“Well, what about the Asian families?” - ICE in St. Paul

North End resident describes ICE asking about Asian neighbors

Elizabeth Lugert-Thom, of St. Paul, warned people on social media last week that two men came to her door in the North End on Wednesday. One had a badge hanging around his neck and she could make out “HS” on it and may have said “Homeland” on it, leading her to believe it was a Homeland Security badge.

“They did not identify themselves,” she said Monday. “They just starting asking questions and showed me a picture and asked if I knew who this person was.” She didn’t and told them so.

“They said, ‘This is for your safety. We need to find this person,’” according to Lugert-Thom, who said she doesn’t know why they came to her home.

City Council Member HwaJeong Kim, who is a volunteer with the Immigrant Defense Network and who represents Lugert-Thom’s ward, said she’s hearing frequently from neighborhood networks about people being taken into custody.

“They took someone walking on the sidewalk this morning in my ward before 9:30 this morning,” Kim said Monday. “… Rolled up, took them, gone.

“We already knew that they were doing it, and now they’re just not even hiding. … If you are Black, if you’re Brown, if you are Asian, Latina, even Indigenous, if you are just not white, at this point, you are a target.”