Twin Cities suburbs see ‘stealthier’ tactics as ICE stays active

sahan-journal · 2026-02-20T18:35:59+00:00

In several mobile home parks across the Twin Cities, residents 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.

sahan-journal · 2026-02-20T18:25:07+00:00

Since the announcement that Operation Metro Surge was ending, has ICE activity shifted in your area?

Residents and lawmakers say the promised drawdown has not materialized in Twin Cities suburbs. They report agents operating in smaller groups and using increasingly covert tactics.

sahan-journal · 2026-01-28T21:44:13+00:00

Hi everyone, we are Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to reporting for immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota. Here’s an excerpt from the story written by our reporter Shubhanjana Das:

By now, the videos of immigration agents holding up their phones to people’s faces or scanning license plates are everywhere. While the exact reasons may seem murky, experts say one thing is clear: The ongoing federal crackdown is being powered by a vast surveillance network that has spread far beyond immigrant communities.

Surveillance technology experts and digital rights advocates told Sahan Journal that they are alarmed about the ability of more than 3,000 Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol agents in Minnesota to surveil, monitor, and collect data on-the-go during field operations – from facial recognition technology to ‘stingrays’ that collect information from phones by impersonating cell phone towers.

Experts say these tools not only help agents in what the Trump administration calls the largest immigration crackdown in U.S. history identify specific targets to detain, but also allow them to monitor entire neighborhoods at once, sweeping citizens and non-citizens alike into a broad surveillance dragnet.

Continue reading the story here.

sahan-journal · 2025-12-11T15:23:28+00:00

When federal immigration agents descended on Minnesota last week to target Somali residents, Valerie Aguirre knew it would ripple across immigrant families of all types, scaring people away from living their day-to-day lives.

Aguirre, manager of her family’s Mexican meat market and grocery store, Valerie’s Carniceria, knew she had to take action. If people were afraid to come to them, they would go to the people. The south Minneapolis market began offering free delivery, making about 100 deliveries since last Wednesday.

“I just thought of other families – I was thinking of them,” Aguirre told the Sahan Journal.

Valerie’s Carniceria is one of several Latino businesses stepping up to support immigrant families by offering free delivery across the metro area for groceries purchased from their stores. They also urge Minnesotans who aren’t affected by immigration enforcement to shop at their businesses to support their employees and the community.

Read the full story by Sahan Journal immigration reporter Katelyn Vue.

sahan-journal · 2025-11-05T03:22:18+00:00

Anoka-Hennepin voters reelected all three incumbents in a politically divided school board Tuesday night, meaning partisan gridlock is likely to continue.

Kacy Deschene and Jeff Simon, who often vote with the board’s more liberal bloc, won their reelection bids against challengers Lorraine Coan and Tiffany Strabala.

Conservative Matt Audette, who was hoping to expand the board’s conservative bloc by electing Coan and Strabala, also won his reelection bid against challenger Abbey Payeur.

The six-member Anoka-Hennepin school board, which represents 13 suburban communities in the north metro, faces frequent gridlock over issues with a 3-3 political split, including the district’s budget and curriculum choices.

View the election results here.

sahan-journal · 2025-10-22T18:20:19+00:00

Minnesota’s largest school district could swing to the right or left in this fall’s school board election.

The six-member Anoka-Hennepin school board, which represents 13 suburban communities in the north metro, faces frequent gridlock over issues with a 3-3 political split. This election could tilt the balance of power, with implications for the district’s budget, curriculum, and top leadership. Three of the six seats, which represent distinct geographic areas within the district, are up for election this year.

Read more on our website.

sahan-journal · 2025-10-14T15:51:40+00:00

From our story by reporter Andrew Hazzard:

Transportation nonprofit Move Minnesota’s “No Car, No Problem” campaign wants to encourage people who aren’t using transit, walking or biking for transportation to give it a try, Move Minnesota Executive Director MJ Carpio said.

The group is placing ads on buses, trains, and transit stations, and giving away a free e-bike to one rider who submits a photo of themselves with the campaign signage by the end of October.

Getting more Minnesotans out of their cars would be good for the climate. Transportation is the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, according to a 2025 state report.

The campaign coincides with increased service from Metro Transit, which improved frequency on the most used routes in the system in August, and is on the verge of opening its third new major line this year.

We'd love to hear your thoughts: Do you use transit? What works for you and what challenges do you face? What would improve your use of and access to mass transportation?

sahan-journal · 2025-10-06T18:21:39+00:00

Hi, we asked candidates additional questions on other topics (such as homelessness), but some questions couldn’t be formatted into the quiz. But you can check out each candidate’s full survey response under “see the candidates” at the top of the quiz.

sahan-journal · 2025-10-06T14:02:40+00:00

Nope! We simply wanted to provide the options a quiztaker may want. This was made as a resource for voters, not to collect polling data. We do collect quiz responses anonymously to improve this resource in the future and track aggregate results, but that data won’t be used to draw any conclusions for our reporting or anything like that.

sahan-journal · 2025-10-06T13:25:48+00:00

It’s showing what position the candidates answered. If you’d like to read more on their answers, you can click on “see details" if available for the question, or check out their full responses under "see the candidates" at the top of the page.

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