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In Minneapolis, ICE officers now outnumber the city’s police officers five to one. And in the days since the death of Renee Nicole Good, a US citizen, at the hands of an ICE agent, tensions have only been growing in the US city.
The Guardian’s immigration reporter Maanvi Singh has been reporting from the city. She tells Annie Kelly about the atmosphere of fear. “You see these vehicles with ICE agents – SUVs without license plates being driven by masked drivers some carrying weapons.”
Among some people of colour and immigrant communities, there is a real fear. “There’s stalled construction projects because workers don’t feel safe. There’s agents at the Home Depot. There’s agents raiding work sites. There’s these ICE patrols all over in front of schools during pickup times. Like nothing is quite ‘as it was’.”
Caitlin Dickerson is a journalist for the Atlantic and she explains that ICE is supposed to only be enforcing civil infractions, not criminal offences, which is why their violence has shocked the public.
”It’s not normal for ICE to be clashing with people in the streets, dragging them out of their cars, screaming and yelling and drawing a crowd. These are all things that ICE has really, for the last 20 years, sought to avoid as much as possible.”
The agency is under pressure to ensure Donald Trump’s deportations target is met. But how far will it go?
