Inside a small town’s resistance to ice

Usually at 1:45 p.m. on a Wednesday, Adriana Estelle, an English professor at Carleton College, is grading papers or meeting with students. But things haven’t been normal in recent weeks, so on Jan. 28 Estelle’s office served as an emergency call center where she worked a three-hour shift as a volunteer ICE probation dispatcher.

Estill is one of several bilingual residents in the area who volunteers with Northfield Supporting Neighbors, an organization founded during the first Trump administration that provides legal support to immigration detainees and operates the ICE Alert system.

While working an ICE surveillance dispatch shift, Estill receives calls and texts from residents who believe they have spotted federal agents in the city. She shares these reports with other volunteers who come out to check them out.

If investigators confirm the license plate belongs to a federal vehicle or if they see federal agents, Estill sends an alert in English and Spanish that reaches more than 1,500 people in and around Northfield.

While much of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration campaign, called “Operation Metro Surge,” has been centered in the Twin Cities, federal agents have been conducting immigration enforcement operations throughout greater Minnesota as well.

Since the killing of Renee McLean Goode by a federal agent in Minneapolis about a month ago, Estelle said she feels as though Northfield has become a prime target for ICE. She said the number of federal vehicles spotted in the city has increased significantly.

“It was immediate. I felt like I was being attacked,” Estelle said.

In recent weeks, federal agents have been spotted in this small college town 45 minutes south of Minneapolis almost daily. On the same day he sent Estelle, federal agents entered a local bakery with immigrant employees to check the company’s I-9 documents.

Shortly thereafter, at least four agents were spotted searching an apartment complex where migrant families lived. When Detective Chris Frago arrived at the scene, federal agents surrounded his car with their own vehicles. He said one agent told him: “If you follow us, things will get messy.”

Federal authorities have not announced exactly how many people were arrested in the immigration crackdown in Northfield, but observers and aid groups say the number was about six people.

Despite the heavy federal presence here, community organizations like Northfield Supporting Neighbors have also seen an unprecedented increase in local support. People are increasingly volunteering and donating to serve and support immigrant families who have gone into hiding and to warn them of ICE activity in the city.

Observers hope that increased attention to roving ICE patrols and border agent patrols will reduce the risks to targeted migrants.

Gina Washburn, a retired attorney, is part of Northfield Supporting Neighbors’ leadership team. That day, I stayed at the apartments where ICE was seen for approximately six hours to ensure the children were able to safely return home from school.

She said she starts getting calls from volunteers looking for ICE early, around 7 a.m., and then she’s in constant contact with people who monitor ICE activity and coordinate aid for migrant families “until about 11 or 12 at night, every night, seven days a week.”

Some residents in Northfield haven’t left their homes or apartments in a month because of fear of ICE. Volunteers help provide many of them with food and help get their children to school safely. With many of these parents staying home and not getting paid, they now can’t pay their rent, Washburn said.

“It’s just a complete and utter disruption of life,” Washburn said.

Northfield’s population is about 80 percent white, but many Latino immigrant families here have planted deep roots over the past few decades.

A Mexican immigrant told MPR News that she has not left her home in three weeks because she is afraid of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We are not calling her because she fears for her safety and the safety of her family. She came to Northfield nearly 20 years ago, and she and her husband, a U.S. citizen she met here, have raised their two children in Northfield. Speaking to an MPR News reporter in Spanish, she said her family’s life has completely changed.

“The truth is something very difficult and we never thought of trying it,” she said.

“The truth is that this is a very difficult thing and we never thought we would have to live with it.”

She said she acts strong in front of her children, but “the truth is that they are so helpless because I cannot imagine myself without them. It is very difficult to be afraid all the time.”

“The truth is, I feel really helpless because I can’t imagine living without them,” she said. “It’s very hard to feel afraid all the time.”

The mother said that she cannot leave her home to take her children to church or school, or to the doctor as she usually does. She is particularly concerned about the toll this is taking on them.

“She can’t sleep every night thinking about whether immigration will follow me one day.”

“She can’t sleep at night because all she can think about is whether ICE is going to take me one day,” she said of her 14-year-old daughter.

On the same day that ICE agents confronted Chris Frago at an apartment complex in Northfield, she received an alert from Northfield Supporting Neighbors and realized an operation was nearby. She said she felt panicky all day, constantly looking out her windows while doing chores around the house.

Many families like hers are hiding here and Northfield residents describe an organic support network that has emerged to support them. Volunteers make sure children get to school safely, families don’t go hungry, and anyone arrested gets immediate legal support. The ICE Alert system operated by Northfield Supporting Neighbors is just one part of this support. Churches, nonprofits and the city coordinate to provide services.

Northfield Mayor Erica Zweifel said she connects local residents with resources and provides information to local businesses on how to respond if immigration agents request employee records. Zweifel also said she sends regular updates to members of Congress in the area: Rep. Angie Craig and U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith.

“Trust is broken in society,” she added. “Even if ICE stopped tomorrow, things would not go back to normal.”

However, Zweifel said she was proud of the way she saw the Northfield players step up to support each other in this moment.

Another example is the children of immigrants who were born in the United States and are now trying to protect their parents in Northfield.

A 30-year-old first-generation Mexican American patrols Northfield, looking for federal immigration agents whenever he can. MPR News is not naming him because he fears for his family’s safety. He drives through his neighborhood, hotel parking lots, and locations where federal vehicles have been seen before. He is exhausted and smokes out his car window even when the temperature is below zero. But he said he is not slowing down because this issue is personal to him.

Federal officials have argued that ICE is targeting criminals in Minnesota. “It’s not like that. It’s families,” the patrolman said. “I’m protecting my fucking family.”

He is not part of Northfield Supporting Neighbours, although he coordinates with them. Instead, this cop is part of a loose group of college students, union organizers and other 20- to 30-year-olds from around Northfield and first-generation Americans like him.

“Increasingly, I wanted first-generation kids to be there, to be able to organize and speak for their parents and speak for the community,” the man said.

President Donald Trump’s “border czar.” Tom Homan arrived in Minnesota last week He spoke of the eventual “withdrawal” of immigration agents in the state. But he also warned people not to get in the way of customers.

“If you interfere, obstruct and assault an ICE officer, you will be arrested,” he said.

In the week since Homan took over operations, there’s been no slowing down in the immigration crackdown, and the 30-year-old patrolman said he and his friends won’t be stopping work anytime soon, either.

“I don’t think we’re in a position to say, ‘Okay, guys, we’ve got to slow down,'” he said. “No, we’re still going. It feels like wartime.”