Pastor Sergio Amezcua received an emergency call. A young man jumped from a third-floor window when he discovered uniform officers patrolling the building where he lived to detain undocumented migrants. Amezcua, 46, recalls asking for details: where the young man was, how he was, what could be done to help him. His contact replied that the young man had been injured in the fall. “The young man was washing his clothes in the laundry room, and when he heard the noise in the hallway, he broke the window and jumped to escape,” he explains in a phone call from Minneapolis, where he leads the evangelical church Dios Habla Hoy (God Speaks Today). The migrant walked about a kilometer until some neighbors gave him shelter, the pastor says. “When he was helped, he was barefoot and shirtless, wearing shorts in sub-zero temperatures, knocking on doors and crying.”

Amezcua says he receives calls about different cases every day since the first week of December last year, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began the raids in Minnesota.

A woman from his congregation knelt with her baby in her arms before ICE officers to beg them not to take her husband, a gesture captured on video that went viral on social media.

In another case, a man hid in a construction site for four hours in sub-zero temperatures to escape an ICE raid.

“They call me asking for help locating family members who have been detained, to see if we can get them a lawyer, or to ask for food, milk, and diapers,” Amezcua explains. “Many times they ask us for assistance to pay the rent.”

“Agents are hunting down ordinary people when they leave their apartments to take out the trash. It's awful what's happening in Minnesota.”

In December, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that more than 2.5 million undocumented immigrants would leave the United States by 2025.

More than 605,000 were deported amid a nationwide crackdown launched by President Donald Trump's administration against undocumented immigrants.

Parishioners who do not congregate

Amezcua was born in Mexico.He arrived in Minnesota 24 years ago and obtained US citizenship. More than a decade ago, he founded an evangelical church that holds services in English and Spanish for a predominantly Latino congregation. In May of last year, the largest migrant community in Minnesota came from Mexico, with 59,137 residents, followed by Somali (42,503) and Indian (30,632) citizens, according to figures from the state legislature. Although Minnesota is home to less than 1% of the approximately 14 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, according to estimates from the Migration Policy Institute, the Trump administration ordered the largest ICE deployment ever in this border state with Canada. Operation Metro Surge involved the mobilization of more than 2,000 federal agents in Minneapolis since December of last year, with the objective of capturing and deporting undocumented immigrants. This decision was announced after several scandals erupted. alleged frauds involving public funds implicating members of Minnesota's Somali community.

In one of these cases, a pro-Trump YouTuber showed in a video alleged Somali-run daycare centers that were not operational, despite receiving public money.

In response to the controversy, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that ICE would conduct a "door-to-door" investigation into the daycare "fraud" in Minnesota.

However, Minneapolis residents took to the streets to protest the presence of ICE, especially after federal agents shot and killed Renee Good on January 7 and Alex Pretti on January 24, two US citizens who resisted arrest.

Liam's Arrest

The outrage sparked by these cases intensified after a bystander photographed an An ICE officer holding Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy arrested along with his father on January 20th outside their home in Minneapolis, by the backpack.

“Why are you detaining a 5-year-old? Don't tell me this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal,” questioned Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, at the time.

“ICE was NOT targeting a child,” DHS responded in a statement released on the public debate, Amezcua warns that migrants have chosen to retreat to their homes and limit their movements to avoid encountering ICE patrols, a decision that is even impacting the spiritual lives of Minneapolis residents. "Eighty percent of the congregation isn't attending services for fear of ICE. I'm talking about citizens, legal residents, all kinds of people, because they've arrested citizens and people don't want their children to go through the trauma of that experience." The shepherd perceives the fear even within his own home,through his teenage daughters. “When an Amazon package arrives at my house, the delivery people often have their faces covered because of the cold, and my daughters get scared because they think it's ICE.”

“The trauma is collective and affects everyone, not just migrants but also people born here.”

“If you need a food pantry…”

Amezcua faced the challenge of coordinating humanitarian aid for church members for the first time during the pandemic, when families were forced to stay home due to lockdowns.

But since ICE has been patrolling the streets of Minneapolis, the pastor has been leading a massive operation to bring food to migrants who fear being apprehended on the streets and then deported to their countries of origin.

The aid is announced through the church's social media accounts. And from his personal chat, the pastor responds with a message inviting people to sign up to receive a food pantry within the next seven days. “We are supporting more than 100,000 people in our community, distributing between 175 and 200 tons of food a week,” he explains. The food is paid for by church members, food banks, and foundations that support them. Amezcua assures that the church trains the volunteers who offer to distribute the food. Currently, 4,000 people are collaborating on this task.

“I can't give details, but if they see that ICE is following them, they turn back and don't deliver the food.”

The aid for one family includes vegetables, fruits, pasta, sauces, protein, milk, and cheese.

“It varies a little every day, but it includes: tortillas, flour, dough, oil, sugar, salt, soap, diapers, formula, and toilet paper.”

The challenge they are trying to overcome the morning we spoke is getting a truck, either their own or rented, and a warehouse to store the products.

“There is a lot of help, and we don't have anywhere to put all these raw materials.”

The parishioners are not only avoiding going to the supermarket. Many have also stopped sending their children to school and are not going to the hospital when they get sick.

“It's a collective effort,” says the pastor. "We're here to help, not to confront any government. We don't ask who has documents. Whoever asks for help, gets it."

Although he prefers not to give further details about the migrant who jumped from the third floor, the pastor assures that he has survived and is recovering.

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