Special Series

On a flight to Minneapolis, journalist Ted Canova begins reporting before takeoff. A chance encounter with a mutual aid organizer turns into a candid conversation at 36,000 feet about ICE operations, immigration fears, and how Minneapolis is responding.

With the curtains drawn and a family in hiding for two months from ICE, we’re invited into a Minnesota home to meet a father who lost his job, drained his savings, whose 18 year old daughter risks working and 15 year old son isolates from his friends and school.

A 15-year-old Honduran-American teenager describes living in constant fear of the immigration crackdown in Minnesota. He describes how his mental health suffers from being isolated and not attending school.

A Minnesota stay-at-home mom turned activist leader describes being stalked, trapped, and intimidated by ICE agent on the street which she lives. Scared, yet determined, she believes the leadership role of organizing protesters fell on her lap.

Lifelong activist Peggy Carlson is one of 1,200 singing activists marching through the snowy streets of Minneapolis, calling on ICE to leave Minnesota. At 74, Peggy reflects on decades of marching for justice and is frustrated and tired that her work is not done.

We're invited into another Minnesota home to meet a Mexican immigrant terrorized to step outside. He's had grocery, hotel, and construction jobs and has paid his taxes. Determined to stay for his teenage daughter, he prays the country he once saw as promise will return.

After 32 years of attaining his American Dream and building a successful business in Minnesota, Luis is self-deporting. His biggest worry is the impact the immigration crackdown is having on his 9 year old son, growing up with hate in his head and fear in his heart.

 Not everyone in Minnesota is protesting and donating to help immigrants during the government crackdown. Is it that some are indifferent? To find out, we trekked a half mile on a frozen lake to see if the isolation of ice fishermen provided us with a new perspective.

In a city on edge, from where a five-year old in a blue bunny hat was sent to an ICE detention center, a Somali father talks of his nationality being politicized, stereotyped, and dehumanized, and offers a perspective on indifference I had yet to consider.

Does faith die and retreat when the government kills two innocent people and separates children from their families? Father Jim Cassidy of Minneapolis challenges us to show moral courage, questions anyone’s indifference, and provides a road map from turning rage into hope.

Go inside a St. Paul non-profit with an urgent mission to help, whose rooms are transformed into discreet logistics hubs to coordinate food deliveries using codes, laundry service, and even doulas to help immigrant women delivery their babies at home.

Kids in Minnesota are disappearing, first from school and now youth sports. Bob Cruz leads the West Side Boosters and as he’s taken on more responsibilities to keep immigrants safe, he’s determined to keep youth sports running.

An immigrant-owned towing company in Minneapolis is providing a quiet lifeline for immigrant families, offering free tows for cars left abandoned on snowy Minnesota roads, after ICE agents pull drivers from their vehicles. 

A Minnesota musician carries his U.S. passport everywhere, not for travel, but in case he’s stopped by ICE, and his new song is still about unity.

What drives a journalist to buy a one-way ticket to Minnesota with no interviews lined up and no guarantee he’d find any untold stories? Learn what propelled Ted Canova to take that leap of faith, and how the story revealed itself before he even boarded the plane. “Returning to Minnesota: A Journalist’s Journey Into a State in Crisis”