Residents of several mobile home parks in the Twin Cities suburbs say federal immigration agents are still lurking around their neighborhoods, and that they often don’t see high numbers of supporters when people are arrested.
Residents and activists say there are special challenges at mobile home parks — they’re usually secluded from surrounding neighborhoods, they don’t receive as much attention as other residential neighborhoods, and they often have one or few roadways leading into the park, making it easy for immigration agents to choke off residents’ access to exits.
“It’s not as crowded here, there’s not as many people that can intervene, so it is a much easier target for [federal agents] just to come here to the suburbs,” said Laura Estrada, a resident of Emerald Hills Village in Inver Grove Heights.
Estrada said she’s witnessed two immigration arrests at her mobile home park in recent days.
Sahan Journal visited six mobile home parks in Apple Valley, Burnsville, Maplewood, Little Canada and Inver Grove Heights this week, and spoke with several residents about federal enforcement activity. Most of the parks’ streets were empty, and many homes had their blinds closed. Children were often the only people seen outside, and only while walking home from school bus stops.
Several residents said their neighborhoods have significantly changed since the number of federal agents in Minnesota increased in January.
“My family, we’re legal but it’s even scary for us because they just see the skin color, and they just take you,” said Jorge Hernandez, who has lived at the Rambush Estates mobile home park in Burnsville for 14 years.
Isolation means fewer witnesses
Federal agents often park at nearby gas stations or behind local businesses to stay out of view from neighbors, according to several residents and activists who spoke to Sahan Journal. Many mobile home parks are also located on the outskirts of suburban cities along highways or busy roads, reducing their visibility to other residents.
“They’re just getting sneakier about it,” Erika Zurawski, a member of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, said of federal agents’ tactics.
There are one or two entrances into many mobile home parks, with a main road that branches into different streets looping back onto the main road or dead ends. Cars were tightly packed onto the streets of several of the mobile home parks Sahan Journal visited.
Volunteers are more spread out in the suburbs, and the distance makes it harder for them to quickly arrive at the scene of immigration activity, Zurawski said, adding that there are also fewer volunteers in the suburbs.
Only a few observers are close enough to quickly respond to arrests at Emerald Hills Village, Estrada said, adding that observers from other cities sometimes arrive after federal agents have already left.
Federal agents are typically seen parked for long hours at mobile home parks waiting to stop residents, according to several residents. Federal agents have been reported at mobile home parks around midnight and in the early morning between 5 a.m. to 8 a.m., presumably waiting to run into parents accompanying their children to school bus stops.
“Just camping out at the bus stops,” John Carey, a resident of the Arbor Vista mobile home park in Burnsville, said of the federal agents.
Carey hasn’t witnessed any arrests, but said he sees federal agents on a nearly daily basis, and sometimes multiple times a day.
“You don’t see anybody no more,” he said of the empty streets at his mobile home park. “The streets are dead.”
Many residents expressed skepticism about federal agents leaving Minnesota. Border czar Tom Homan announced earlier this month that most of the 3,000 federal agents sent to Minnesota for Operation Metro Surge would be leaving, but that a small number would remain.
“I think once they stopped in Minneapolis, it went up here,” Tanya Colon, a resident of Emerald Hills Village, said regarding an uptick of federal agents in her neighborhood.
In the past few days, agents have been spotted driving around or parked for hours outside several mobile home park offices. Some residents said they’ve seen drones surveilling their parks nearly every day, and suspect that federal agents are watching them.
New Brighton police have responded to at least three separate reports of federal agents in and around Lakeside North Mobile Home Park since January, including one incident of agents going door-to-door threatening residents. A representative from Lakeside North declined a request for comment.
Saniya Pilgaonkar, who oversees member services at the Manufactured and Modular Home Association of Minnesota, a trade association representing over 500 factory-built communities, said the organization has not directly received reports of increased immigration enforcement. However, the association has been distributing know-your-rights materials and information about state and city resources.
Rambush Estates and Emerald Hills Village did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.
Residents of mobile home parks are supporting each other by offering rides and food delivery to families that are afraid to leave their homes.
Several residents say they’re worried neighbors are lowering their guards because of Homan’s promise of a draw down in forces.
“They’re feeling a little bit safer going back to work, but we’re still seeing this [federal activity],” Estrada said. “I don’t believe this is just going to stop.”
Freelance reporter Anshu Patel contributed to this report.
