Four ICE agents sat down at El Tapatio, a Mexican restaurant in Willmar, Minnesota, on Wednesday afternoon. They ate lunch.
Then, according to witnesses, they came back that night and detained three of the workers who had just served them.
Witnesses told the Minnesota Star Tribune that agents followed workers’ vehicles after the restaurant closed and made arrests around 8:30 p.m., as bystanders blew whistles and shouted.
“Would your mama be proud of you right now?” one onlooker reportedly asked the agents.
Highly doubtful.
THE DETAILS: Migrant-owned restaurants across the Twin Cities say they’re being used as “hunting grounds” by federal agents. In St. Paul, the owner of El Burrito Mercado—a 47-year-old Mexican market and restaurant—told CNN that masked officers in unmarked vehicles have been “swirling around the block waiting for people” for days, scaring off staff and customers so badly she’s had to slash business hours.
“ICE is using my business as a hunting ground,” CEO Milissa Silva-Diaz said.
Another St. Paul restaurateur, Miguel Lopez of Homi, shut his dining room entirely and switched to pickup-only. “I don’t feel safe either in my house or my business,” he said. “I’m not going to put my employees or myself in that position.”
OF COURSE: Restaurants are fighting back. In Muskegon, Michigan, Fatty Lumpkins Sandwich Shack announced it would deny service to ICE agents after an ICE officer fatally shot 37-year-old mom Renee Nicole Good during an anti-ICE protest in Minneapolis.
“You are NOT welcome at Fatty Lumpkins Sandwich Shack. You NEVER will be,” co-owner Brett Gilbert wrote on Facebook.
“You will be denied service. You will be laughed at and escorted out. F–k you. F–k your murderous ways. F–k your disregard for due process and our beloved Constitution.”
At Wrecktangle Pizza in south Minneapolis, workers and neighbors literally chased away men identified as ICE agents who tried to enter. Staff and community members forced the officers back onto the street, where agents apparently deployed chemical spray—which was kicked back toward them. The pizzeria had recently raised more than $83,000 for nonprofits helping families affected by immigration enforcement.
At Cancun Mexican Grill & Cantina in St. Paul, diners confronted federal agents walking through the restaurant, demanding they leave. Video shows customers shouting at officers and asking for warrants before the agents eventually exited. “Take off your mask,” one woman yelled as others tailed them out.
WHY IT MATTERS: Minnesota has been on edge since the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Metro Surge in December, flooding the Minneapolis-St. Paul area with around 3,000 ICE and federal officers in what the agency calls its largest-ever immigration enforcement operation. The fatal shooting of Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross sparked further demonstrations, business closures, and a wave of “No ICE” stances across the region.
Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Paul have now sued the Trump administration, alleging Metro Surge is unlawful retaliation and warning that mass raids are terrorizing families, schools, and workplaces. Meanwhile, immigrant workers—the ones keeping much of the local service economy running—are too afraid to show up for work at all.