation discussed in the episode.
    Lake, LA on Wilshire Boulevard. And then in August, this same Home Depot was a spot where DHS launched a brand new strategy that it called Operation Trojan Horse, where Border…
  • El Centro — Place · Setting · 3 mentions · first at
    A safe zone for day laborers mentioned in the episode.
    There's a corrugated roof. Day laborers know when there's a raid they can take shelter there. It's run by a nonprofit called Gessen. Set up years ago to make sure day laborers actually got paid by.

Full transcript with timestamps

A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbeeded in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website thisamericanlife.org. Back when federal immigration agents launched big operations in North Carolina, this is back in the middle of November. One of the things that local reporters did to get a sense of what ICE and Border Patrol were doing, the scope of it, the kinds of things they were up to, was that they requested 911 calls. Charlotte 911. Do you need police, fire, or medic?

All right, hold on, please. When the city releases these to reporters, they alter the voices a little to protect people's identities. This woman saying that all morning these black vans have been showing up at her building pretending to be exterminators so that people will open their doors. And she thinks they're ice and everybody's scared. There have been reports from around the country of immigration agents pretending to be contractors or utility workers or police to trick people and then nab them

and the dispatcher does not know what to do with this. Okay. So, what did you what what did you need police assistance with? Did you just want us to know that this is happening in your neighborhood? Ma'am,

the woman says no. She wants the police to come cuz people are intimidated. It's private property. And how is it okay to say they're exterminators when they're not? The picture that you get from these 911 calls, Ryan Orley and Julia Coin collected them for the Charlotte Observer. Jim Dailyaly did at the Southside Weekly at Chicago. We requested some ourselves. The picture that you get in these calls of immigration officers is different from the videos we've all been seeing online and in the news. The videos capture individual incidents, right? Viral moments. They're often combative or violent. These 911 calls have that sometimes, but they're also something else. Together, they're like a portrait of a country where ICE officers and border patrol agents are spreading everywhere. All sorts of run-of-the-mill locations. This new presence that everybody's bumping into. So many of the calls are people who are not targeted by

ICE, but just calling to say they're here getting in the way of daily life. Hello.

Hello. This is 911. Can you police fire or medic? Uh, police. Police. What address do you need police at?

Um, University City Emergency Department. We're in the ER. Okay. What's going on out there?

Yeah, we have a bunch of um self-declared ICE agents here who are interfering with patient care and we need them removed.

And how many would you say are there? Six. Okay. And are they in the ER right now?

Yeah, they're literally in the room with me. Okay. Okay. Uh, and do they have any weapons that you can see?

Yep. If you guys just come to the ER, we can show you who they are. What is the address they need the police? Holiday Express, the Void Corporate Drive. Is this referencing a specific room number?

No. Um, we have a big bus parked out there. Uh, they're not staying at the hotel. I don't know who they are. I don't know if they're ICE agents or what they are, but they're hovering around and making my guests uncomfortable along with employees. So, I want them off my property. It's my property and someone needs to inform them of that. They're fair and fair. So, they should not be inside of my hotel. They should not be parked at my hotel without any sort of payment. This is my personal property. I'm paying the property taxes for it, not them.

Scott, you have a 911. Yes. Hi. Um, I just tear your gas the whole street by Rico Fresh on Armmitage and Drake and I was just I'm a US citizen and I was just going to a grocery store and they start tear gasing the whole street. It's ridiculous. Like, are we in the freaking war?

This is from Chicago from when it was flooded with federal agents during Operation Midway Blitz. Hundreds of immigration agents all around the city arresting thousands of people.

Wait, what's the address again? It's by Rico Fresh on Army Touch and Drake. Armit?

Why are they doing that? Who gives them the right to do this? All right. Anybody need an ambulance, ma'am?

No. No one needs ambulance. But you need to be aware of the things. But you can't just do that. When I was walking to the grocery store and they jerk out and everyone

Ice agents you said yes it was ICE agents in unmarked cars wearing the uniforms unmarked covering their faces I just want you to be aware of the fact I don't know if you can arrest anyone

all right then you say no nobody needs an ambulance right now though right no I'm fine to walk In that call, maybe you noticed the dispatcher struggling to figure out exactly what to do for this woman. Does she need an ambulance? She keeps asking. It's unclear in a bunch of these calls what 911 can do to help. And in the calls, you hear both sides, the dispatchers and the callers, as they try to figure it out in real time in this entirely new situation they both find themselves in where people are calling local police to do something about federal agents.

Now, I need you guys to come here right now on Grace Grace and Kildair. There's US Border Patrol and they're they're throwing bombs and they're [ __ ] hitting US citizens. They just knocked out a young lady with a bike. What the [ __ ] IS GOING ON?

GET THE paramedic for her. Do you think she needs paramedics? They're They're taking her. Why are they taking her?

Do you think she needs paramedics, sir? Yes, they need paramedics. Hold on. I'm on.

The dispatcher then transfers to the fire department to get a paramedic that he stays on the line. Fire department. How can I help you?

I need the cops here now. Is there someone hurting there? Is there someone injured?

I think he hung up fire. He were throwing bombs and hurting bomb. Yeah, I'll try to call back.

Okay. All right. I should say for most of these calls we can verify the basics of what happened through videos or local reporting or other sources. Though there were a handful where all we have is the call like this next one. A man called 911 with this stumper. He says masked men stopped him and asked him for his ID and violated his rights and damaged his phone. His question for 911 is next time if they kidnap me, what do I do?

And if I get kidnapped, what do I do? Who do I call? If you get kidnapped, you can call 911.

Okay. But you're not currently being kidnapped correct? No, but I could. Okay, I hear you. So basically, it's just it's just people with masks, then then I can defend myself. Can I bring my gun and and defend myself?

That's a little hard to hear. He's saying if it's people with masks, can I defend myself? Can I bring my gun and defend myself?

I can't. So, what is the situation? I can't advise you on anything legal. I'm not an officer or a lawyer. Um, but I can have officers reach out to you and talk more about this. Yes, Steve. Move back.

We're from WBZ Chicago. This is American Life. I'm Ira Glass. So, here we all are. Federal officers shooting American citizens, killing two in Minneapolis. What we hear in these 911 calls is people in real time doing what so many of us are doing, not quite believing what's happening right in front of them, not sure what to do or what can be done. and in this case calling the place that you're supposed to call when there's an emergency saying there is one right here. Today in our program we have more of these calls. You'll hear people with 911 on the line as ICE is chasing them trying to puzzle out their next moves.

And you'll hear a bunch of other people trying to outplay armed federal officers in this new version of America that we all find ourselves in. Stay with us. This American life act one. What is the nature of your emergency? So before we jump back into more 911 calls, it seems worth saying a word about how we got to this point that people around the country are calling local law enforcement about the presence of federal law enforcement. Okay. So last year, the Trump administration hoping to deliver on his campaign promise of mass deportations, it tripled ISIS budget, giving them more money than any federal law enforcement agency. And DHS rapidly hired lots of new enforcement officers, 12,000 they claim, more than doubling its workforce.

The Trump administration cut the training time for these new agents in half to 47 days, a number chosen reportedly because Trump is the 47th president. Now they say the training is 42 days. To recruit these agents, DHS ads were all about protecting the homeland and repelling foreign invaders. They used a lot of white nationalist slogans and memes. Google that if you're curious. It's shocking. And you know, who knows how many people like that actually signed up. I'm bringing this up because all of that set a certain tone for the agency. This was the new fists out aggro coming for you branding of our immigration enforcement and the White House really really wants them to deliver. The architect of Donald Trump's immigration policy, Steven Miller, kind of famously bered DHS officials last May and demanded they arrest 3,000 immigrants a day, a quota it is nowhere close to achieving. So that all sets the stage for the

nationwide tour of American cities the federal agents have been on for months going from one city to the next. Los Angeles, then Chicago, then Charlotte, then Minneapolis, then New Orleans. Some of the operations got cutesy trolly names. Charlotte's Web, Catahula Crunch, Catch of the Day in Maine. And when they arrive in each city, in the calls that I want to play you right now in this act of the show, what's interesting is there are these little runs of calls that tell a story. When you listen to them in sequence, one after another after another, it's like you see the immigration agents roll through town on some particular afternoon or evening, moving down the block from corner to corner and spot to spot, leaving a little cloud of chaos each place they touch. We're going to start uh with a whole bunch of calls from Charlotte that begin at 10:04 in the morning with the guy who's phoning 911 because ICE seems

to be breaking the law and 911 is the place you call to report somebody breaking the law. Right?

Charlotte 911. Do you need police, fire, or medic? I just want to say we've got a Chevy Tahoe. It's definitely ice. They have their they have their license plate like it's covered. Like it's it's like I'm pretty sure that that's illegal. It's it's all covered up and he's backing into this corner right now.

You said you believe Oh, and he's got a camera out right now and um they're in like tactical gear and everything, but it's

What type of vehicle is it? It's a Chevy Tahoe. The the numbers on the plate are like deliberately crossed out. And where are they at? I'm at North Trion Street. I'm in the Kangaroo.

The Kangaroo's gas station. Mini Mart. Like I'm I'm I'm at a distance, but they're they're in the Kangaroo right now.

Okay. Oh, here comes the cavalry. What do you mean? The all the [ __ ] ICE agents are coming in right now. And this guy's if this guy's walking up to me. I don't have to roll down my window, do I?

So, you have the traffic light. Stop. warning. I'm on I'm on a I'm on the phone with 911 actually because you guys

This is your first warning to stop following us and it's on camera. Your license plate is obstructed. You guys are on camera as well.

On camera. First warning. Stop following us. If you continue to follow us, we're going to arrest you for impeding.

Impeding what? Okay. You got all that, right? Yes. I'm not impeding anything. I'm just sitting over here. He said I was following him. I just drove into the um the uh gas station in here. There's like Oh my god, there's like eight trucks in here now. But my concern was the license plate that was deliberately crossed out and then he's going to want to say that I was following him and you heard him like how intimidating he was trying to be.

So you just want me to have an officer call you? Yeah, that would be great. Okay, so that's the first call in this set of calls. 17 minutes later, completely unrelated to that first guy, about a mile and a half away on the same road, North Triion Street.

Uh, I just had a car hit me. He just hit the back of my car. Okay. Where are you?

North Triion. I'm right behind him. He's running away from me. He's a detective. He just hit my car and he just ran away. A detective hit your car. Uh, I police control car.

Oh, I hit your car. Yeah, he in my car right now. He's running away. All right, listen to me. I'm advis.

I'd advise you not to follow. The dispatcher saying just to keep yourself out of harm's way.

No, I mean, they're not going to do nothing to me. I'm American citizen, but it's just the fact that he hit my car and he's running away.

I understand. Yeah, that's not that's not going off right now. Right. Right. Okay. What I will tell you is the officer is not going to come and chase you guys down.

The officer is not going to come chase you guys down. In other words, you're on your own.

Uh, now they're following me where they're gone. They pointing a gun at you? Yeah. Yeah, that's that's just violating my uh citizen, right? He hit my car and now they were pointing guns at me.

Yeah, and they just hit my car, too. I understand that. Where are you right now?

I don't know what's going on. This goes on for a little while. The dispatcher asking for a cross street. The guy doesn't know the cross street and you hear pounding on his windows.

Do you see an intersecting street where you are? Yes, sir. Where? I'm right in the intersection.

What intersection? Is that University? Yes, sir. Hey now. Right now you hit me with the car, bro. That's the door. Open the Open the door. Open the Open the door, bro. A while later, 911 gets this call. I've had the same car in the same location and the guy who was in the car. Uh

I um my cousin has been abducted by ICE and he is a US citizen. So I need um help on how to proceed and he is a US citizen. So let me see um where what what's going on with that. I thought the I thought that was just going to be to detain immigrants that are not from here, not also US citizens.

So you said he was kidnapped by ICE officials, ma'am. Did I hear you correctly?

Yes, ma'am. And I do have video footage. Okay, ma'am. The dispatcher gets some more information and then pulls another person on the line to talk to the caller. I'm going to have an officer call you and talk to you about this. Uh CMPD doesn't deal with immigration enforcement. So, I'm not sure how we would proceed with that. So, we would like to know if the police can't help us, who can help us find our cousin. You know, who do we who are we supposed to turn to for help?

Right. Right. I I understand your concerns. I'm sorry you guys are going through this.

Okay, so a man gets pulled from his car. That was one call. Cousin looking for him. That's the next call. And then an hour after that, there's another call about the car that's sitting there. Windows smashed in.

Okay. What type of report are you trying to make? Uh damage report. What type of damage report? What happened? Uh, so my I I I don't really know as far as everything, but my cousin was uh stopped by ICE and they bashed the windows and um I'm not sure why if he's a a US citizen, but the car is under my name and he's a co-sign and we're both on the insurance and everything, but I I need a police report as far as trying to see what the next steps are.

All right, I have an inter service. Hopefully I'll throw out there as soon as we can.

An accident report. That's something the 911 operator knows how to do. Government later filed charges against the guy they pulled from the car. His name is Christoal Malttos. He's 24. Agent said that when his car moved, he hit an officer with his car mirror and then charged him with felony assault, resisting and impeding. Few weeks later, the DOJ dropped the charges. One thing that hits you when you listen to these 911 calls is this feeling like nobody's going to come save you. Superman's not going to show up. The cavalry is not going to come in. The police aren't going to be there. The police aren't going to come cuz local police won't interfere with federal immigration officers doing their jobs.

You hear operators telling that to callers. And you also hear them say, "Can you just get out of there or can you just play along?" For instance, here's another call. We're in the same city, Charlotte, North Carolina. The day after everything you just heard.

Charlotte 911. Do you need police, fire, or medic? Police. What address? Um, so I'm over here on Eastway by the Showars at Eastway Crossing. I've got two um vehicles that are in border patrol and they're following me and they're trying to um get out of the car. There's two wagon hangers and they've got their sirens on and they're border patrol. They're not police and they're trying to pull me over right now and they've been driving recklessly and they're right on my ass. And I'm a US citizen. I am not immigrated here whatsoever. And they're trying and they're driving recklessly. They're like right on my butt.

Keep trying. They keep trying to block my path. And there's actually four of them trying to ram into my car. Can you please send someone ASAP?

Are you able to Okay. Are you able to um like pull over safely? I am. I just pulled over.

Okay. Just try to comply as best as you can. I just Okay. Hello. I'm on the ground.

It gets kind of faint there, but he's saying, "I'm on the ground. I'm on the ground."

This continues for half a minute. Then you hear the dispatcher pipe up again. Hello, 911.

Hello. Then there's another half minute or so like this until finally normal window disconnect and do no response. This happened in the parking lot for a shopping mall. Witnesses heard him yelling, "I'm a US citizen." As he was dragged out of the car. Several agents cars surrounded him. They handcuffed him. They took him. A crowd gathered, upset, filming. The guy's name is Joshua Long. He was detained for 6 hours. Says he was charged with assault on a federal officer. Here's something you might not have guessed. It isn't just citizens and immigrants calling into 911 on these calls. ICE and Border Patrol call, too.

And they call 911 for a bunch of different reasons. Sometimes it's for the stuff that anybody calls 911. There's one call where federal agents got into a fender bender and wanted to file a regular traffic accident report. Another Border Patrol agent called to report a theft. He said that somebody presumably to be a protester, but he doesn't say, broke into his car, stole his work laptop, some ammunition, and his uniform. You turn on a light, which I apologize, but it had my badge in there, too. I didn't realize it was my badge on there, too. Right now,

calls like these 911 operators respond to like any other calls. But sometimes, ICE and Border Patrol call for help with their jobs out in the field. And that's more complicated. Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, lots of cities, sanctuary cities don't allow local police to help with immigration arrests. This is a huge bone of contention for the Trump administration who've tried to sue to change this. And just this week demanded that Minnesota help them as a condition for reducing the number of federal agents there.

But one way that some local police do step in and step in all the time to help federal agents is to manage crowds and protesters who show up around their operations. And in cities where local police are not cooperating with ICE and Border Patrol, one way the federal agents can get them to show up is by calling 911. So, for example, in Worester, Massachusetts in May, ICE called repeatedly for police to come to Eureka Street to help them deal with a crowd when ICE arrested a woman as her teenage daughters watched.

I need to get there as fast as they can. What happened? Uh, we have a crowd surrounding an officer and he's requesting immediate assistance.

Can you send units, please? I'm going to send units. Yes. Beautiful. Any weapons that they can tell

other than the agents? No. About how many people is it? About 25. 20 25 people surrounding one officer.

After that, the scene gets pretty unruly. People in the crowd demand to see a warrant for the arrest. The waist does not need a warrant to arrest somebody. That's something lots of people don't know. Here's one last example of ICE calling 911. In this case, doing something that kind of surprised me to hear so baldly. there on a recording. In October in Oxnard, California, ICE agents deliberately rammed their Jeep Cherokee into the side of a pickup truck of an activist who'd been following them. They t-boned the truck. There's video of this. And then the agents called 911 and lied about what happened.

911, what's your emergency? Hi. Um, I'm with DHS ICE. I had a local individual crash. They backed into our vehicle. We're pursuing them right now. They're causing a major safety incident. Um, we need we need locals here now because we're in an active pursuit with this vehicle. He backed into us and he's fleeing from us and he's causing an insane safety hazard to this entire area.

Ice hasn't released the name of this agent. He hasn't talked to the press, so we can only guess of why he's saying what he's saying.

Maybe he has no idea he was filmed ramming his Jeep into the pickup truck. He's trying to create a record.

Maybe he's just saying anything that he thinks would get the local police to come help him.

The dispatcher does send police cars out to help. And they stop the pickup. ICE arrests the activist. His name is Leonardo Martinez, but the video of the agents ramming his truck goes viral and he's released a few hours later.

Over the 8 months since ICE and Border Patrol began these operations around the country, their tactics have gotten more extreme and the guard rails protecting people's rights have been crumbling. In their first operation in Los Angeles last summer, immigration agents began widespread racial profiling, stopping anybody speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent. Then in September, Supreme Court said they would allow that for now. So now they can stop anybody who looks or sounds foreign to them. Another change, DHS issued a new policy saying federal agents could enter somebody's home without a judge's order, which until now was considered unconstitutional.

And as things ramped up over this fall, it was made clear to federal agents that if protesters or anybody else tried to slow them down, they could basically do whatever they wanted to them, whatever they saw fit, and they would not be punished. Here's Steven Miller in October. To all ICE officers, you have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. And anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony. You have immunity. And no one, no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no uh leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties. So where's that lead?

I have one last call I want to play you. is from Chicago. Chicago Fire Department. How can I help you?

Can I get a medical attention? 31st in California. I just been shot. Okay. Say 35th in California.

35th in California, please. What's in this right over for you? Oh, where on your body? Where you shot?

Huh? Where on your body? Where you shot? Huh? Where on your body? Where you shot?

On my arm and on my leg. I can't no more. This is Marramar Martinez, a US citizen. She was driving around her neighborhood warning people that agents were coming and was shot October 4th, 3 months before Renee Good and Alex Prey were shot and killed in Minneapolis.

Help is on the way now. We'll be there shortly. You're outside on the corner there.

I'M RIGHT HERE IN THE CORNER. IN THE CORNER, IN THE CORNER. OKAY. Help is on the way. We're going to be there shortly.

We'll meet you there. Ma'am, do you know who got you? Do you have A GUN THAT YOU KNOW WHO shot you, ma'am?

Hello, ma'am. Do you know who shot you? Oh my god. I feel like I'm saying to somebody, "Do you have a bandana or something to stop this?"

Oh, [ __ ] [ __ ] Hello, please. Ma'am shot you. ICE AGENT SHOT ME. WHO? ICE AGENT. THE ICE AGENT SHOT YOU.

Maramar Martinez's case is eerily like Renee Goods. She was in her car and the government accused her of using her car as a deadly weapon and called her a domestic terrorist. News covers has documented 13 people have been shot by immigration agents since these big city sweeps began. And most of them they were shot in their cars. Also, most of them were accused by federal agents of not complying with orders or trying to escape or using their car as a weapon. Two of the people shot in their cars died. The rest survived.

This woman, Maramaro Martinez, was one of the survivors. In her case, a border patrol officer, Charles Exum, said she rammed her SUV into his. She said it was the other way around. And once she got into court on charges that she forcibly assaulted, impeded, and interfered with a federal law enforcement officer, once it got before a judge, the government decided to drop its case. Martinez's attorney had argued that body cam evidence clearly showed Exom swerving his vehicle to hit Martinez. Also, it was revealed that Charles Exum, the officer who shot Martinez, bragged about it in text to his friends, saying things like, "I fired five rounds and she had seven holes. Put that in your book, boys." Before he jumped out of his car and shot her, he was recorded on body cam footage saying, "Do something, bitch."

In the end, his glee, his apparent pleasure in the violence of his own actions turned into a problem for their case. and how a jury would see it. In a sense, that's what's happened to these operations nationally in the last two weeks. Their brutality and the seeming incompetence of the people carrying them out, the reckless incompetence is hard to avoid. Feels like everybody's been talking about it, whatever their politics. In Minnesota, the place has been ground zero for so much of this lately. The police chief for West St. Paul, Brian Sturgeon,

was asked this week by a resident at a city council meeting, What do we do if ICE agents break the law?

Can you help us? In other words, the same question that came up in a few 911 calls

to be looking strained and tired. Chief Sturgeon said, "I don't know. I don't have answers for you on a lot of things. Um, they have a different playbook. They have a playbook that I'm not trained in. Our officers aren't trained in. They have a playbook that we disagree with on some aspects of. I'll be honest with you.

You seem truly lost about what he could possibly offer. Your suggestion, call 911.

I want our citizens to know that if you see something or if uh for instance, if they're hanging, if they're stopped by a bus stop, call us. We will be there. If you are afraid because they're in the area or they're knocking on your neighbor's house, call us. know if you do call 911, we will be there. I know it's not what you want to hear, but um yeah, it's a difficult situation. I don't have answers for a lot of the stuff because I don't understand it either. President Trump, meanwhile, after first saying this past week that he will be deescalating immigration enforcement by the end of the week, said he's going to be full steam ahead. As of today, operations continue in cities around the country.

Kajafi Walt produced that story about 911 calls. Coming up, the glutton of Los Angeles goes to war. That's in a minute. Chicago public radio when our program continues. This American life glass. Today's program, what's your emergency? stories of life in this new America where federal agents have swept out across American cities. In this half of our show, we're going to turn to people trying to outsmart, outrun, and outplay those forces. Beginning now with act two. Act two. There's no place like Home Depot. So, there's certain spots around the country getting raided over and over again, like Home Depot parking lots where day laborers gather looking for work. Back in May, Steven Miller reportedly yelled at DHS leaders, "Why aren't you at Home Depot, and then shortly after that, they were in force."

One of the very first to get hit in Los Angeles on the first day of the feds arriving in June was this one in West Lake, LA on Wilshire Boulevard. And then in August, this same Home Depot was a spot where DHS launched a brand new strategy that it called Operation Trojan Horse, where Border Patrol agents hid in the back of a Penske truck that pulled up into the parking lot as if it was just a regular moving truck looking to hire people. When workers ran to it to get jobs, the back opened, agents jumped out in tactical vests with weapons. 16 people were taken that day. And 5 months later, the same Home Depot is still getting raided, and people are still showing up to find work every day.

So, what's that like? Months and months of cat and mouse? Reporter Anonyi Diaz Cortez wanted to find out.

This Home Depot is not the easiest place to try to conduct a raid because at the edge of the parking lot is a kind of safe zone. an area the size of 10 parking spots surrounded by a rod iron fence. Inside there's a small building. There's a corrugated roof. Day laborers know when there's a raid they can take shelter there. It's run by a nonprofit called Gessen. Set up years ago to make sure day laborers actually got paid by contractors hiring them. Everyone just calls it El Centro. I want to introduce you to two people who are here just about every day.

Daniel Himenez is a security guard. How did you find this job? Yeah. How did you end up here?

Uh, my friend's dad is the owner of the security company I'm hired through. Before that, I was a dishwasher at a wedding venue.

Great. Dodge coming up to Table One. Dodge Durango. I didn't know anything about what they did here. I literally just started working here.

Daniel's 20 years old with slouchy younger brother vibes, constantly fidgeting with his vape and often dropping it. Go-to drink at Starbucks across the parking lot. Mango dragon fruit refresher. When you see him at his post just outside the gate to El Centro, he looks bored. That's a big contrast with the second person I want to introduce you to, Joshua Eraso.

College grad. passionate about nonprofit work and labor policy. That's from his LinkedIn page. His vibe, softspoken community organizer, the person the day laborers turn to for everything. Job connections, immigration lawyers, coffee, toilet paper, Thanksgiving turkeys. People come to the central for all kinds of stuff, even just to hang out and watch TV.

Daniel stands outside the gate. Joshua's inside. you know, that's why we have like our our door system and our locks and all that. Um, but you know, we have the cameras and I'm I'm I'm ready. Here's how it works. If there's a raid, workers try to rush inside. Daniel tries to shuttle people through the gate. When they're in, Joshua will lock the gate. It's private property, so federal agents can't enter without a warrant. And it can be pretty harrowing. You just hear people screaming, screaming, migra, migra. And then um it almost feels like a stampede of like people just running to where they can. Holy [ __ ] You know, this is this is intense.

One raid in particular stuck with both of them. This was back in August. Immigration agents rolled up with tear gas. People ran towards El Centro. Daniel was outside the gate. Joshua was inside. Daniel thinks he got 15 people in, but then one guy on the way in tripped.

He tripped in the middle of the door and he was just laying there with ICE trying to four guy four ICE agents on him and I couldn't close the door and they were trying to get in. So I had to I had to try to keep close it but and not let them get in and not squish him.

Wow. It was with that guy. I was like, "Do I save one more and possibly risk everyone or do I just let them take him?" Which is a I feel like I stuttered a little bit on that decision for like a a half a second.

Inside the fence, Joshua was struggling with the same question of when to lock the gate.

Immigration agents have now grabbed the man's legs and his shirt, but his shoulder and armor inside the gate, his hand reaching out for Joshua. kind of like kind of reaching out for me to grab him.

Outside the fence, two agents grabbed Daniel and pulled him away from the gate, leaving the door to Joshua alone.

Joshua knew the guy stuck in the door. Knew him well. Said he was like a deal, an uncle, maybe 50 or 60, came around most days.

When it's like, what do you do? You know, I I grab his hand and all I wanted to do was like, you know, come on in and close the door and like get out of here and like, yeah, like we did it. like you were you were saved. But in the moment, I was thinking to myself like like there's people here, there's people over there that that the ICE officers can't even like see. There's there's the fact that like, you know, we have our computers which might have like information. You know, you have to think about all these all these things. And

Joshua makes a quick decision, locks the gate with the man still outside. He was like at the door. He's a strong dude. like you know he's he's like almost getting away from like five other grown men grabbing him and he's like Joshua Joshua like Joshua like like that with his hand out kind of very like grunting cuz he's using his strength and and me having to be I can't like I'm sorry and then him like the other agents overpowering and like throwing him back out the door onto the sidewalk on his on on the floor. The guy's shirt had almost been completely ripped off by the officers. Joshua watched from behind the locked door as they arrested him. He says the rest of the day he kept asking people, "Did I do the right thing? What would you have done?" I just felt like [ __ ] I felt like I felt like I failed him. I felt like to see someone like taking in front of you with their hand out and you in essence being like, "No,

like I'm not going to grab your hand." It kind of feels like like I let them down, but then you think about like but if I had done that like they would have opened the door and they would have came in and then but then it's like [ __ ] if it went the other way maybe 12 people had gotten taken you know I think I was asking others just to be like well what would you have done like would you have grabbed their hand would you not have grabbed their hand I guess trying to affirm that I made not the best decision but I made the decision that had like the least amount of negative consequences.

I have like this thing that keeps coming to mind when you're talking about this. This is my producer, Lily Sullivan. Have you ever heard of this? Like

I think it's like an ethical situation like if a train is going down the tracks and you're the conductor and there's one person on one track or six people on the other,

who would you save? Yeah. And you lived that situation. Like it's actually that situation and you were the conductor.

Yeah. I would just blow up the train. So, it couldn't get to either one. The train being here, ice. But no, I wouldn't inflict any violence on anybody. But my solution would be get rid of the remove the train from the equation so the people can live.

There's one more operation I want to tell you about that felt big for a different reason. This one happened just a few weeks ago while I was in the Starbucks there in the parking lot. A woman opened the door and shouted, "Ice is here. Yego ice." Baristas froze, panicked. Drinks started flying. I left my drink on the counter and rushed out.

The white hole is ice. The white car running down Union Avenue is ice. I head for Centro. I expected outside to be chaos. But what happened instead? It was creepily still.

Oh my god. The whole front is empty. There's no more workers. Everyone just left. The SUV circle.

They're coming up. They're coming. They're coming back. But then it's just the screeching of tires. As far as I can tell, no one gets taken from the parking lot.

This round, the immigration agents just left. The center was locked down. Inside, some workers watched a JohnClaude Vanam movie. The hero, the one who sounded the alarm, the one who spotted ice. I honestly didn't see this coming. It was Daniel, the 20-year-old who stands outside the gate. He spotted them first. He was on high alert, pacing. For months now, he'd been memorizing license plates every day from photos a community watch group had sent around.

What' you see? Uh, it was two Ford Expeditions. Would you like the plates? Sure.

Uh, there was a California paper plate BTC 1984 and then a Texas plate WJ 3422. He told me he'd started memorizing them because checking his phone was too slow. That other raid weighed on him the day he said he stuttered. He didn't want to stutter again. I think lots of people right now are finding themselves in roles they did not see coming, doing things they never imagined. One of the bosses here has a new nickname for Daniel. He calls him El Monstro de Laerta, the monster of the door, which is new. This didn't used to be a place that needed a monster at the door.

Anian Diaz Cortez. Lily Sullivan produced that story. Act three, memo to the future. Emergency suggests something immediate and short-term that happens fast, runs on adrenaline, and then ends. Mickey M has this story about a guy who's been in an emergency mode for 8 months now. Los Angeles was way ahead of Minnesota's Governor Tim Waltz when he called on people to carry their phones on them at all times to record immigration raids. LA's been making videos all along. The hard part is keeping track.

Did you get that one, Izzy? Which one? In Glendo. Vine Columbus. Vine Columbus.

Yeah, that's a new one. Memo Torres and Izzy Ramirez are building an archive. Everyday's raids, arrests, sightings of federal agents in Southern California. 230 days in counting. Memo delivers a roundup at the end of every day. Just him speaking to the camera and playing video clips. It's called the Daily Memo.

It's Monday, August 11th, and it's day 67 of the IC Siege of LA. It's Wednesday, October 15th, and it's day 133. Today's Thursday, November 20th, and it's day 168. A mother ran with her infant as her husband was taken by agents. We confirmed about 14 people kidnapped by mass agents today from all over the world, and just 11 of them I don't even live in Los Angeles and yet I've been watching the Daily Memo for months. It speaks to something about this moment. For a while now, almost every day has felt like I can't believe this day happened and also what did happen exactly? The Daily Memo is trying to organize that chaos.

Memo records the daily Memo video at night. And then during the day, all day, almost every day for months now. He and Izzy are in the small room in LA, a work studio, sitting in front of computers while their phones are blowing up with texts and DMs and videos from around the city.

Look over all the footage. Is the footage uploaded? Memo's got two screens in front of him. When I was there, one screen was a map zoomed in on northeast Los Angeles with pins where that day's raids had happened so far. You done with the doc, Izzy, or you still updating?

The other screen had a Google doc with bullet points and links to videos that he and Izzy were making together. They cross-check videos, call witnesses, often community watch teams and rapid responders.

They're weeding out fake or mislabeled videos. In the room, it's long silences and then quick shortorthhand as they try to gather, verify, and archive the same bundle of information for each incident in each day. Like how many people taken?

Yesterday was 14. Yeah. And then the day before that I had So that's 28 + 8 which 36. 36 people.

What time? Do you know what time the classic car wash was? I know what the classic car wash, not city car wash.

And where? Here's this one saying ice is in Englewood. It is a total grind. Both botonous and distressing. is coming through.

Memo is 6'4 and he's got this big beard, perfect hair. The first time I met him, he was taking his first day off work in 6 months.

You have like a threshold for yourself of being like, I will do this until X. I'll do this until I know I got to do something else.

Yeah, it's interesting. I I I I don't have too much time to think about all that to be honest with you. I'm I'm literally living in minute by minute to what's happening with Ice.

Yeah. People are like, "Oh, man. Well, we don't want you to burn out." I'm like, I burn out every [ __ ] day, you know? And I go home and then I crash and then uh eat an edible, put on some TV, go and pass out, and then wake up the next day and just be like, "Fuck, here we go again."

Yeah. But like, you know, it was no different from like my landscaping and gardening days where it was just the same grind every single day.

Yeah. Like what are the things that are useful from that life for this one? and just [ __ ] shut up and work. You know, nothing about like that life, the day labor life or the gardening life is pleasant. Nothing about it. You're dealing with people that are, you know, passively racist. Hard ass work. I mean, even like in the worst of weather, whether it be hot and dry or cold, freezing, and miserable, you still got to get out there and mow the lawns, trim the trees, trim the bushes, dig the dishes, get dirty, back pains, sores, and when you wake up the next day, doesn't matter how bad your body feels or my how tired your mind is, you get right back up 5:30, meet the crew, get your coffee and your donut, and get right back to it.

Yeah. So, all of that I brought with me. So it's like, yeah, so what? It was tough. Yesterday was tough. Today's going to be tough again, and tomorrow's going to be tough again.

And that's the that's the routine of life. Memo is 45 years old, Mexican American. He's lived his whole life in LA. He had his own landscaping business for 16 years, and then almost a year ago managed to turn the thing he did for fun into his job. He liked to photograph and post about the places he ate at on his lunch breaks. taco trucks, little burrito hole in the walls, toos he'd set up shop on sidewalks. His Instagram handle was Elraon de Los Angeles, the glutton from Los Angeles. And a website called LA Taco hired him fulltime. He did food reviews for them like the giant taco hiding under the 10 freeway.

But within a few months, federal agents showed up in the city, and Memo and the rest of the staff at LA Taco switched to covering raids and protests. There wasn't even a big discussion about it. It just made sense. The people they all regularly saw and talked to were now targets. So, the whole organization changed overnight from being a membership-based website with local food and culture stories with some news to still being that plus a home for the daily memo. One of the top metro reporters for the LA Times says no one else in the city, including the LA Times, is doing this kind of detailed daily accounting. This record Memo started. This is it.

Memo had a specific audience in mind when he started. The Daily Memo is in English, partly because he was trying to reach the younger, more online members of Latino families in LA. The ones taking care of paperwork and bureaucracy, the kids of street vendors, gardeners, day laborers, the ones now trying to keep their parents safe. In the Daily Memo, he would tell the audience what parts of the city and surrounding areas are getting hit, what times of day, and when he saw patterns and trends emerging in the videos, he'd point them out. Every Daily Memo, by the way, starts out with a cartoon taco on the screen and the sound of a bite being taken out.

Today is Thursday, November 6th, day 154 of the Ice Siege. Most of today's happened on the streets, including questioning a homeless man. They also raided a U-Haul on Giron Muno Toro, which seems to be a new uh target of theirs. Like they just learned that they also have daily laborers. Well, they took four people from that U-Haul. Another new favorite target, recycling centers. They flooded.

Memo and Izzy get videos and tips. No one else does because they're not outsiders. They're trusted.

Memo was one of the first to track what places were getting raided again and again. Car washes, school dropoff areas, Home Depot. He knows who they often targeted. Latinos and work clothes, a lot of older people, 50 plus. The Daily Memo tracked the evolution of immigration raids in LA. From a hodgepodge of random agents, often in street clothes and with no visible identification, to a more consistent militarized look, green border patrol vests, sometimes helmets with rifles. Over time, there are more videos of agents opening fire on people. The first US citizens arrested in Los Angeles were big stories. Now, those are common in LA and elsewhere.

When DHS accuses people of assaulting federal agents, the Daily Memo is a place lawyers go to to look for videos that may prove them wrong. And there's one more kind of video in the Daily Memos archive. These eerie still lives. A food cart with meat still sizzling on the grill, but no one's there. A row of buckets with bouquets in them. A lunch bag left in front of an apartment complex. the aftermath of someone being taken. Memo showed me a video of a woman stumbling on a gardening truck on a residential street.

No one in it or nearby. The open truck bed is full of tools and gear. So, we're in Rubido right off of Mission Avenue and Crestmore.

They got rakes, lawnmowers, blowers, shovels ladders pipes. So, like in that instance, what are you what are you doing? Well, we'll just report that we found an abandoned truck. People, a lot of people find out about this stuff through the videos and they'll comment, "That was my cousin. That was my dad. Oh my god, we were wondering where he was at." And they'll reach out through the DMs and then I get to talk to them and be like, "Okay, I'm sorry." That's how we verify that it was actually an ICE agent.

Um, I learned two of my former employees when I had my landscape company that were deported from some of these videos. I'm like, "Dude, these are people I've worked with like 15 years. I know them really well. I know their families. At the end of the night, after Memo finished recording the Daily Memo, I sat next to him and pulled up some old black and white photos on my phone from the 1950s of Mexican men and work hats lined up to board planes and trains.

This is when the government ran another big deportation campaign in California, targeting Mexican immigrants and named it after a slur, Operation [ __ ]

And looking at them, one thing really stood out to Memo. There are no chains or shackles. Yeah,

there's no military gear. There's no rifles. Look like Barney Fe right there, right?

Barney Fe, the bumbling sheriff from the Andy Griffith show. I'm not I I wasn't there and I won't say that the the cruelness wasn't there, but you don't see the cruelness in the images then as you're seeing them now.

How will these videos look in 5 years, 20 years, 50? What are we going to think about them? Memo's got his mind on the future, too. He and Izzy are downloading all the videos so they can't disappear. At some point in some future America, maybe they'll lead to a reckoning.

Mickey is a producer on our show. I've got a feeling that I ain't felt before. The world I knew and kind of love just walked right out the door. But are you seeing this or is it just me? Are you seeing this or is it just me?

Our program is produced today by Nikki Meek and Nadia Raymond and edited by Lauris Desky. People who put together today's show include Fia Bennon, Zoe Chase, Michael Kate, Suzanne Gabber, Angelo Jervasi, Cassie Howie, Seth Lynn, Molly Marcelo, Katherine Rayondo, Stone Nelson, Robin Reed, Marissa Robinson, Texter, Ryan Rury, Alyssa Ship, Ike Shice Conda, Christopher Satala, Nancy Abdikeke, and Diane Woo. Our managing editors Sarah Abdur Raman, our senior editors, David Castnbalam. Our executive editor is Emanuel Barry. Special thanks today to Aisha Wallace Palomares and Javier Cababella from LA Taco. Pamira Figueroa and Pablo Alvarado at National Day Labor Organizing Network. Jessica Lesenhop, Mattie Whis, Jamie Schwezettle, Mike McGuire, Abdi Ramen, Ali, Anna Adlerstein, Eve L E Y E Y E Y E Y E Y E Y E Y E Y E Y E Y Ewing, Mariah Wolfful, Scott Ducharm, Peter Mancina, the Central American Resource

Center, organizers at the LA Tenants Union, Patriceio Ameiliano, Vincencio Odonahue, and Kadij Nikoy. Our website thisamericanlife.org where you can listen to our entire archive, over 850 shows for absolutely free. This American Life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange. Thanks as always to our program's co-founder, Mr. Tory Malatia. You know, he loves pretending he's a little joey in Australia living in a pouch.

I'm in the kangaroo. I'm Aaron Glass. Back next week with more stories of this American life.

I got to get OUT AND GET AWAY FROM IT ALL. OH, you seeing this for is it just me? Are you seeing me or is it just me?

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "What Is Your Emergency? | This American Life | Episode 880"?

Ira Glass (Host), Daniel Himenez (Guest), Joshua Eraso (Guest), Memo Torres (Guest), Marramar Martinez (Guest).

What is "What Is Your Emergency? | This American Life | Episode 880" about?

exploit fear and confusion among communities by masquerading as service workers to carry out immigration raids. Through collected 911 calls, the narrative provides insight into the emotional toll and panic experienced by residents, highlighting the often chaotic and unsettling encounters between local citizens and federal immigration agents.

What is mentioned in this This American Life episode?

18 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Ira Glass, ICE, Steven Little Miller, DHS, Chicago, Charlotte. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "What Is Your Emergency? | This American Life | Episode 880"?

The episode runs 57 min; the transcript is about 9,414 words in 174 timestamped sections.

More from This American Life

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated February 2, 2026.