A Rural Response to the Horrors of ICE

“Class solidarity is beginning to trouble the traditional partisan lines. The old playbook of stoking rural white fears about immigrants begins to lose its potency when those same immigrants have become neighbors, co-workers, or fellow parishioners — and when federal agents descend like an occupying army, indiscriminately disrupting everyone’s lives.”
The Intercept, “Real America Is Turning Against Trump’s Deportation Machine,” Dec. 2025

We all know what’s happening in Minneapolis: the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the gratuitous violence against scores of immigrants and protestors alike, and the now-routine violations of the 4th Amendment’s prohibition of “unreasonable searches and seizures,” as federal agents bust down the doors of homes without a warrant. We’ve likely also heard about the heroic response of thousands of Minnesotans who have documented, challenged, and begun to turn the tide against the terror campaign of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

What we might be less aware of are the similar stories playing out in small towns and rural communities in Minnesota, Maine, and many other states. According to Gary Wertish, director of the Minnesota Farmers Union, many employees in the food and farming supply chain, from farms and processing facilities to restaurants, are “afraid to leave their homes, afraid to go to work,” even those who are here legally. This fear is not only impacting these workers and their families but is likely to have ripple effects throughout the state’s economy, including higher food prices, according to Andrea Vaubel, the state’s deputy commissioner of agriculture.

In Maine, while the bulk of arrests have taken place in Portland, ICE is also spreading fear in the countryside. Towns from Bath (population 8,800) to Bar Harbor (5,000 residents) to Richmond, Maine (just 3,500) now see masked agents patrolling their communities and arresting mostly law-abiding immigrants and others who are here legally.

Beyond Minnesota and Maine, we’ve seen ICE and CBP decimate local businesses through seemingly indiscriminate raids: a family-owned meatpacking company in Omaha, Nebraska; a locally popular Mexican restaurant in Harlan, Kentucky (population 1,800); and multiple locations in North Carolina, from Charlotte through the mountain towns in the western part of the state.

This is not going down well in small-town America, where people have long fought against government overreach and intrusion. Jennifer McDaniels, a Harlan resident and local reporter, told the publication n+1, “I don’t like what [these raids] are doing to our community. And our local leaders don’t like what it’s doing to our community. We took it personally here.”

In rural Minnesota, a report by local CBS affiliate WCCO finds that many small-town residents, though far removed from Minneapolis, are appalled by what’s happening. They want solutions that enable hardworking immigrants to stay in the country and get the licenses and support they need to fill critically important jobs in their communities.

Farmers across rural America have also joined the fight against Trump’s draconian immigration policies, including a number of state Farmers Unions such as those in Minnesota and Iowa. In Iowa, Aaron Lehman, the president of the union, warns that the current attacks on immigrants will likely lead to higher food prices and more stress on farmers already hit by tariffs and sky-high input costs.

Another example of farmers fighting back is Grow It Here, a relatively new, farmer-led advocacy group working for family farmers and for a humane and pragmatic immigration system. Grow It Here points out on its website that more than two out of three farmworkers in the U.S. were not born here, underscoring how dependent our food system has become on our immigrant neighbors.

A vivid example of this dependence was the ICE raid on a packaging plant in Nebraska last summer, which carted off 70 percent of the company’s workforce. The owner of Glen Valley Foods, Gary Rohwer, said he couldn’t square the government’s criminal characterizations of immigrants with the employees he’s known for decades: “salt-of-the-earth, incredible people who helped build this company.” A lifelong Republican, Rohwer switched parties to become a Democrat in 2024, in large part due to Trump’s immigration policies.

And then there’s the rapidly growing pushback from unions, some of which are urging and working toward a nationwide strike. Remember that Trump’s support increased among rank-and-file union members in 2024. While there are signs that this support is weakening somewhat, as Jimmy Williams, president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, has said, many workers won’t shift their allegiance until the Democratic Party clearly and consistently addresses what drove them to Trump in the first place.

It’s also worth remembering that many border towns are themselves rural communities, and that some of the most sustained humanitarian work (providing food, shelter, medical care, and legal aid) has long been carried out by rural residents. Immigrant rights organizations have deep roots in these regions, even if their work is harder to capture in national media cycles.

The people of Minneapolis have been truly heroic in their resistance to the brutality of ICE, CBP, and the broader assault on their city. It’s been nothing less than inspiring. But we should also recognize that the fight against the horrors of the Trump administration is emerging in small towns and rural communities, among farmers, workers, and everyday people. It’s critical that we lift up and support these efforts as well.