Breaking The ICE
Thank God for those who hold communities together while MAGA tears them apart.
In January 2026, federal agents and local sheriffs arrived at El Potro Mexican Restaurant in Brainerd and arrested five workers they accused of being in the country illegally.
The news reports said they were “arrested without incident.”
As if taking people away from their families, their employers, and their community doesn’t qualify as an incident.
That story passed through my social media feed and angered me. But it was a long line of angering incidents, coming with such regularity that rage is basically the wallpaper of my life.
I wasn’t thinking about it when I made it to Brainerd this past Saturday. I was there to find photos and the place was a gold mine. I got in my zone, paying attention to anything else. Composing and framing and focusing and clicking, filling my SD card.
It’s always a good haul until in places like Brainerd my peace is broken because people in public are on edge. There is suspicion everywhere.
In Foley, I was followed by cops because a white woman called them and told them a Black guy was taking pictures of kids. I was photographing a barbershop. Some kids walked through my frame. I went about my business, until i was pulled over by police officers.
Other incidents. A guy on a bike who jumped off and started yelling. A man who told me I had to delete photos of his car. (By law, I don’t.) Workers who come out to ask what I’m doing, who I’m working for, how I’ll use the photos.
Restaurants are especially good for this type of scrutiny.
In Brainerd, I saw a Mexican restaurant with a cool exterior. When I got closer I saw a note on the door that made me think the place was closed. I got a couple of shots and moved on.
While I was leaving, a guy came out and asked if I was okay. He had a look. Fight or flight.
It got friendly quickly because I know how to disarm people with a few words.
It turns out he wanted to be sure I wasn’t ICE. And then it clicked. This was the restaurant that was raided by the feds. They’ve only been reopened for two weeks. I decided on the spot I needed to have lunch there.
It was friendly inside. Smiling staff, very personable, attentive. It didn’t look like the scene of a hate crime. The place targeted by 71 million voters who live on bloodlust, avarice, and Mountain Dew. Four people now in Mexico ripped from their lives and one in Ecuador. Because elections matter.
I finished lunch, paid my bill, tipped well, and left.
On my way back to resume photographing, a woman with a tight crew cut and piercings came out to ask why I was taking pictures. There was vigilance in her voice.
I told her how I use the photos and things de-escalated quickly. She wanted me to know that these people, the workers and the owner, were “our family.” She was emphatic about it. This community rallied around their people. We made small talk, traded notes on the horrible state of American politics, and then connected on social media.
It’s inconvenient to encounter so many people who interrupt my flow. But I’m on their turf, so technically, I’m interrupting their flow.
I know I should respect the guy who is willing to pour out into the street when he sees someone who might be ICE. And the woman who is willing to be assertive in defense of the marginalized members of her community.
If everyone took seriously the need for good people to put themselves between the vulnerable and the evil people who wish to do them harm, we might not be governed by the swamp creatures who run the world now.
All of these experiences are stories. Stories become lessons. I’m gaining insights into people at a quickening pace and I love it.
Yes, I see evidence of people who would rather make things harder for others, who act with spite and wish for power to hurt people for sport.
Conversely, there are people who come out of a restaurant to follow the suspicious photographer, because if those of us with privilege don’t use it in defense of people targeted by hate, then what is it good for?
[Leica SL2 / Brainerd, MN.]
Amen, amen, and amen. Needed this today. See it in your photos, hear it in your words. Reminders about us as humans that monsters never will appreciate. Great stuff and hope you and your family and others are as well as possible.
Even in MN, where we've read a lot and lived a lot over the past few months, these lines hit me with a fresh wave of feeling: "Yes, I see evidence of people who would rather make things harder for others, who act with spite and wish for power to hurt people for sport.
Conversely, there are people who come out of a restaurant to follow the suspicious photographer, because if those of us with privilege don’t use it in defense of people targeted by hate, then what is it good for?"
This post was a beautiful, merciful bit of writing. Thank you.