MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 24 (Reuters) - When immigration agents began aggressive operations in Minneapolis last month, Kowsar Mohamed started knocking on doors, fielding late-night calls and mobilizing other Somali Americans into an ad-hoc response team. Many feared they were being singled out, a worry that revived memories of the state surveillance and arbitrary authority they thought they had left behind when they resettled in the United States.
More than 100 volunteers now patrol south Minneapolis, distribute "Know Your Rights" guides and escort frightened elders — part of a sweeping grassroots effort to counter what many describe as constitutionally suspect raids that are destabilizing Minnesota’s roughly 80,000‑strong Somali community, one of the country’s largest refugee populations.
