ROCHESTER, Minn. – Federal immigration agents gabbed two men off a parking lot at a Rochester restaurant, presumably as undocumented workers, and took them who knows where. Because ICE agents function largely outside the traditional judicial system, the men’s names we not available to news reporters through usual channels. Nor were the charges known. State law forbids ICE from holding its detainees in local jails. In the current wave of mass immigration raids authorized by President Trump, most detainees have been shipped immediately without any judicial review to the off-shore prison that was opened in 2022 at the Guantanamo naval station in Cuba for international terrorists. Uncertain was whether the Rochester arrests marked the first of a broader Minnesota initiative. Data the Migration Policy Institute in 2019 calculated that 81,000 undocumented individuals were in the state, 35,000 from Mexico. ICE had kept is plans for a Rochester operation secret from local police until the last minute. The agency has a record of distrust of local policing agencies, which often are unsympathetic to ICE intrusions into local issues as well as a reputation for operating roughshod on traditional American safeguards to assure civil liberties and protect citizen rigs. Here’s what is known from several sources about the Nupa arrests:

> ICE agents arrested two brothers about 11 a.m. in a parking lot at the Nupa restaurant near downtown.

> Nupa, which specialties in Greek and Mediterranean cuisine, shut down indefinitely after the arrest because of sudden staffing issues.

> A second Nipa location, at 412 Crossroads Drive, also shut down too but was expected to re-open Thursday.

> Nupa doesn’t have a hiring apparatus in place because of there has no need to do any hiring in four years.

> The detained brothers had shown what appeared to be appropriate documentation when they were hired.

> Unclear was whether ICE agents sked the brothers for work visas or other documents when arrested. ICE has an n even record in making arrests, following a pattern of “nab now, ask later.”

> Unknown was how ICE was tipped about the Nupa employees.

Earlier: Rochester police: Fed migrant raids may be imminent

North side.  On Civic Center Drive.

South side. On Crossroads Drive.

Verbatim

George Psomas , owner of the Nupas, told a KIMT news reporter, that he needed to keep his emotional racti  himself. He did, however, quote the Greek philosopher Aristotle from 2,400 years ago: “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals. Separated from law and justice, he is the worst.”