Willmar finds a ‘new normal’ after ICE surge

Last winter, the sounds of whistles echoed through the streets of Willmar, as neighbors alerted one another to the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Christina Vander Pol, a mother of two adopted Haitian teens, was in her car in downtown Willmar with one of her daughters when she started hearing a commotion. Vander Pol told her daughter to stay inside as she stepped out to see agents pulling a young woman out of her car.

“She was yelling and crying. It was a very cold day, and she had sandals on, and she was being pulled out of her car with her sandals falling off in the street,” said Vander Pol.

She recorded the event. It was one of many that frightened immigrants in Willmar, regardless of their legal status. Many shut themselves in their homes and stopped going to work or the grocery store.

Shortly thereafter, Vander Pol started joining volunteer groups to help deliver groceries to those too afraid to leave their homes. She also asked her two daughters to carry a copy of their passports with them at all times.

“Having to hand my children cards to express their basic rights as a person in the United States, and for them to carry their passports, was a painful thing,” she said.

Months later, she says life has become more peaceful, but it’s not like things were before. She says it’s a new normal.

“It's a bit like a grief that sits somewhere in your gut, in your chest, and you build around that,” said Vander Pol. “It’s not gone. It’s a new part of who we are.”

Now, on the same street where Vander Pol witnessed an ICE detainment, Willmar community members recently gathered for the unveiling of an artwork commemorating what they went through.

It’s a tree-shaped mosaic with stones people painted to represent their experiences earlier this year. There, people shared what life has been like since.

Lingering anxiety, prevailing hopes

John Salgado Maldonado, a legal U.S. resident from Chile, was one of the Willmar residents who feared for his safety and avoided leaving his home when ICE came to town.

Now, a nonprofit he’s a part of opened a community space in downtown Willmar where the mosaic is on display. The space is for artists and the general public to use for sound baths, making art, or just to hang out. The space is called Kankunapa. It’s an indigenous Quechua word from South America that means “for everyone.”

Salgado Maldonado says that lately, he’s been feeling more comfortable coming out into the city streets. That’s because of the support he felt from other Willmar residents when ICE was around.

“Even if something happened to me, I know that we still have community for other people,” said Salgado Maldonado.

He said he no longer feels unsafe.

Luul Gaal, a Somali-American who came to Kankunapa to see the unveiling of the mosaic, said it was her sense that the community’s anxiety was wearing off.

“I think that we kind of proved that the people, your neighbors, are going to stand beside you,” Gaal said. “If somebody sees anything happening, they're going to tell somebody.”

Gaal’s parents own a clothing and dry goods business in downtown Willmar. She said it lost a lot of customers at the start of the year when ICE was present, but many have since returned.

“I think just the way the community is and how we came together kind of proved that we don't have to be afraid anymore,” Gaal said.

Jenny Groen is a program manager for Arrive Ministries Willmar, a refugee resettlement agency.

She also attests to the community spirit that buoyed people during the ICE surge. She said people formed bonds with the volunteers that helped them during the height of ICE activities by bringing food and other resources. As a result, she’s seen more people volunteering and attending community events as well as church than they had before.

“Since [volunteers] brought groceries for so many weeks, they got to know [families], and now they're sticking around, and they're friends, and they're doing things together beyond what we do, and so that is huge,” said Groen.

She does see some lasting effects of people staying home from work to avoid encounters with ICE agents, but they’re not severe.

“We do have every now and then someone is still having a hard time making ends meet,” said Groen. “So people still are feeling the financial strain, but we get a lot less requests, and that is a good thing because then we know people are more on their feet.”

There have been reports recently of ICE activity in Willmar and surrounding areas, which has brought back some anxiety for community members like Christina Vander Pol.

She said she doesn’t want to let those fears control her.

“I found in my lifetime that hope has been kind of like a golden thread,” said Vander Pol. “There have been truly difficult things that I have lived and experienced, and yet somehow there is hope that runs through all of that. So I don't want traumatic things to taint my vision of the world so that I can no longer see hope.”

Vander Pol painted a stone for the community mosaic that was recently unveiled. She said her stone resembles a burst of light on a black background, a symbol of hope amidst darkness.

“I am sort of fiercely determined to hold on to that [hope],” said Vander Pol. “And to provide hope for my neighbors also.”

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