Immigration enforcement in rural Minnesota spreads fear, strains local leaders
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Many immigration enforcement actions are flying under the radar in greater Minnesota because of fewer observers to document them. The operations are also creating problems for local city leaders and law enforcement agencies, while stirring fear and anxiety in many residents across the state.
Inside the Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Acción Latina, MN office in Mankato, volunteers packed bags and boxes of donated food items — like masa, tortillas, canned tomatoes, rice and bagged dried beans — that will be delivered to families who are too afraid to leave their homes.
Francis Ochoa, a volunteer for COPAL MN — a Minneapolis-based nonprofit serving Minnesota’s Latino communities — said there’s a lot of sadness and grief in communities beyond the Twin Cities.
“We pray for them,” Ochoa said. “And we know [there’s] going to be a storm right now, but it’s going to be soon, going to be done. We hope that soon [it’s] going to be okay.”
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Three recent shootings by federal agents in the Twin Cities metro area — two of which killed Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti — sent shockwaves across the state, including in southern Minnesota.
The killings are stoking fears, said Lourdes Menjivar, regional director for COPAL MN in southern Minnesota, as ICE and Border Patrol officers enforce operations in communities like St. Peter, Mankato, Madelia, St. James and Willmar.
There have been reported encounters with workers in Mankato working on construction, ICE agents stopping drivers near Walmart. ICE agents detained workers at a restaurant in Willmar, after having eaten there earlier, according to local news outlets.
Menjivar said a Somali man was taken in downtown Mankato from his car over the weekend.
“Why don’t [they] treat the community with dignity,” Menjivar said. “They’re human beings. Humans. They’re not animals. …Why [is] our community treated in this way? This is the difference right now. They’re treated like criminals.”
Menjivar said COPAL MN receives over 400 calls per day from all corners of the state reporting ICE activity. Some callers plead for resources for housing and legal assistance, as many aren’t able to go to work due to the fear of interactions with immigration authorities.
But because there are few observers out recording video of these incidents in these smaller cities and rural areas, Menjivar said they get little public attention. She also said families here are having a much more difficult time finding out where their loved ones rounded by federal agents are being taken. And Menjivar said when folks look for answers from local government officials or police, they often get little or no response.
“The community members, they want to hear from the authorities, what is going on, what you want to do. But they don’t receive any response,” she said. “We feel alone because they don’t take responsibility. They don’t take any responsibility. They say just ‘this is federal thing.’ We cannot do anything. And I feel alone.”
COPAL MN is beginning to train observers in the Mankato area so they can better document interactions with ICE and border patrol agents in southern Minnesota and raise more awareness about the operations in rural communities. They plan to host weekly training sessions in the near future.
Cities, law enforcement response
Officials in some of smaller cities and in local police departments say the Department of Homeland Security is largely keeping them in the dark, and they, too, are frustrated by the lack of communication and transparency from federal immigration authorities.
Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes said the presence of federal agents in the city, while not as active as in the metro, has caused some businesses to close, though some have reopened. It also meant some parents have kept their kids home from school.
“There wasn’t any communication or notification to the city,” Byrnes said. “We did not have any communication in advance that they were going to be here. We also don’t know what was accomplished when they were here. Did they arrest people? Or, you know, what actually did they do? So [there] really has not been communication with the local leaders.”
Local law enforcement officials state they’ve been a target of federal misinformation, too. Cottonwood County, the sheriff’s office pushed back against claims made by DHS in a video of federal agents arresting a Guatemalan immigrant charged with criminal sexual conduct.
The DHS video claimed Cottonwood County refused to honor their detainer, and released the “child sexual predator.”
But Sheriff Jason Purrington called the DHS claims “wholly inaccurate and not true.”
The sheriff said in a news release that his office notified ICE that someone had posted bail for the man and he would be released, but an ICE agent responded that they were too busy in the Twin Cities to pick him up.
Back in Marshall, Byrnes sees the uncertainty over how many local residents have been arrested and detained. It’s also not clear when federal agents might be back and who they might target.
Byrnes said it’s causing angst in the community, but he will keep trying to be as open with his town’s residents as he can.
“We really tried to share what we know, but we also tried to share that we care about all communities we care about and value all differing opinions on the issue too,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we do care about our community.”
