Immigrants in the US Hunted by ICE Officers Even While Taking Out the Rubbish

Minnesota — Pastor Sergio Amezcua, leader of the evangelical church God Speaks Today in Minneapolis, received an emergency call. A young man had recklessly jumped from the third floor after spotting uniformed officers searching for illegal migrants in the building where he lived.

“The young man was doing his laundry in the laundry room. When he heard a commotion in the corridor, he hurriedly smashed a window and jumped out to escape,” said Amezcua (46) when contacted.

Following the attempt, the man walked approximately one kilometre in an injured state to seek help. Several neighbours eventually opened their doors and assisted him, the clergyman said.

“At that point, he was not wearing shoes or a shirt, only shorts in sub-zero temperatures, knocking on doors and weeping.”

Since the first week of December 2025, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers intensified raids in the State of Minnesota, Amezcua has been receiving numerous phone reports about different cases every day.

Amezcua was originally an immigrant himself. He was born in Mexico but has lived in Minnesota for 24 years and is now a US citizen. More than a decade ago, he founded a church that holds services in both English and Spanish for a congregation largely comprising Latin Americans.

Beyond the barrage of phone calls, Amezcua has also been an eyewitness to incidents he finds difficult to forget. One involved a woman from his congregation. In front of ICE officers, the woman knelt with a baby in her arms whilst continuously pleading for her husband not to be taken away. What happened to the woman was captured on video and went viral on social media.

Another case involved a man who hid in a building for four hours in sub-zero temperatures to avoid an ICE raid.

“They call me asking for help to track down detained family members, to ask whether we can get them a lawyer, or to request food, milk and nappies,” Amezcua explained.

“ICE officers hunt ordinary people suddenly, such as when they step out of their flat to take out the rubbish. What is happening in Minnesota is horrifying,” he added.

The congregation of God Speaks Today Evangelical Church has organised food distribution for those affected by ICE operations.

In December 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that more than 2.5 million illegal migrants would leave the US in 2025. More than 605,000 of them were deported amid nationwide operations launched by President Donald Trump’s administration against illegal immigrants.

Minnesota becomes a target

Minnesota has become one of the states targeted with the largest deployment of ICE officers compared to other states. Yet according to estimates from the Migration Policy Institute, the number of illegal immigrants in Minnesota accounts for less than one per cent of the approximately 14 million illegal immigrants across the entire US.

Related officials stated that the initiative, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge”, aimed to restore public safety by apprehending and deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records.

In these operations, violence has been a constant occurrence. Last month, two US citizens in Minneapolis were shot and killed by federal agents. As a result, immigrants with clean records as well as US citizens have been caught up in the enforcement actions.

The administration’s tactics have prompted thousands of people across the country to take to the streets in protest. ICE’s conduct has come under increasing scrutiny and triggered widespread frustration — particularly when an ICE officer was caught on camera holding Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old boy who was detained along with his father, Adrian Conejo, on 20 January.

“Why are they detaining a five-year-old child? Don’t tell me this child will be classified as a violent criminal,” said Zena Stenvik, a senior educator.

“ICE did NOT target a child,” read a statement posted by the Department of Homeland Security on social media in response to the situation.

Several days later, Liam and his father were released from a detention centre in Texas and returned to Minneapolis. However, many report that fear still looms large, despite reports of a partial withdrawal of ICE personnel from the state in response to mass protests.

According to Amezcua, many migrants have chosen to confine themselves at home and limit their movements to avoid encounters with ICE patrols.

“Eighty per cent of the congregation is not gathering because they fear ICE. I am talking about citizens, people who are here legally, because they have been detaining citizens just like that and people do not want their children to be traumatised by the experience,” said Amezcua.

The pastor, who is a US citizen and whose children were born in the US, also feels the fear even within his own home.

“When Amazon parcels arrive at my house, the delivery drivers often cover their faces because of the cold weather, and my daughters become frightened because they think it is ICE.”

“This trauma is collective and affects everyone — not only migrants but also people who were born here.”

‘We help anyone who needs it’

Since ICE began patrolling the streets of Minneapolis, Amezcua has also been channelling aid. Drawing on his experience coordinating humanitarian assistance for church members during the Covid pandemic lockdown, he now leads an operation distributing food to migrants who are afraid of being apprehended on the streets and subsequently deported to their home countries.

The assistance is announced through the church’s social media accounts. He invites people to register and receive food donations over the following seven days.

“We are supporting more than 100,000 people in our community, distributing between 175 and 200 tonnes of food per week,” he explained.

He added that the food is funded by church members, food banks and foundations that support them.

Amezcua said the church trains volunteers willing to distribute food. Currently, 4,000 people are helping with the effort, although the operation is often fraught with risk.

“I cannot give details, but if they see ICE watching them, they turn around and do not deliver the food.”

Aid packages for a family typically contain vegetables, fruits, pasta, sauce, protein, milk and cheese. “The contents vary slightly each day, but include tortillas, flour, dough, oil, sugar, salt, soap, nappies, baby formula and toilet paper.”

Another challenge lies not only in distribution but also in storing the aid. “There is a great deal of aid available, but we do not have space to store all the supplies,” he said.

Congregants are not only avoiding trips to the supermarket. Many of them have also stopped sending their children to school and are not visiting hospitals for medical treatment.

“This is a collective effort,” said the pastor. “We are here to help, not to oppose the government. We do not ask who has documents. Whoever asks for help, we help.”