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Some residents in this small west-central Minnesota city want Mayor Brent Frazier to do more to support and protect immigrants, Indigenous people and people of color in their community as they feel threatened by the ongoing federal immigration crackdown. 

About 20 percent of the town’s residents are foreign-born. Many work at the Jennie-O turkey processing plant. That’s made Pelican Rapids a prime target in recent weeks as federal immigration enforcement in the area has surged. 

At least four people have been taken into custody by federal agents since mid-January.

When several residents confronted Frazier Thursday during a “coffee with the mayor session,” the mayor said he had no control over what U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents do in the city and hasn’t talked to them. 

"If they pick somebody up that (has committed) an illegal offense, I don't need to know that. It's none of my business. It's between them and the law enforcement,” Frazier told Diana Gastelum.

Frazier said it does concern him that people who are living in the community legally may be taken into custody. 

Gastelum told Frazier that Indigenous people and people of color “want to hear that you have our back. I feel like you have that power, and people are just waiting for that to kind of ease their fear of what's going on."

The latest on ICE in Minnesota

Mathew Holding Eagle III

Author

Four people in the small, ethnically diverse town were taken into custody recently. Some residents want Mayor Brent Frazier more active on ICE concerns. Indigenous people and people of color “want to hear that you have our back,” a resident told him Thursday. 

Some Pelican Rapids residents press mayor to do more about ICE. He says it's not his job

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