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Bulwark Takes

Trump’s Minneapolis Raids Are Crushing Peoples’ Lives

Bulwark Takes

The Bulwark

Politics, News Commentary, News, Society & Culture

4.71.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2026

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Adrian Carrasquillo spent several days on the ground in Minneapolis as immigration operations intensified across the city. Drawing on firsthand reporting and eyewitness testimony, the conversation documents how immigration enforcement tactics have reshaped daily life for residents, workers, and small business owners.

Segundo Balboa, co-owner of Galapagos Bar & Grill: A small-business describes ICE arriving in December, families becoming afraid to leave their homes, and neighborhood commerce collapsing as fear spread. He explains the impossible choice between staying safe and continuing to work to pay bills.

Carolina Ortiz, associate executive director of Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action (COPAL): A community organizer and on-the-ground responder, who provides detailed eyewitness accounts of ICE tactics across Minneapolis—agents positioned on nearly every block, unmarked vehicles, covered faces, and arrests carried out through intimidation.

Daniel Hernandez, owner of Colonial Market & Restaurant: He explains sales dropping by nearly 90 percent, the loss of the holiday season, and his efforts to support families through food delivery, recovery of impounded vehicles, and coordination with city officials to keep aid inside the community.

These interviews show how immigration policy is playing out in real time: fear as a tool, force as a default, and an entire community caught in the middle.

Read more about Adrian's experience in Minneapolis:

Portraits of the Minneapolis Resistance: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/portraits-of-the-minneapolis-resistance-dhs-cbp-ice-protests-minnesota

24 Hours Alongside an ICE Protester in Minneapolis: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/24-hours-alongside-an-ice-protester-minneapolis

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey everybody, it's me Sam Stein, managing editor at the Bullwark. I am joined by by Buddy Adrian,

0:05.1

who's just back from Minneapolis. Adrian, you were on the ground there. Now, this, I just want to

0:09.5

caution people. This was before the Alex Preti shooting. You left like a day or two before,

0:16.2

but you were there for about four days in the thicket of this intense situation between ice and people in the

0:23.9

city, you saw a lot, you followed around a lot of people, and you filed two great newsletters,

0:28.6

people should subscribe to huddled masses, it's the best immigration policy newsletter in

0:32.2

the business. But tell us about what you saw. I was on the ground for four days in Minneapolis

0:36.9

before the shooting, but even before the shooting,

0:38.7

you could tell that activists and just people in the community were truly fighting back and

0:44.9

truly as brave as what we've seen in the folks in the general strike protest after, in the

0:50.4

Ice Watch people that are showing up and confronting these agents, as we heard from

0:54.4

Renee Goode's widow, they have whistles, those agents have guns. So it's as brave as it looks like.

0:59.4

I mean, I spoke to business owners who are trying to survive, whose business is down 90%.

1:04.5

I spoke to people who are trying to protect kids from being taken and handing out food

1:10.6

and doing delivery groceries and I spoke

1:12.8

with an activist who is just doing some really strong work with helping folks in terms

1:17.5

of rent assistance and in terms of helping people with the things that they need in

1:21.4

these moments in this moment where Minneapolis has been under siege I think you guys

1:24.5

will really enjoy the video I hope you check it out so the agents started coming in December and obviously in January we have this horrible shooting.

1:32.3

Can you just repeat to me what you were telling me in Spanish about what you thought when you saw the video and how it made you feel?

1:40.3

The shoot of the René who could be a boy avoided and many other shootings as well as can be

1:48.5

avoided like I think so there was like unprofessional.

...

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