Tag: ice

Minneapolis: Healthcare Workers

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Impacts of ICE: Minneapolis Healthcare Workers

This is the latest piece based on my interviews with folks in Minneapolis. The video is in English with me reading directly from the written piece. And below in this post is the Spanish translation done by a friend of mine who works as a translator. Share with your Latino friends 🙂 The English is way down below at the bottom.

“Me senté frente a ellos en la mesa de centro donde, por momentos, nos turnábamos para tratar de no llorar. Tal vez para mí era más fácil no llorar, porque podía esconderme detrás del escudo objetivo de ser el “entrevistador”. Pero sí hice un plan para hacerlo una vez que estuviera resguardado en la privacidad de mi coche, y se los dije.

No hice ninguna grabación de audio. Mi teléfono estaba guardado. Sin video. Sin libreta. Nunca sabrán sus nombres, y la razón se puede resumir en un puñado de otros nombres: Trump, Noem, Patel Kash, Homan, Bovino, Bondi.

Ambos trabajan en el sector salud. Voy a mezclar sus historias para ocultar aún más sus identidades por seguridad, porque es una realidad.

A principios de enero de este año (2026), la administración Trump recortó el financiamiento para la atención médica en Minnesota. El impacto en cadena de esto afecta a muchos miles de habitantes de Minnesota, independientemente de por quién hayan votado, independientemente de su estatus migratorio. Imagina que eres un enfermero de atención domiciliaria o un Asistente de Cuidado del Paciente (PCA) hablando con un cliente después de que recibió la notificación de pérdida de financiamiento. Te están preguntando cómo van a pagar la electricidad que alimenta una máquina que sostiene su vida… porque los recortes de financiamiento incluyeron la asistencia para servicios públicos para personas con discapacidad que viven en casa. Imagina preguntarte cómo, o si, podrán respirar.

Otra historia… Como enfermero que visita a sus pacientes en casa, ves a un cliente con discapacidad física usando un walkie-talkie para realizar una patrulla vecinal en busca de ICE, desde su scooter.

Otra más… Un día, mientras conduces hacia la casa de un paciente, agentes de ICE en un automóvil te siguen.

Incluso en los mejores momentos, las personas con discapacidad que viven en casa tienen dificultades para acceder a servicios, y tu vocación es brindar ayuda. Pero cuando el financiamiento ha sido recortado, y ICE podría intentar seguirte hasta sus hogares, y tus pacientes viven con miedo por su salud y su seguridad, lo que sientes es agotamiento. Determinación, pero agotamiento. En lo financiero, sin embargo, puedes enfrentarte a la realidad de que no hay fondos para pagar tu salario. Eso significa que tienes que dejar tu puesto y buscar otro trabajo, sabiendo que no hay alguien más que ocupe tu lugar. ¿Quién va a cuidar de tus pacientes?

Escuché sobre una mujer embarazada que esperaba a su primer hijo con su esposo. Antes de que ICE llegara a la ciudad, ella era plenamente consciente de sus problemas de salud preexistentes y de las complicaciones del embarazo, pero estaba bien encaminada con buena atención médica y apoyo. Pero luego sus familiares fueron detenidos por ICE. Ella se resguardó en casa con su esposo para mantener unida a su creciente familia, pero entonces no pudo acceder de forma segura a los medicamentos y controles necesarios para un embarazo de alto riesgo. Como resultado, su condición preexistente se agravó y fue necesaria la hospitalización. Incluso mientras estaba en el hospital recibiendo tratamiento, la futura madre estaba profundamente preocupada por ser detenida por ICE y tenía prisa por regresar a la seguridad de su hogar. Cabe señalar que esta futura madre… es ciudadana plena y legal de los Estados Unidos. La salud de su bebé ahora está en duda. Los efectos de su condición comórbida con el embarazo también dejan en duda su propia salud.

Lo que ves en las noticias son tiroteos, protestas y secuestros, y la fachada de la misión de Noem.

Mientras esas cosas ruidosas y evidentes están ocurriendo, hay una serie silenciosa pero dramática de impactos emocionales y económicos en cascada con consecuencias y daños reales para ciudadanos de todos los ámbitos de la vida. Se está moviendo rápido. Y revertirlo requerirá más que simplemente “sacar a ICE”.

Cuando estábamos terminando nuestra conversación, les pregunté a ambos cómo se sentían. Estaba observando a dos personas que se preocupan profundamente por ayudar a quienes lo necesitan, luchando por explicar y darle sentido a un mundo nuevo. En este nuevo mundo tienen que ver a los pacientes sufrir más de lo razonable y, peor aún… todo es completamente evitable. Este nuevo sistema desmantela redes de seguridad y erosiona la confianza. Y todos nos quedamos tratando de adivinar por qué se está permitiendo que continúe. Hablaron de agotamiento y perseverancia, pero sobre todo el sentimiento era de tristeza.”

English:

“I sat across from them at the coffee table where, at times, we were taking turns trying to not cry. It was easier for me perhaps, to not cry, because I could hide behind the objective shielding of being the “interviewer”. But I did make a plan to do so once I was tucked away in the privacy of my car and I told them so. 

I took no audio recording. My phone was tucked away. No video. No notepad. You’ll never know their names and the reason why can be summed up in a handful of other people’s names: Trump, Noem, Patel Kash, Homan, Bovino, Bondi. 

Both of them work in the healthcare field. I am going to blend their stories to further obfuscate their identities for safety because it’s a reality. 

In early January of this year (2026) the Trump administration slashed funding for healthcare in Minnesota. The downstream impact of this impacts many thousands of Minnesotans regardless of who they voted for, regardless of their immigration status. Imagine that you are a home health nurse or a Patient Care Assistant (PCA) talking to a client after they got their notice of losing funding. They are asking you how they will pay for their electricity, that runs a machine, that sustains their life…because the funding cuts included utility assistance for disabled people living at home. Imagine wondering how or if they will be able to breathe. 

Another story…As a nurse that visits clients at home, you see a physically disabled client using a walkie talkie to conduct a neighborhood patrol for ICE, on their scooter. 

Another one…One day while driving to a client’s home, ICE agents in a car follow you. 

Even at the best of times, people living disabled at home have difficulty accessing services, and it’s your calling to render aid. But when the funding has been cut, and ICE might try to follow you to their homes, and your clients are living in fear for their health and their safety, what you feel is exhausted. Determined but exhausted. Financially though, you may face the reality that there is no funding to pay your wages. It means you have to leave your posting and find a different job, knowing there isn’t someone else to take your place. Who is going to care for your clients?

I heard about a pregnant woman expecting her first child with her husband.  Before ICE came to town she was fully aware of her pre-existing health challenges and the complications with pregnancy, but she was on track with good healthcare and support. But then her relatives were taken by ICE. She sheltered in place with her husband to keep her growing family together but was then unable to safely access necessary medications and checkups for a high risk pregnancy. As a result of this, her pre existing condition flared, and hospitalization became necessary. Even while in the hospital for treatment, the expectant mother was deeply concerned about being taken by ICE and was in a rush to get back to the safety of her home. It should be noted that this mother to be…is a full and legal citizen of the USA. The health of her child is now in question. The impacts of her comorbid condition with pregnancy also leaves her individual health in question.

What you see in the news is shootings, and protests and kidnappings and the facade of Noem’s mission. 

While those loud and obvious things are going on, there is a quiet but dramatic series of cascading emotional and economical impacts with real consequences and harm for citizens from all walks of life. It’s moving fast. And to reverse it will take more than just getting “ICE out”.

When we were wrapping up our conversation, I asked them both how they were feeling. I was watching two people who care so passionately about helping people in need, struggling to explain and make sense of a new world. In this new world they have to watch patients suffer more than is reasonable and worse…it’s all completely avoidable. This new system breaks down safety nets and erodes trust. And we are all left to guess at why it’s being allowed to continue. They spoke about exhaustion and perseverance but above all the feeling was of sadness.“

Happy Valentine’s Day from ICE

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Saturday February 14th, 2026

It was about 55 degrees and sunny when I stepped off the Blue Line Light Rail at the Veterans Administration stop today. I had been looking at the blandly designed and drab colored Fred Whipple Federal Building as the train approached the stop.

I saw ICE agents exiting the western side of the building, still wearing their black masks up to their eyes, ending or just starting their shifts. This building….it’s the place that you’ve seen in the news, where the big clashes have occurred between ICE agents and protesters. I also noted some vehicles along the fenceline in the federal parking lot. A white one was covered with anti-ICE graffiti and had a flat tire. A black one had the front end smashed in, presumably from when agents had use their car to ram another vehicle they were pursuing but I am unsure. There was a small contingent of National Guard troops. They were calmly resting on the rooftops of and leaning against the sides of, their Humvees. They were mostly looking at their cell phones. Someone asked me: “if they want to protect the community then why are they parked on the same side where ICE parks?”

I walked over to where the main protest area was located. A DHS helicopter circled high above, so high that I couldn’t hear it. However, it should be noted that even from way up there, an onboard L3Harris Wescam MX-10 camera (or the Wescam MX-15 or MX-20) could profile my face and enter it into their database, along with every single other person there. DHS helicopters and fixed wing aircraft have become commonplace at peaceful protests here in Minneapolis. It’s altogether reasonable to presume that data gathering is exactly what they are doing from up there.

While there at the protest I learned about a man who was in the USA legally. ICE didn’t care about that. As the man was trying to run away he took a fall and broke both of his feet. He was then shipped off to Dilley Immigration Detention Center in Texas. After ICE took their slow time to verify that the man was in fact, here legally, he was then brought back to Whipple and processed out. He was released on a very cold day, in a wheelchair. A group called Haven Safe took in this legal resident of the USA and helped him contact family, get warm, etc. because ICE doesn’t do that for anyone that they release. They just dump you out in the parking lot, usually without proper clothing, your cell phone, your car keys, and no calls to your loved one’s to pick you up. I was told that it’s common for about 20 people per day to be released from the Whipple Building in this fashion. Some of these people have been held in Texas, illegally and without due process, for weeks.

It’s important to track that every single person released by ICE is a silent admission of guilt and law breaking on the part of the federal government. It’s a silent way to say “we don’t care that we broke the law and we wash our hands of you now”

Before I went to the Whipple Building I had been volunteering at a mutual aid station. A lot of people have asked why there is a need for mutual aid and donations of food and household items. Well…let’s go back to how many people are released at the Whipple Building. If 20 people are released on a given day, that could mean that each of them is a money earner for their family. They are now missing, let’s say, two weeks of income to buy groceries, pay rent, car payments, etc. If your husband was grabbed off the streets by ICE, even though he was here legally…and you are now at home alone with your kids, what happens if you are also grabbed illegally? Who will watch your kids? What you do, is you stay at home. You hide in your house. Your rent goes unpaid. Your kids probably stop going to school. Soon you run out of food.

The place I donated at today is the kind of place that provides food and help to people who find themselves in these situations. It’s also just one of many such places around the Twin Cities. Even if ICE left this area today, it will likely take months to get every unlawfully kidnapped person back home and for people to recover financially…and all because of what? This has always been about one thing: and it’s not immigration enforcement.

When I was driving back to my hotel for the night I took a detour through a neighborhood to find a coffee shop. I saw a large white SUV with super dark tinted windows drive past me. I then noticed a car following them. This car had someone inside of it with a bullhorn and the person had rolled down their window…and using the bullhorn they were shouting “The white SUV in front of me is ICE” and suddenly I found myself following both cars. Because I thought, “maybe if I follow, my observing it will make ICE less likely to retaliate?” At each stop sign I wondered if ICE would get out of their cars with weapons drawn, as we have all seen by now. As we drove through this tightly packed residential community I could see people coming out of their houses to see what was happening. People walking on the sidewalks were smiling and waving in support. Some yelled at the ICE vehicle in anger. I kept thinking, this is what it takes. If you are afraid of what ICE will do to you, and that makes you not do it…it only means that they will continue to terrorize other people. People who don’t understand what’s going on here will continue to say and think things like “well if you would just let them do their job”…

If you read this and you are more concerned about ICE agents possibly being thwarted in their efforts to detain someone via a person following their car shouting in a bullhorn…if that makes you angrier than the murder of Rene Good or Alex Pretti, then it does say something really important about you.

It means you still think what is happening here in Minneapolis is about immigration enforcement.

When you realize it’s not, then you’ll be able to understand how someday you might be the one in the car shouting into a bullhorn to protect your neighbors.

Pics from today: