NSS Weekly: The History of ICE and the Effects of Family Separation

Transcript

[sound element: NSS theme music]

INTRO: You are listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota, produced by AMPERS, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota.

[NSS intro theme music ends]

HOST: This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live. I'm Gracie J.

On today's program, we look at a land controversy between tribal descendants, leaders, and the government. A prayer draws attention to a dispute at Coldwater Spring near Fort Snelling in the Twin Cities. As the aftermath of Operation Metro Surge reveals more questions about what comes next, we take a look at the history of America's immigration and deportation policies and how U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement evolved into the agency we see today. And, a personal story about the lasting trauma from a woman who is living with the effects of family separation. But first, here are some of the week's top stories from around the state.

Minnesota will soon have a new city. Northern Township won its battle to break away from the city of Bemidji, avoiding annexation after a years-long boundary dispute. A judge denied Bemidji's efforts to annex more than 900 acres of shoreline on Lake Bemidji, including the suburb of Northern Township.

CHRIS LAHN: People could, in theory, put either Bemidji, Minnesota, or Northern, Minnesota [on envelopes]. The zip code will get it to the right place, no matter what.

HOST: The fight centered largely on wastewater service and protecting water quality, after Northern secured six million dollars in federal funding to build its own system.

Lawmakers want public input as they consider the safety of the state's drinking water and how to protect the long-term health of Minnesota's rivers, lakes, and environment. High nitrate levels can poison private wells and public water systems, making it especially dangerous for infants and pregnant women. Nitrate also fuels algae blooms, reduces oxygen in the water and harms fish and aquatic life. A court order tied to a lawsuit over nitrate pollution in southeast Minnesota requires public input. The public comment period runs through the end of March.

[sound element: school bell ringing]

HOST: Five Minnesota schools are getting national recognition for inclusion. Cloquet, Roosevelt, Rochester Mayo, Osseo Senior High and Fairmont Junior Senior High have been named "Special Olympics National Banner Unified Champion Schools" for 2025. Special Olympics Minnesota calls them the "gold standard" for bringing students with and without disabilities together to learn, play, and lead.

[sound element: warning bell ringing]

HOST: And a warning for those who like to ice fish: It's time to start getting your houses off the ice. Recent warm weather caused thinning ice and deteriorating public access across central and southern Minnesota. Shelters on inland waters in the southern two-thirds of the state should be taken down immediately. Northern inland waters have until March 16. If you're up on the Canadian border, you have until the end of March. State officials remind anglers to clear out all trash and blocking materials. Shelters left past the deadline can be confiscated, and owners fined.

[sound element: NSS MUSIC TRANSITION]

HOST: We begin this week's program at Coldwater Spring, near Fort Snelling in the Twin Cities, where a land dispute is taking the shape of an Indigenous-led prayer camp. The gathering is drawing attention and sparking debate between tribal descendants, leaders and the government as Dakota community members, relatives, and allies come together at the sacred site. Reporter Xan Holston has more.

XAN HOLSTON: At Mni Owe Sni, known as Cold Water Spring at Fort Snelling, Dakota people, relatives and allies are taking back the space. A growing number of yurts, tents and teepees now covers the site at Bdóte, the place where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers meet. It's land sacred to Dakota history and spirituality and their creation story. Joe is a Piikani Blackfoot man, a First Nations community in present-day Canada. He says the camp is reaching out to the Dakota Oyate, or nation, including Lakota and Nakota leaders across the region, to help guide the camp.

JOE: There's a call out for each one of those representatives to come down here and fill this horn.

XAN HOLSTON: The Seven Council Fires, or Oceti Sakowin, forms the political and spiritual foundation of the Dakota people.

JOE: You know the way these teepees are set up, there's four right now, there will be seven each. One of those will represent that that Seven Council Fires, the original governing body.

XAN HOLSTON: Not everyone agrees with their presence here. The four federally recognized Dakota tribes in Minnesota, Lower and Upper Sioux, Prairie Island and Shakopee Mdewakanton, sent a letter to the National Park Service earlier this month, distancing themselves from the camp. They say they're already working with partners to restore the site for prayer and ceremony, and that the camp doesn't speak on their behalf or have the authority to represent Dakota interests at the site. North Star Stories reached out to the tribes for more comment but did not hear back before airtime. Those living at the camp say it's also calling on state and federal officials, including the governor and congresspeople, to visit the camp and engage directly. But so far, none have.

JOE: Facts are that no representative has walked into this camp yet, that no senator, no, no, nobody's walked into this camp to parlay an understanding.

XAN HOLSTON: At the camp, a steady stream of visitors and residents haul supplies on sleds down icy paths from a parking lot off highway 55: food, canvas and, most importantly, firewood. People at the site cook food, organize supplies and keep fires burning through the cold. Nina is an Oglala Lakota woman who has ancestral connection to the space and lives in Minneapolis. She says the camp is a place of education and connection.

NINA: I really appreciate kind of the people who are coming out here and collectively that are a part of our larger tiospaye, by the Oceti Sakowin, who are come, helping educate, you know, all of our different relatives on how we can not only exercise that sovereign, inherent sovereign right that we have through our treaties, but also, you know, kind of how spiritually it can play into our role of activism.

XAN HOLSTON: Reclaiming the space, she says, is a way to reconnect sovereignty and spirituality. Bdóte carries deep historical weight. Besides being the foundation of Dakota life, Fort Snelling is also the site of its attempted destruction. The US government held nearly 2,000 Dakota people in a prison camp here. After the US Dakota War, many died there or were later exiled from the state. The fort, Joe says—

JOE: Is one of the worst places that ever existed for American Indian people. That was a concentration camp. That was a place where Indian people went to die. And what we see now is a place where Indian people are coming to live, coming to live freely, coming to live in adherence to their responsibilities as free Indians.

XAN HOLSTON: Camp leaders don't know what will happen at the camp, but being there has sparked philosophical debate about freedom and what it means to take it. When asked what his dream for the camp is, Joe simply gestured at the space around him.

JOE: This…that…it's here.

XAN HOLSTON: For North Star Stories, I'm Xan Holston.

[sound element: NSS MUSIC TRANSITION]

HOST: Operation Metro Surge has officially ended, but the long-term effects of family separation are still unfolding. For many families, this is not a new experience. Next, we hear the story of one woman whose family was separated two decades ago, offering insight into the lasting impact immigration crackdowns can have on families and children in Minnesota. Reporter Maija Hecht has the story.

MAIJA HECHT: In the wake of Operation Metro Surge, ICE activity continues as residents across Minnesota grapple with fear, grief and separation. For some, the trauma caused by deportation events is all too familiar.

ALEXIS BROWN: Last week, I literally had my first stress dream that I was detained by ICE and I'm a US citizen.

MAIJA HECHT: Alexis Brown has lived with the trauma of separation for over 20 years. When Alexis was two years old, her mother was deported.

ALEXIS BROWN: Reliving this trauma and knowing the pain that these kids, first and foremost, are going through, this is how it is for many people.

MAIJA HECHT: Alexis says witnessing public pushback against ICE made her want to share her own story.

ALEXIS BROWN: And so I started looking through my files that I have on my mom.

MAIJA HECHT: She found a letter written by her mother, Julieta Koran, after she was deported in 2002.

EMILY KRUMBER (reading Julieta Koran letter): To whom it may concern, I am writing to you with the facts as I know them to be true.

MAIJA HECHT: You are listening to Julieta's letter read by North Star Stories producer Emily Krumberger.

EMILY KRUMBERGER: I'm appealing to you to assist me in this matter, as I am convinced that what has happened to me is unjust. It is affecting the emotional stability of my husband and two daughters, especially Alexis, who is only two years old. We are so close and it is going to be unbearable to be apart for 20 years.

MAIJA HECHT: Back in 2002, in Bloomington, Minnesota, during Julieta Koran's final interview for permanent residency, immigration officer Benjamin T Jorgensen signed paperwork that deported Julieta from the US. She would never return. She held a legal working permit, Social Security card and US driver's license. Julieta attended the appointment with her husband, a US citizen.

EMILY KRUMBERGER: We then asked if there was a legal procedure that we could follow so I wouldn't be deported.

MAIJA HECHT: Records show Julieta had re-entered the US within five years of a prior deportation, making her ineligible for residency under federal law.

EMILY KRUMBERGER: He answered that there was nothing that could be done. My husband was asked to leave the office without touching me, and we had to say goodbye through a window. They handcuffed and shackled me.

MAIJA HECHT: The next day, Julieta was transferred to El Paso and deported, forced to leave her husband and two daughters behind.

EMILY KRUMBERGER: I begged him to listen to me. He answered me with anger and disdain. He looked as if he was enjoying the whole scenario. His statement to the illegals of "Bitches, you will be home tomorrow" was said with a big smile on his face. I understood this to be verbal abuse.

MAIJA HECHT: ICE did not respond to North Star Stories' request for comment about the case or Julieta's statements on this agent's alleged conduct.

EMILY KRUMBERGER: When I asked him where they were taking me, he refused to tell me. I asked him if I had the right to go to court and speak to the judge and ask for a pardon and explain my actions. Jim, the officer, said I didn't have any rights because I was an illegal alien. I asked him why he was so cruel.

MAIJA HECHT: In fact, the US Constitution does protect certain rights for "any persons" under state jurisdiction, including non-citizens. As of 2023, an estimated 4.4 million citizen children live with an undocumented immigrant parent in the US. Senior immigration attorney Rebecca Cassler with the American Immigration Council says interpretations of immigration and deportation laws are largely discretionary and differ depending on which immigration agency makes an arrest.

REBECCA CASSLER: And so the individual choices of the officers involved have a huge impact. ICE never have to make the decision to deport a mom with a two year old child. That was true then, and it's true now.

MAIJA HECHT: Cassler explained that immigration is considered a civil not a criminal matter, with many gray areas open to a court's interpretation, meaning there is no specific case law, policy or precedent clearly defining people's rights.

REBECCA CASSLER: We are seeing the largest and most aggressive immigration enforcement machine in US history, resulting in a huge amount of litigation. This is a moment when courts are beginning to more clearly define people's rights in this context.

MAIJA HECHT: Now, 25 years old, Alexis Brown has a two-year-old daughter of her own. She worries the long-term effects of Operation Metro Surge will be devastating, just like it was for her.

ALEXIS BROWN: It's a lasting trauma that I never realized I had, obviously, till I had a daughter. I have really bad separation anxiety, and it all is because of my mom and I being separated for years.

MAIJA HECHT: Alexis was only able to contact her mother over expensive long-distance calls. As a teenager, she began traveling alone to visit her mom whenever she could afford a plane ticket.

ALEXIS BROWN: It didn't make up for all the heartbreak and all of that. But parenting wise, I received the love that I needed from her, and it fulfilled me tenfold, albeit it was just brief, you know, snippets in time. I still got to see so much of what it was for her to be a mother. So it does help me navigate my relationship with my daughter. I'm really grateful for that, you know.

MAIJA HECHT: Her mother passed away alone in Mexico in 2023. She was found two days later after Alexis, worried by unanswered messages, asked a neighbor to do a welfare check.

ALEXIS BROWN: Many more people have had this happen to them, being separated due to an imaginary line drawn in the sand and them not following the imaginary rules that people created on one side of that line. It's a lot of heartbreak for no reason.

MAIJA HECHT: For North Star Stories, Maija Hecht.

[sound element: NSS MUSIC TRANSITION]

HOST: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has become a household name. Coming up after the break…we look at the history of immigration enforcement and why the government created ICE. This is North Star Stories, Voices from Where We Live, produced by AMPERS, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. We'll be right back.

[NSS Break Music]

[NSS Promo: "North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities. Check out our other programs at AMPERS dot ORG: Minnesota Native News brings you weekly coverage of the state's Native American communities. MN90 - Minnesota History in 90 Seconds - transports you to historical moments in our state through short, engaging stories. Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine is a weekly podcast featuring conversations between Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe members and siblings, Leah Lemm and Cole Premo, and Native community members. Hear more at AMPERS dot ORG."]

[NSS Break Music ends]

HOST: You are listening to North Star Stories. I'm Gracie J.

Taking a look at other headlines, state health officials are tracking an outbreak of a ringworm-like fungus that spreads through skin-to-skin contact, including sex. More than 30 confirmed or suspected cases have now been reported in the Twin Cities Metro. It causes red, coin-like rashes – often on the genitals, buttocks, trunk, arms or legs and is often mistaken for other skin problems. The infection is treatable. but may require weeks to months of oral treatment. Avoid skin-to-skin contact and do not share clothing, towels, or bedding. Early diagnosis is key.

Northeastern Minnesota's Iron Range is getting a big funding boost to build the "Mine of the Future." State leaders are directing eight million dollars to the Taconite Assistance for mining research, job training and public works projects. A key focus is a proving-ground program to test and scale new mining technology – and bringing more research and technical jobs to the region. Some of the funding also supports hands-on training for manufacturing and welding, along with upgrades for local school facilities and infrastructure.

Bass fishing will soon be possible year-round in Minnesota.
The DNR is adding a new catch-and-release season during months that were previously closed … while keeping existing harvest seasons in place. It takes effect March 1st.

And Native American activist Leonard Peltier just marked one year since his release from federal prison. Peltier was convicted in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents on South Dakota's Pine Ridge reservation. President Biden commuted the 80-year-old's sentence to home confinement.

[sound element: NSS MUSIC TRANSITION]

HOST: As thousands of federal agents prepare to leave Minnesota under orders from White House Border Czar Tom Homan, we take a closer look at the history of immigration enforcement in the United States, and how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement became the agency we see today. Reporter Ngoc Bui has more.

NGOC BUI: Ana Pottraz Acosta is a lawyer and professor at the University of Minnesota who's been working in immigration for the last 20 years.

ANA POTTRAZ ACOSTA: I would say unequivocally that the situation right now in terms of both the level of enforcement and just kind of blatant violation of rights that people are experiencing at the hands of the Department of Homeland Security and ICE agents in particular, it's the worst that it's ever been.

NGOC BUI: Acosta said federal agents are showing a different level of impunity.

ANA POTTRAZ ACOSTA: Grabbing people off the street in a very violent manner, breaking down doors without a warrant. These are like very troubling things that are happening and that we're seeing on the ground in Minnesota.

NGOC BUI: State and national leaders are currently investigating the policies and approaches used by the Department of Homeland Security and its immigration-related agencies. One immigration history expert says what we're seeing today has parallels to other moments in US history.

ADAM GOODMAN: So when the Trump administration returned to office, they came with the idea that they're going to replicate what happened in the 1950s in which there are mass deportation campaigns carried out across the country, in urban areas and agricultural fields.

NGOC BUI: That's University of Illinois - Chicago Professor Adam Goodman.

ADAM GOODMAN: There are immigration raids, there were roundups, there were airplanes and boats and busses and trains used to transport people out of the country and as far away as possible in many cases.

NGOC BUI: Goodman says, through his research, he found that the United States has deported 60 million people in the last century and a half.

ADAM GOODMAN: That was shocking to me. And this isn't a story that starts in 2016 with Donald Trump's first election, or now again in 2024 when he returned to power.

NGOC BUI: He adds deportations have been happening across political parties and presidential administrations. What has changed under the current administration, however, is where enforcement is taking place.

ADAM GOODMAN: A key change, a crucial difference from past administrations in recent decades, is that most people deported within the past year have been as a result of interior enforcement that has apprehended and expelled long-standing residents from the country, in addition to some people who have arrived more recently.

NGOC BUI: The expansion of immigration enforcement inward was enabled by the existence of ICE, an agency created only two decades ago in the wake of 9/11.

NAT SOUND: America is pounded in the world's biggest terrorist attack. It's 8:52 here in New York. I'm Bryant Gumbel. We understand that there has been a plane crash.

ADAM GOODMAN: It's really not until September 11, and the attacks on the United States of that day, in which the immigration bureaucracy is reorganized centrally around questions of maintaining a secure homeland.

NGOC BUI: This reorganization happened in 2002 with President George W Bush's signing of the Homeland Security Act.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: The Homeland Security Act of 2002 takes the next critical steps in defending our country.

ANA POTTRAZ ACOSTA: ICE, when it was established as a sub agency of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003—

NGOC BUI: That's Ana Pottraz Acosta again.

ANA POTTRAZ ACOSTA: It really, for the first time, was an agency with a sole mission of conducting internal immigration enforcement.

NGOC BUI: ICE's budget in recent years has hovered around $10 billion but, thanks to the budget bill that was passed in the summer of 2025, ICE received a massive $75 billion boost, bringing its annual budget to $85 billion. It's money that the current administration says it will use to increase capacity so that it can carry out as many as one million deportations per year.

ANA POTTRAZ ACOSTA: They're hiring more agents, and this is the more important thing, they are significantly increasing detention capacity and bed space for ICE detention.

NGOC BUI: Goodman says it's hard to know what the impact of this will be.

ADAM GOODMAN: And I don't think anyone has any clear idea there, other than to know that it's probably not going to be good for immigrants and people that care about them.

NGOC BUI: This is Ngoc Bui for North Star Stories.

[sound element: NSS MUSIC TRANSITION]

HOST: It's still too soon to know the full impact of recent federal operations in Minnesota. But the consequences of the current immigration enforcement policies and the reality of thousands of Minnesotans removed from their homes are already changing families and communities. To understand more of this topic, we're joined now by Linus Chan, the James H. Binger Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota, and the faculty director of the Detainee Rights Clinic. He is also an immigration attorney. Thank you for joining us.

LINUS CHAN: Thank you very much for having me.

HOST: So, deportations have happened across political parties for 150 years. How has it changed over the years, Linus?

LINUS CHAN: So there's a lot of different ways that deportations and removals from the United States specifically have changed over the years. I think the focus right now is on how they've changed in the last 30 years. And the 30-year period is important because that was the last time that Congress really passed a large bill focusing both on immigration and on deportation. And what we've seen is that the law has created a certain framework through two bills called the "Anti-terrorism Effective Death Penalty Act" and through another bill called "IRA IRA", which is the "Illegal Immigrant in Responsibility Act". And you could tell by the name of these bills is that they were passed in an era of looking at law enforcement, and looking at criminal enforcement, as a big concern, and looking at immigration specifically within the lens of criminal enforcement. One of the things that sort of became an accelerant for the changes that we now see with "Operation Metro Surge" is "Operation Metro Surge." is September 11th. And that infrastructure now has grown to be the largest in history of American history, and threatens to become the absolute largest law enforcement apparatus in the United States.

HOST: With ICE's budget expanding dramatically and a renewed focus on enforcement in all regions, what long-term impact could this have?

LINUS CHAN: One of the challenges, which is a lesson that we've learned from mass incarceration on the criminal side, is that it is one thing to build jails. It is very difficult to tear them down. What we now know is that there is over 68000 people in any single day, that are now being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement." "I want to put that into context. It's 68000 people in any single day. There means that many more in any given year." "We've also seen a record number of proposals from the Department of Homeland Security." "Not only to build private prisons and private detention centers, or to build ICE facilities." "But to also reach out and get more and more county jails, and more state and local facilities, to be in the business of detaining non-citizens." "And the challenge, of course, is once you have empty beds, then it's very difficult to justify not filling them.

HOST: So before I let you go, I think it's really important that you explain to us, Linus, what constitutional and legal rights do immigrants, documented or undocumented, actually have during detention and deportation proceedings?

LINUS CHAN: What rights have been decided in the past are always going to be subject to contestation now. So if you had asked, you know, even five years ago, what was birthright citizenship going to look like? Most people would have said it was decided back in the the end of the 19th century. It is being contested now." "There have been a pair of cases from the Supreme Court in the turn of the 20th century that said that the Constitution applies to people, and every person is entitled to what is called due process. There are two ways those issues are being challenged right now. The first is who are considered the people. So for example, people who are Second Amendment activists who believe very strongly in the Second Amendment,

The law has tried to conform to that reality by saying that due process is what Congress says is due but essentially saying that non-citizens, what we require, what the Constitution protects from them, is subject to what the Congress says rather than what the Constitution. So to answer your question, right now we are learning what those rights will be because we are going to learn them in real time in front of judges and in front of Congress. And if we want a certain vision of what those rights should be, it is going to, and always has been, up to the people to decide.

HOST: Well, thank you so much for your time, Linus. We really appreciate it.

LINUS CHAN: Thank you.

SOT: Music Intro to "Streets of Minneapolis" by Bruce Springsteen.

HOST: And to end today's program, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are hitting the streets of Minneapolis this spring. The Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour kicks off at the Target Center on March 3. The Boss calls the tour a celebration and a defense of American democracy, freedom, and the Constitution.

[sound element: NSS theme music]

HOST: This is all the time we have for today's program. If you missed any part of today's newscast, you can find this and past episodes at AMPERS.org, or listen to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back next week with more stories and voices from the North Star State.

OUTRO: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at AMPERS.org.