It’s 8.25am and a usually quiet neighbourhood in Minneapolis is waking up to a cacophony of car horns and whistles.
Word has spread that ICE immigration officers are on the move in this part of the city and a community of activists has sprung into action.
They make as much noise as they can to alert local people, who might be targets, to the presence of federal law enforcement.
President Donald Trump has sent 3,000 ICE agents to the Minneapolis area as part of his migrant crackdown.
They dwarf the local police force by five to one. Their presence is highly controversial and the majority of people in the city don’t want them here.
From the pavement, a man screams “cowards!” as an ICE vehicle drives by.
Others swear at them and hold placards reading “Ice Out!”
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A network of volunteers communicate on a secure messaging device, modelled on a police dispatch call.
One of the volunteers might see a vehicle they believe is being used by ICE. They read out the number plate and the dispatcher replies “confirmed ICE,” or “negative ICE.”
I’m with Seeker, a mother of two who owns a hair dressing salon. Since ICE has arrived in Minneapolis she has patrolled the streets, for hours every day.
“They’re snatching people from bus stops, and they are brazenly going to schools and churches.
“Daycares and hospitals are also being hit right now,” she says. “All these places traditionally would be sanctuary areas and now they’re able to go in and take people.”
I ask Seeker about the suggestion that she is impeding the officers as they go about the job they have been tasked with.
“There’s nothing legitimate about what they’re doing,” she says. “They don’t have a jurisdiction to pull random people off of the streets. They have the ability to serve warrants and act in that capacity.
“But as upstanders and bystanders, we have a First Amendment protected right to film them and document them. That is going to be really valuable for those people that are being taken right now.”
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Legal challenges are mounting for the Trump administration over alleged racial profiling over their immigration crackdown.
Some people say they are being stopped in the street because of the colour of their skin and asked to prove they are American citizens.
My team and I were driving in central Minneapolis this week when we saw a group of people at a bus stop.
Two ICE vehicles in front of us suddenly pulled over. Around a dozen officers jumped out and began pursuing a woman down the middle of a main road.
She told officers she is an American citizen and they asked her to show her ID.
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When she couldn’t produce one, she was frogmarched to a police vehicle and taken away. The woman was released later that day.
I asked three of the officers if they had a warrant for the woman’s arrest or if she was a specific target. None of them responded.
A short drive away in an industrial area, there are reports that ICE have been arresting people at a kitchen countertop business.
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We arrive just after the ICE team has left. Panicked people are running around in the car park on the phone. Operations manager Nesta Rodriguez is standing outside.
“We saw them across the street walking over here,” he says. “Thankfully we were able to lock our doors and deny them entrance. They had no warrants, they were just coming here indiscriminately. Just your skin tone, your type of job, that’s what they’re targeting.
“I am a US veteran,” he adds, “I think I’m back in Afghanistan but it’s not a combat zone. This is America. When you’re driving around looking over your shoulder constantly for threats, when you’re constantly looking at the person, whether they’re going to be a threat to you, your life, your state of being.”
For some here it feels like ICE officers are everywhere. This is a community on high alert and ready to resist.
