When ICE came to town, this rural Minnesotan quit his job to help immigrants
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made its presence known in Pelican Rapids back in January. Agents blocked roadways, raided several houses and took some immigrants into custody.
Ivan Olson, who’s in his 30s and has lived in Pelican Rapids all his life, was outraged.
According to census data, about 20 percent of residents in Pelican Rapids are foreign born. And Olson said the rich cultural diversity helped form the person he is today.
He was flummoxed by how differently people at the restaurant where he worked viewed ICE’s actions. He said they all seemed supportive.
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"From staff to patrons, it got difficult to live in a moral dissonance where my sense of right and wrong was always at odds with what I was seeing and hearing," he said.
Not long after, Olson left his job.
"That was just an individual decision,” he said. “It wasn't anyone's but mine, to leave that world and try to do something I don't really understand all that much."
Olson then began devoting his energy full time to the Pelican Rapids Area Resisters. It's a grassroots collective focused on social justice. And it formed to oppose the Trump administration’s agenda shortly after he was elected to a second term.
"They would rather us not work together. They would rather us be divided,” he said. “They would rather us stand on our diversity, on paper, on letterhead, and then go about our business and stay within our circles. They would rather we have enemies. Enemies keep you busy."
Olson tried his best to track individuals ICE took into custody, oftentimes getting in contact with their family in other countries to update them about their whereabouts.
And, along with others in the group, Olson began delivering meals to immigrants too scared to leave their homes and helping them with money, clothing and transportation. He said the work groups were doing in the Twin Cities became their template.
‘They were like an angel sent my way’
One afternoon in March, Olson was cruising around Pelican Rapids at a small-town pace. His car might have seemed inconspicuous in rural Minnesota, with its brown rust spots near the undercarriage and a white dusting of dry road salt chalking the body.
But Olson was on a mission.
"I'm taking some fish to a friend of mine right now,” Olson said. “The group that we're part of is helping in a lot of different ways: catch some fish, clean them and bring them to whoever might need them for their freezer."
Olson has been helping a woman since ICE was at its zenith in town. MPR News agreed to refer to her by her nickname, Sheena, because she fears deportation. Sheena came to the U.S. from Nicaragua in 2021 to escape political violence.
On a recent afternoon, Sheena’s son was unavailable to interpret, so she and Olson used Google Translate to communicate back and forth between Spanish and English. An MPR News reporter translated her remarks for this article.
Sheena said while she feels things are getting better now, she would've never been able to get to this point without Olson's help.
“Honestly, they were like an angel sent my way. I really don't know how I would have managed. It's really hard,” she said.
Though Olson could not immediately understand what Sheena said, her emotions came through clearly. The two briefly made eye contact and broke down in tears. Olson consoled her.
"He's just always been really looking out for the underdog,” said Nanette Albright, the founder of the Resisters, who has known Olson since he was a teenager. “And just had a real strong sense of what is right, and always is doing the right thing.”
Albright said Olson is one of the group's youngest members — most are in their 60s and 70s. And from early on, he was their “boots on the ground.” But she said the responsibility never fazed him. In fact, she said he wanted the group to do more.
"He cares a lot. He comes on strong sometimes. And, you know, thinks we could all be doing more,” Albright said. “And I try to tell him, ‘Slow down Ivan, you know everyone's doing the best they can.’ He has very high expectations."
Olson said he has found his life’s work. Now that ICE is less active, that work has shifted. He said the group is setting up a legal aid foundation for immigrants facing court proceedings.
