Immigration advocates say they’re fielding a flurry of calls reporting immigration enforcement across Minnesota that coincides with news reports that the federal government is ramping up enforcement.
The Immigrant Defense Network (IDN) received two dozen calls Monday reporting immigration enforcement activity in Red Wing, Mankato, Richfield, Bloomington, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Edwin Torres DeSantiago, the organization’s manager, told Sahan Journal.
“We knew that this was not normal,” he said.
About 2,000 federal agents and officers were reportedly deployed to Minnesota starting Sunday, according to an article published Monday by CBS News. The article cited multiple law enforcement officials who requested anonymity; Sahan Journal has not been able to confirm the number. The agents are expected to oversee a 30-day surge to carry out immigration arrests and investigate alleged fraud in social services, the article reported.
CBS News reported that agents will focus on investigating alleged fraud in the Twin Cities, but details of the plan are unclear. Minnesota has recently made national headlines for alleged fraud at daycare centers, which come a few years after the Feeding Our Future fraud case involving more than 70 defendants and the theft of $300 to $400 million of federal funds.
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The increased enforcement comes after President Donald Trump’s administration reportedly sent about a hundred immigration agents to the state in early December with a focus on Somali immigrants.
“It’s a non-stop campaign of fear where every single of our lives are being dissected in a way that we then have fear,” Torres DeSantiago said. “Whether it’s dropping off your kid to daycare, going to buy groceries – just doing anything normal is being criminalized – it creates this non-stop fear.”
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin issued an email statement to Sahan Journal saying the agency would not “get into law enforcement footprint.” She said the agency has “surged law enforcement” and made more than 1,000 arrests of people convicted of crimes, including rape and gang crimes.
However, some Minnesota lawyers have told Sahan Journal that law-abiding clients have been arrested while complying with regular immigration check-ins, and The New York Times published an article last year that has shown that many people with no criminal records have been arrested by immigration agents across the country.
“We’re prepared for this to not be a few days, but minimum a month long,” said Torres DeSantiago of the federal enforcement. “But we don’t have any confirmation or any insights that this is ending anytime soon.”
Immigration enforcement is still rampant in immigrant-dense areas in Minneapolis, including the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and along and near Lake Street in south Minneapolis, said Miguel Hernandez, a member of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC). Federal agents are canvassing businesses and are questioning and arresting immigrants in “quick snatch-and-grabs,” he said.
Hernandez said MIRAC volunteers and other immigrant advocacy groups saw a “massive spike” in federal enforcement activity Monday morning, especially in south Minneapolis.
“They’re seeing new vehicles, new license plates – things they haven’t seen before – all over Lake Street,” he said. “Days like today, there are areas of Minneapolis right now that are basically, for lack of a better word, under siege.”
The longer federal agents remain in Minnesota, the more aggressive tactics they’re using to arrest immigrants, Hernandez said. He’s heard that agents have stalked some immigrant advocates observing arrests or driven recklessly to push them off roadways. There are also reports of U.S. citizens being detained.
Federal agents launched “Operation Metro Surge” in the Twin Cities early last month targeting the Somali community. More than 670 people were arrested as of Dec. 19, according to the Department of Homeland Security. In another large-scale immigrant enforcement action, “Operation Twin Shields” conducted last September by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services found more than 500 cases with evidence of “fraud, non-compliance, or public safety or national security concerns.”
Most recently, the Trump administration paused federal assistance to Minnesota childcare centers after a video about alleged fraud at Somali-owned daycare centers went viral, prompting federal agents to conduct an investigation.
In response to federal agents investigating alleged fraud, Suleiman Adan, deputy director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said “there’s nothing that we have to hide as a community.”
At least a dozen businesses and day cares have reported receiving threatening phone calls and messages to Minneapolis police since Dec. 19, police spokesman Garrett Parten said in a written statement to Sahan Journal. Information about whether the businesses or day cares were Somali-owned was not readily available, Parten added.
“There’s hundreds of people coming into the state of Minnesota with the sole intent to take back the city, and that is really frightening,” Adan said of the immigration enforcement.
Torres DeSantiago said the Immigrant Defense Network has received over 1,000 inquiries in the past few months from Minnesotans across the state who want to volunteer as “constitutional observers” that respond to immigration enforcement activity to document events and support immigrants.
The organization and other immigrant advocacy groups will start traveling to more than 35 counties in Minnesota starting Tuesday to train more constitutional observers. The groups will also provide training in nearby states.
“We’ve seen it only escalate in the last month,” Hernandez said of immigration enforcement. “They’re [federal agents] seeing what works, and they’re trying different tactics because we have communities out there trying to hold all of them accountable.”
