Sawt Falasteen - Deportation raids drive Minneapolis immigrant family into hiding

The curtains in this Mexican family's home stay closed all day, and the door is braced with a metal bar to keep it from being forced open.

For more than a decade they've lived in this Midwestern city, where two US citizens were shot and killed this month by federal immigration agents, and US President Donald Trump's second term has turned their American dream into a nightmare.

"It's inhuman to live like this, a prisoner in your own home," Ana told AFP using a pseudonym, as do her husband and son.

The 47-year-old mother has four children. Luis stays shut in with her because he was born in Mexico. The other three are native-born Americans, but she's worried sick every time they leave the house.

"I'm always afraid that even though they're citizens, they won't be respected and that they could be taken away just because of the color of their skin," she said, trembling.

The children know to text before they come home, or else the door won't open when they knock.

At 15, Luis longs to come and go as his brothers and sister do and dreams of walking to the fast-food spot "right down the street -- when things get better."

"Right now it's literally so close, but so far."

- 'Trump swindled us' -

Once his online classes are over, Luis zones out playing a first-person shooter game called "Half Life," often for five hours a day.

"It's the only thing that makes me forget what's going on," he murmured.

His father Carlos seethes at their current ordeal.

He works installing granite countertops, and has paid nearly $11,000 in legal fees for his family's visa applications, but the process has dragged on for nearly three years.

He and Ana both have work permits. But the armed, masked agents the Trump administration has deployed into this city don't care about that document, which no longer protects against arrest or deportation.

"They give you a work permit, but it doesn't allow you to stay in this country legally. How is that possible?" Carlos asked.

"When we realized Trump had removed the protection (of the work permit) against deportation, we felt as if he swindled us," the 43-year-old added.

"I don't think we deserve this. We haven't done anything wrong. We are not criminals."

There are widespread fears of mistreatment amid the militarized raids favored by the two federal agencies carrying out Trump's hardline policies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

In major Democratic strongholds of Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Chicago, teams of masked agents have stepped up street sweeps, targeting working people at bus stops and hardware stores.

Carlos said things were different during Trump's first term, and he didn't feel the need to lock himself in because operations were more targeted.

- 'Metro Surge' -

Two men Carlos knew were deported during Trump's first term.

"One was involved in drug trafficking, the other beat his wife," he said.

As "Operation Metro Surge" continues in Minneapolis, questions swirl around how many innocent people are swept up in raids.

In Los Angeles, during a surge in operations last summer, statistics showed that more than half of the immigrants detained in sweeps had no criminal record.

Typically, between Carlos's work and odd jobs Ana takes as a cook or cashier, the couple typically brings in $6,000 a month.

But since December, they've had no income.

To pay their $2,200 rent in January, they borrowed $1,500 from a friend.

They don't know how they'll manage next month, but they're praying that the federal agents hunting immigrants in Minnesota get sent elsewhere in the country.

Doubt creeps in.

"What if it never stops?" Carlos asked. "The president has three years to go, three years is a long time."

Ana admitted she sometimes imagines herself back in Mexico, but "the only thing keeping me here are my children's dreams."

G.AbuHamad--SF-PST