ICE Ate at a Minnesota Taqueria, Then Came Back to Arrest the People Who Fed Them
On Thursday afternoon in Willmar, Minnesota, four Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents sat down to eat at El Tapatio, a family-owned Mexican restaurant that has long served the local community.
They took a booth, ordered food, and were served.
The arrest took place around 8:30 p.m. near Willmar Middle School and a nearby Lutheran church, according to witnesses. Witnesses say that the ICE officers pursued the restaurant workers after they finished their shifts, surrounding them as they left for the night. Videos and photos that have circulated with local news outlets show the workers looking visibly distraught.
As these arrests were carried out, people in the vicinity were shouting at these agents, blowing whistles, and saying, “Would your mama be proud of you right now?”
The ICE officials have not publicly named these arrested individuals, nor have they given any explanation about why these arrests were carried out. The ICE officials, as well as El Tapatio, have not responded to these requests to comment on the incident.
The city of Willmar is a small town in central Minnesota, with a population of about 21,000 people. In Willmar, 40 percent of its population comprises people of color, with nearly one-third of its population comprising Latin people. As in other cities in the Midwest, immigrant labor plays a vital role in the local economy, particularly in food service, agricultural, and manufacturing industries.
This incident did not take place in isolation.
Minnesota has witnessed a massive increase in federal immigration enforcement efforts over the past few weeks as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Metro Surge.” Thousands of federal agents have been deployed throughout the state, targeting immigrant communities on the basis of alleged fraud and abuse of public benefits.
The efforts of the federal agents have been met with widespread fear and unrest. Protests are breaking out throughout the state of Minnesota as a response to the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis last week. The footage of the incident contradicts the initial claims of the federal government.
It has been alleged that the immigration enforcement efforts are now resembling surveillance operations, with agents waiting outside workplaces and questioning residents about their immigration status.
Restaurants seem to be the target of the immigration agents.
Just this week, another Mexican restaurant in the Twin Cities, El Rodeo, closed its doors temporarily after ICE agents showed up at their location. While no arrests were made, the employees were simply too scared to come back to work. In another case, an employee of Pancho’s Taqueria in Circle Pines, who allegedly had a right to work in this country, was apprehended after agents waited outside this establishment. This restaurant also closed its doors.
To many immigrant workers, it’s clear: there’s no place that’s off-limits, your workplace, your ride home, or even the place that fed the agents who would later handcuff them.
El Tapatio didn’t do anything illegal. They didn’t do anything to provoke an altercation. They simply came to work, worked, and went home, only to be apprehended and taken away from their community.
What happened in Willmar isn’t just about the restaurant. It’s about a system that treats the act of survival as a trap, and the act of human interaction as a means of enforcement.
And for immigrant communities in Minnesota, it’s another reminder that the difference between “normal life” and federal force is just hours away.
This is exactly what American white nationalism produces; parasitoids that leech off the culture, labor, and excellence of minority communities while trying to destroy the evidence of their existence. Fucking deplorable. Melt ICE.
DEFEED ICE