WILLMAR — Approximately 100 demonstrators gathered outside the Law Enforcement Center last week in Willmar as a show of support for immigrants caught in the dragnet of immigration enforcement done by federal authorities. They also shared stories of other immigrants they know and how they’ve helped grow and be a positive asset for the communities they live in.
The jail facility in Kandiyohi County is one of three detention facilities in Minnesota that hold individuals for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Community members of Willmar, Alexandria and some from Northfield had come as a show of solidarity and support for immigrants in their communities who feel threatened by current federal policies.
Toward the end of the vigil, demonstrators shouted toward the jail facility, “We are here!” in both English and Spanish.
Visitation Pastor Andres Albertsen, of Vinje Lutheran Church in Willmar, led prayer and shared his story of how current federal policies had conflicted with his own life. Others also shared their concerns, and stories of how immigrants had enriched their lives and the communities they live in.
Albertsen, an immigrant from Argentina who has been living in the U.S. since 2011, just recently became a naturalized citizen. He said the reason he had come to the demonstration was for his friend Edward.
He said that he and Edward immediately bonded over the fact that, like Albertsen, Edward spoke Spanish with an Argentinian accent. Although he was born in Peru, Edward had spent much of his life in Argentina before coming to Minnesota.
Edward was arrested in Willmar weeks ago, on Oct. 25.
According to Albertsen, a friend was giving Edward a ride to work that Saturday when they were blocked by four cars, two unmarked, two others marked. They were ordered to exit the vehicle and then asked for their papers. When the two said they didn’t have any, they were immediately taken into ICE custody.
It is not known if the two marked squads were affiliated with the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office or the Willmar Police Department, Albertsen said.
A few days after the arrest, Albertsen received a call from a public service number; it was Edward telling him he was in jail. Albertsen said he believed Edward had called him because he has no family in the area.
“Now we know within a couple of days, he is gone,” Albertsen said of Edward. “He will be leaving the country.”
Others who traveled from as far as Northfield had come to show their support of Adán Núñez Gonzalez, a Northfield resident for more than 10 years, who was arrested several days earlier in the same city.
According to reporting by the Northfield News, three videos captured by witnesses, including Núñez Gonzalez’s 15-year-old son, show masked agents in plain clothes and bulletproof vests surrounding a vehicle and questioning its occupants. Agents broke the window and forcibly extracted and arrested Núñez Gonzalez from the passenger seat without ever showing a warrant or credentials, despite urging to do so from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
A GoFundMe for Núñez Gonzalez and his family has raised over $20,000 as of Saturday to help them challenge his detention.
Duane Franz, a Mountain Lake farmer, shared that he has been volunteering to drive immigrants to ICE check-ins, court hearings, and other appointments as they navigate the immigration court system.
He said earlier this year he drove two immigrants to the ICE facility in Sioux Falls, S.D., for what was supposed to be a routine check-in, as both men had applied for asylum in the United States.
However, as he waited for both men to return, he was informed that only one would be going back home. When he asked why agents were holding the other man in custody, they simply told him that he had to stay with the agents, according to Franz.
“That was the first time that ever happened to me,” Franz said, explaining he had been driving others to these appointments for over a year. Franz said the experience shook him up, explaining that the man held was a farm worker with a wife and children who had been living in southwest Minnesota for about three years.
Albertsen said, in his closing prayer, that we need to regard immigrants as “members of our human family,” adding that their dignity is directly connected to our own.
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