This was my experience of Operation Metro Surge as a Somali home care worker

Nazra Ahmed, a Somali-American home care worker in Minnesota, describes the fear that spread through her community during what's referred to as Operation Metro Surge, including sleepless nights and neighbors afraid to leave their homes. She recounts organizing with fellow SEIU members to pay rent and buy groceries for a neighboring family after ICE detained the mother, an undocumented house cleaner, leaving her husband alone with four children including an infant with special needs.

Ahmed also describes being pulled over by masked, unbadged agents in an unmarked SUV while driving her non-verbal son home from therapy, an encounter she says she endured by staying calm rather than confrontational. She says the broader community response in Minnesota — neighbors expressing solidarity and turning out for a general strike in subzero temperatures — was the opposite of what she and others had feared.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.