This west-central Minnesota city is rich with immigrants and conservatives. Views on ICE are complicated.

WILLMAR — Frieda’s Cafe is a classic hometown diner on the edge of this downtown, known for homemade caramel rolls and pancakes the size of your head. A bowl near the cash register offers free miniature Bibles as servers pour 50-cent coffees.

The restaurant is surrounded by businesses that show how Willmar stands out as one of Minnesota’s most diverse cities. An Eagles Club, Bibi’s Shop of African Food, Somali Star Restaurant and Copaneco Restaurant all stand within a block radius.

Several businesses from Willmar’s substantial population of Latino, Somali and Karen immigrants temporarily closed recently. Stepped-up immigration enforcement all over greater Minnesota has put the Kandiyohi County seat on edge.

Inside a packed Frieda’s on a recent weekday morning, Latino immigrants sat at tables next to working-class MAGA voters. Proximity makes things complicated in this west-central Minnesota town of 21,000. It’s not as easy to self-segregate based on politics in a small community. Here, they’re all neighbors: red next to blue, immigrants living in fear next to neighbors cheering ICE’s increased enforcement.

All seemed tense, just not for the same reasons.

“I’m wholesale pissed off,” said Peter Iversen, a retiree from nearby Benson, who had driven two elderly rural people here for doctor appointments. “I think this country is heading right to revolution. They’re beating up people on the streets. This isn’t the country I served in the Army for.”

Next to him was Ben Johnson, 39, grabbing brunch before finishing a plumbing job on a dairy farm. He applauded ICE’s efforts.

Near the cash register, Amber Moyers, who works at a Subway in nearby Litchfield, staked a middle ground. She wished ICE tactics hadn’t become so aggressive. But she sympathized with agents working amid protests.

“If you aren’t going to do the right process to become a citizen, you run that risk,” Moyers said. “If you don’t have nothing to hide, just cooperate and show them your paperwork. But people are scared they’re going to get deported whether they have paperwork or not. There’s paranoia everywhere.”

Immigrants were alarmed at reports of a handful of arrests each day in Willmar last week.

On Jan. 14, four ICE agents ate lunch at El Tapatio, a Mexican restaurant. Then, after closing time, ICE detained the restaurant’s two owners and one other worker, according to multiple eyewitness accounts. Spokespeople from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

The next day, the restaurant was closed. It reopened over the weekend, but kept the door locked and only allowed trusted patrons inside.

The owner of a nearby Somali grocery store said he approached ICE agents, offering to translate and show the agents documentation proving the young woman was a legal refugee. The woman cried, according to a video of the detainment, her bare feet pushing against the pavement as she resisted an ICE agent shoving her into an SUV.

“I’d just picked up four of my kids from middle school and kindergarten,” Abdiweli Yusuf, owner of Amin Grocery and a U.S. citizen, told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “I told them, ‘I’m not here to create violence, she doesn’t know any English, can I help you guys?’”

ICE agents warned him to back away, Yusuf said, then they pepper sprayed him. The crowd grew further inflamed.

Even some who generally support increased immigration enforcement said the optics of that scene rankled them. The young woman was released from custody four days later, acquaintances confirmed, traumatized.

“What they are doing here in Minnesota, they are just trying to divide us,” Yusuf said. “It’s a scary time. We got to be together. Try to follow the rules. That’s all you can do. Not do any violence when you see them. Just walk away.”

Kandiyohi County voted 65% for President Donald Trump in 2024. Though a Texas study showed undocumented immigrants were arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes, and even less for property crimes, people who live outside the Kandiyohi County seat often complain about immigrant crime in Willmar; plenty say they now avoid downtown.

Protesters in Willmar face pushback from ICE supporters, many of whom come from rural areas surrounding Willmar. The network of observers who share updates of ICE activity on encrypted platforms is far smaller in Willmar, and they emphasize that they do not try to block law enforcement operations.

Several people who opposed ICE’s tactics in the city told the Minnesota Star Tribune they appreciated their local police, praising how they’ve assisted families after ICE arrests. A common fear in Willmar is that the distrust ICE activity could stir up against law enforcement may destroy years of trust built in the immigrant community.

“Our job stays the same no matter who is in office,” Kandiyohi County Sheriff Eric Tollefson said. “We protect life. We protect property.”

In the metro area, those who trail ICE agents in cars and with whistles are largely white; in Willmar, many are Somali or Latino youth. On a recent evening, a half-dozen vehicles filled with Somali teenagers surrounded two ICE vehicles in a Walmart parking lot and shouted at them. When the two ICE vehicles sped off, the teens gave chase.

“There’s a call for it, but not as extreme as it’s going,” he said as 13-degree winds whipped off the lake. “It’s hard to draw an opinion if you don’t know what they’re looking for. Some of the tactics aren’t the greatest, but they are doing a job. We don’t know exactly who they’re going after, what they’re going after, but they’re here for a reason.”

Much rhetoric on both sides is bathed in religion. A heavily Lutheran area, Kandiyohi was one of the last Minnesota counties to stop being dry, more than 40 years after Prohibition. Now the area has 50-some churches and two mosques.

Some quote one of Jesus’ favorite commandments — “Love thy neighbor” — as reason to embrace immigrants regardless of legal status.

A retired conservative pastor who lives in Willmar, Russ Whitaker, quoted the Bible’s stance against slander for why Democrats are to blame for the current moment because of escalating rhetoric against law enforcement and Trump.

“Our borders were swamped and people were allowed in and they wreaked havoc on our communities,” Whitaker said. “The abuse against police officers is awful. Being compassionate to illegals is fine. But Jesus was very much about supporting law and order.”

Lead pastor Justin Ask, who also serves on the Willmar City Council, has tried to focus his congregation on letting Christianity guide their politics instead of the other way around. Americans should be able to hold two truths at the same time: law enforcement is difficult, important work, and what happened to Good was an unnecessary tragedy. He encourages congregants to be sure not to lose their humanity in the name of security.

“Scripture has a ton to say about how we treat immigrants,” Ask said.

Inside her family’s trailer on a recent workday, Glenia, a Honduran mother of three who crossed into the United States illegally in 2019, stirred a pot of shredded beef. A Bible lay open on her kitchen table: “So do not fear, for I am with you,“ Isaiah 41:10 read in Spanish. ”Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.”

Glenia hadn’t left her home in four days. (The Minnesota Star Tribune is not using her full name because Glenia feared retribution as an undocumented immigrant.) Her daughters, 15 and 5, sat on screens, bored silly. This recently has become a common sight in Willmar. One day earlier this week, a 23-pupil kindergarten class had only six students.

Glenia planned to hide her family inside her trailer for the foreseeable future.

Glenia had awoken at 3 a.m. and prayed alongside family for their safety. She spent her day scrawling notes about this Old Testament book with prophecies of judgment and hope. She told her 15-year-old daughter they needed to return to Honduras, but her daughter pleaded to stay in the U.S. for better opportunities.

Complicating things even more is that Glenia’s 5-year-old is a U.S. citizen. “I can’t leave and choose between my children,” she said. Glenia sees the people here marching on sidewalks and documenting ICE activity and delivering groceries and donating money as evidence of God’s support.

She even prayed for ICE agents.

“I pray that God touches their hearts,” she said. “We cannot be afraid. If God is with us, nothing can destroy us.”

Her phone rang. It was an automated message from Willmar Public Schools, saying it was aware of ICE presence and would protect all children. Glenia’s 15-year-old daughter sighed and disappeared back into her bedroom.