ROCHESTER, Minn. – Federal immigration agents who arrested two kitchen workers on the street Wednesday remain in town at a hotel, sources said. The sources declined to identify the hotel but said the ongoing presence of agents suggests other arrests may be in the offing. The U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency does not maintain a policing unit in Rochester. The agency’s practice for mass raids is to move agents secretly into a targeted area from multiple stations to conduct shock-and-awe strikes. There is concern among ICE critics that reinforcements may be in transit to Rochceste as base for mass raids in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa.
Earlier: Protesters at Peace Plaza against immigrant arrests
Earlier: Rochester police: Fed migrant raids may be imminent
Earlier: Ruling: No to Minnesota jails for ICE raid detainees
Nupa detainees: Where?
The Minnesota chapter of Chicago-based Communities Organizing Latin Power and Action has dispatched a team to Rochester to organize resistance to ICE arrests. of two employees at one of Rochester’s two Nupa restaurants. The status of the Nupa employees, meanwhile, remains secret. The usual ICE practice is to pack detainees into local county jails, but Minnesota law doesn’t allow that. It’s thought that the Nupa employees were shipped elsewhere for holding or perhaps were expedited to a prison camp that ICE has opened at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. It is believed that the two Nupa detainees, who were brothers, had been working atkeastfour years four years, perhaps longer, at the restaurant.