'My Children Have Lost Friends': ICE Is Changing Daily Life Across The Twin Cities

TWIN CITIES, MN — Families across the Twin Cities are seeing daily life reshaped by an unprecedented surge in federal immigration enforcement and the recent ICE shooting death of Renee Nicole Good

Schools are moving learning online, businesses are closing, while neighborhoods are working to protect one another, with ICE agents reported at hospitals, schools, and immigrant-owned businesses and, in some cases, detaining U.S. citizens.

Laura Ann Kraby, a mother of three in Apple Valley, described watching her children lose close friends.

"My children have already lost core friends — as our very best friends and families simply disappear or are shattered as a family member is taken," Kraby told Patch.

"I have held my teenage daughter as she sobbed uncontrollably over the loss of her best friend since kindergarten."

Kraby, whose husband works at a middle school in the area, said fear has seeped into every part of family life.

"I also cried watching all these kids standing at the bus stops in the morning, cars all around them watching over them," she wrote. "I’ve never lived in a city that protected their neighbors like this."

“I won’t step foot in Target because I am scared I’ll see something I can’t unsee,” Kraby wrote. "I love it here and I fear for us."

Her experience reflects what teachers, medical workers, business owners, and others across the region are now acknowledging publicly; that fear tied to ICE activity is changing how people learn, work, shop, and move through their communities.

Schools Shift Instruction

Saint Paul Public Schools announced it will offer a temporary virtual learning option beginning Jan. 22 for students who do not feel comfortable attending school in person.

Minneapolis Public Schools has also made optional online learning available to families through Feb. 12.

And it's not just urban districts.

In District 196, which serves Rosemount, Apple Valley, and Eagan, officials explicitly acknowledged fear among families and staff, KSTP reported.

“We recognize the grief, confusion, and fear present in our community,” the district said in a message to families, adding that some people fear leaving their homes or traveling to school or work because of federal immigration agents in the area.

Hospitals Impacted

Concerns have also surfaced around ICE activity in hospitals, reports MPR News, including at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, and Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

“It is absolutely unconscionable to deliberately put patients’ health at risk,” a group of Minnesota lawmakers said in a joint statement, calling on hospitals to adopt clear policies to protect patients, staff, and privacy.

They warned that fear tied to enforcement activity is disrupting access to care and placing health workers in impossible positions.

Businesses Close

The fear has also reached neighborhood business corridors.

Along Cesar Chavez Street on St. Paul’s West Side, business owners told KSTP that customer traffic has plummeted amid reports of ICE agents in the area. Some stores have closed early. Others have sent employees home with pay.

Community members said employees are afraid to go to work, shoppers are staying home, and the long-term impact on the neighborhood remains uncertain.

"No One Knows How Long This Lasts"

Kraby told Patch that what troubles her most is the open-ended nature of the situation.

“No one knows how long this lasts,” she wrote. “I am terrified of seeing ICE in my neighborhood because I love all my neighbors, and I know I will get hurt defending them.”

She described a community acting instinctively to protect children and neighbors, even as fear settles in.

“There’s anger, there’s frustration, there’s sadness,” Kraby wrote. “But there’s also people showing up for each other.”

On Thursday, President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act after a second shooting involving a federal officer in the city in a week.