In a single south Minneapolis neighborhood, tragedy repeats however connection endures : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F11%2F71%2F1ef575d24824b8c41cd5aa888050%2Fnpr-trieb-ice-20260120-19.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F11%2F71%2F1ef575d24824b8c41cd5aa888050%2Fnpr-trieb-ice-20260120-19.jpg" class="img" alt="The George Floyd Memorial in south Minneapolis sits near the site where Renée Good was shot dead by a federal agent during an ICE operation in a neighborhood with a large immigrant population now the focus of ongoing enforcement and protest activity; Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 20, 2026. Photographed by Erin Trieb for NPR." fetchpriority="high"/> The George Floyd Memorial in south Minneapolis sits close to the positioning the place Renée Good was shot useless by a federal agent throughout an ICE operation in a neighborhood with a big immigrant inhabitants now the main target of ongoing enforcement and protest exercise; Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 20, 2026. Erin Trieb for NPR cover caption

toggle caption

Erin Trieb for NPR MINNEAPOLIS — At a Mexican restaurant in south Minneapolis, a line types as individuals wait to order. It feels comparatively regular, aside from one factor: the entrance door is locked.

Clients lock and unlock it each time they arrive and go to maintain the federal immigration enforcement brokers who've been prevalent within the space from coming into.

"It is utterly disturbing and scary for everyone. It is horrible," says Marco, an immigrant who has been right here for greater than 20 years and the proprietor of the restaurant.

He requested NPR to not use his full identify, or the identify of his restaurant, as a result of he fears Immigration and Customs Enforcement may goal him.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F25%2F91%2Fd921f90942deba463c3e400c81d6%2Fnpr-trieb-southmn-20260123-21.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F25%2F91%2Fd921f90942deba463c3e400c81d6%2Fnpr-trieb-southmn-20260123-21.jpg" class="img" alt="Community members stand in line to order food at a immigrant-owned Mexican restaurant in South Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 22, 2026. Photographed by Erin Trieb for NPR." loading="lazy"/> Neighborhood members stand in line to order meals at a immigrant-owned Mexican restaurant in South Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 22, 2026. Erin Trieb for NPR cover caption

toggle caption

Erin Trieb for NPR This restaurant was right here again in 2020, when the neighborhood — and notably this thoroughfare full of companies — was embroiled in protests and riots after the homicide of George Floyd by an area police officer. A number of buildings have been burned to the bottom. Marcos says that again then, neighbors helped patrol round his restaurant to maintain it secure.

"Now, with this case with ICE, it is feeling sort of related, or possibly worse," he says.

Neighbors aren't simply defending the constructing as of late; they're defending the individuals inside it, too.

South Minneapolis has discovered itself on the heart of a number of tragedies over time, from the homicide of Floyd to the killing of Renee Macklin Good by an ICE officer earlier this month. Each incidents occurred inside blocks of one another. And whereas each have been onerous on the individuals dwelling right here, neighbors say the occasions introduced them nearer collectively and helped them arrange to reply.

A couple of blocks from Marcos' restaurant is a residential neighborhood full of single household craftsman type bungalows alongside broad tree-lined streets. A blanket of snow covers the bottom, and the sidewalks are all neatly shoveled.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2666+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9a%2Ff5%2F46fb644645c7b580ca3df0f86451%2Fnpr-trieb-ice-20260120-10.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2666+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9a%2Ff5%2F46fb644645c7b580ca3df0f86451%2Fnpr-trieb-ice-20260120-10.jpg" class="img" alt="Mary Vavrus, a volunteer observer of ICE activity, walks her dog, Rosie, in the neighborhood of Longfellow in South Minneapolis, blocks from where Renee Good was killed and a domintant immigrant-populated area where ICE agents are carrying out operations; Minneapolis, Minnesota on Jan. 20, 2026. Photographed by Erin Trieb for NPR." loading="lazy"/> Mary Vavrus, a volunteer observer of ICE exercise, walks her canine, Rosie, within the neighborhood of Longfellow in South Minneapolis, blocks from the place Renee Good was killed and a domintant immigrant-populated space the place ICE brokers are finishing up operations; Minneapolis, Minnesota on Jan. 20, 2026. Erin Trieb for NPR cover caption

toggle caption

Erin Trieb for NPR Mary Vavrus has lived on this space in south Minneapolis for greater than 20 years. She has a replica of a portray of George Floyd staked into her entrance garden.

"It is fairly rattling numerous, and we love that about this place. We actually do," Vavrus says.

She says in some methods, when Good was killed a number of weeks in the past close by, it felt just like the unrest after Floyd's homicide may occur another time.

She remembers again to that point, when neighbors have been patrolling streets in any respect hours of the day and evening, and establishing makeshift roadblocks to maintain unknown individuals out. Now, neighbors are patrolling once more, standing on avenue corners with whistles able to sound the alert if ICE reveals up.

"However the ethos of the resistance is just a bit bit completely different," Vavrus says, explaining that now it feels kinder, and extra useful. "Perhaps it is as a result of we discovered some issues. Perhaps it is as a result of it is a extra widespread type of siege. It is a siege of town."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F1c%2Fb6%2F768d33564d9490aba276473ca3ca%2Fnpr-trieb-southmn-20260123-24.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F1c%2Fb6%2F768d33564d9490aba276473ca3ca%2Fnpr-trieb-southmn-20260123-24.jpg" class="img" alt="Posters of Renee Nicole Good are plastered on buildings in the neighborhood of South Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 23, 2026." loading="lazy"/> Posters of Renee Nicole Good are plastered on buildings within the neighborhood of South Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 23, 2026. Erin Trieb for NPR cover caption

toggle caption

Erin Trieb for NPR Throughout the George Floyd protests, town sort of turned in on itself, she explains. However now, residents are preventing again towards a risk that is extra exterior.

Elizabeth Berget lives a couple of mile away together with her husband and three children. She says the power of her tight knit neighborhood, the place neighbors watch one another's children and borrow one another's snowblowers after blizzards, solely grew stronger within the aftermath of Floyd's homicide.

"After 2020, there was very a lot a sense of like, let's look out for one another," Berget says.

She says she thinks that helped everybody right here mobilize faster, when tragedy struck once more earlier this month.

"I already had all my neighbor's numbers in my telephone, and we may begin a Sign chat like that," she says snapping her fingers, referring to the encrypted chats that many neighborhoods right here in Minneapolis have shaped to assist arrange in protest towards the federal immigration exercise.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F04%2F3b%2F123174414eb1a83dc4a04e08f429%2Fnpr-trieb-ice-20260120-14.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F04%2F3b%2F123174414eb1a83dc4a04e08f429%2Fnpr-trieb-ice-20260120-14.jpg" class="img" alt="Elizabeth Berget, photographed at her home in the neighborhood of Longfellow in South Minneapolis, blocks from where Renee Good was killed and a domintant immigrant-populated area where ICE agents are carrying out operations; Minneapolis, Minnesota on Jan. 20, 2026. Photographed by Erin Trieb for NPR." loading="lazy"/> Elizabeth Berget, photographed at her dwelling within the neighborhood of Longfellow in South Minneapolis, blocks from the place Renee Good was killed and a domintant immigrant-populated space the place ICE brokers are finishing up operations; Minneapolis, Minnesota on Jan. 20, 2026. Photographed by Erin Trieb for NPR. Erin Trieb for NPR cover caption

toggle caption

Erin Trieb for NPR Berget and her neighbors have been utilizing that Sign chat partially to arrange grocery deliveries to immigrant households close by who've been sheltering of their houses, afraid to depart.

On the day NPR visits, she's dropping off provides to 27-year-old E. and her household, who dwell simply down the road.

E. is a U.S. citizen. She requested to solely be recognized by her first preliminary, as she fears for the protection of her household. She has two younger children, each additionally U.S. residents. Her husband is undocumented, from Mexico.

"Processing this has been so troublesome as a result of I am not used to being dwelling," says E., sitting at her kitchen desk together with her four-year-old daughter snuggled in her lap.

E. has lived in south Minneapolis for seven years now. She says between this and the unrest in 2020, she generally thinks about transferring, going to a special neighborhood.

However she says there was a small silver lining: She's related with new neighbors in all of this, and discovered to belief them.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb4%2F44%2F89a0ec244c69a2005acbe475e225%2Fnpr-trieb-ice-20260120-25.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb4%2F44%2F89a0ec244c69a2005acbe475e225%2Fnpr-trieb-ice-20260120-25.jpg" class="img" alt="A couple pays their respects by laying flowers at the memorial for Renée Good, who was fatally shot by a federal ICE agent earlier this month; Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 20, 2026. Photographed by Erin Trieb for NPR." loading="lazy"/> A pair pays their respects by laying flowers on the memorial for Renée Good, who was fatally shot by a federal ICE agent earlier this month; Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 20, 2026. Erin Trieb for NPR cover caption

toggle caption

Erin Trieb for NPR She says not too long ago a lady introduced over pet food for the household pet, and requested if possibly sometime,when issues hopefully return to regular, E. and her household wished to come back over and grill exterior.

E. says it is made her really feel much less alone in all of this.

"I do not even know the place she lives, however I do know she's round right here. So it is like, wherever you might be, I'll get to see you sometime," she says with a smile.

She hopes, when the time comes, that the 2 households can meet in a extra historically American method, grilling within the yard, as an alternative of hiding in her dwelling.