ROCHESTER — A week of ramped-up federal immigration enforcement activities has disrupted life as usual for Rochester businesses, families and schools.
Lawmakers and Rochester
residents began reporting an increase in observed federal immigration agents
in Rochester beginning Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026.
Most of the enforcement observed and recorded was conducted by Immigration Customs Enforcement agents, according to witnesses and video taken of operations.
The activity came shortly after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that as many as 2,000 federal agents and officers were being sent to Minnesota and specifically the Minneapolis area.
Reports of ICE activity in Rochester rose the day after Renee Good, who was observing ICE activity in south Minneapolis, was shot and killed in her car by an ICE agent Wednesday, Jan. 7. In response to the killing, Indivisible 507
held a vigil at Peace Plaza in Rochester.
Protests
around the U.S. were also held.
On Monday, Jan. 12, a private, in-person training for ICE observers was held at Christ United Methodist Church. The group Monarca Minnesota led the event and created the training, which was hosted by Garden Party Books but moved to the church because of a larger turnout than the bookstore could accommodate. Monarca trains people to be “upstanders” observers — people who respond to observe federal immigration enforcement activities in Minnesota through rapid-response networks.
Nearly 200 people attended that event.
The success of that event led to more training events, including a virtual one held Thursday, Jan. 15, and one organized by the Rochester office of Community Organizing Power and Action Latinos (COPAL) set for next Thursday, Jan. 22.
On Tuesday, Jan. 13, Rochester High School
students at Century, John Marshall and Mayo high schools staged walkouts
protesting the escalation in ICE activity in Rochester. Another protest is planned for 3 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 17, at the city-county Government Center. That event is organized by ISAIAH’s Muslim Coalition and Youth Community Connect.
In addition to protests and walkouts, Rochester businesses saw disruption as some restaurant kitchens were understaffed. Some restaurants closed for lunch or the entire day Monday and Tuesday. Restaurant owners, speaking on background, confirmed immigration activity had affected staffing. Restaurant owners would not confirm if that meant staff had been taken by immigration officials, but did say that many Hispanic staff members were afraid to drive to work. Three downtown Rochester restaurant owners confirmed, on the condition of anonymity, that they had been driving some of their kitchen workers to and from work.
Some businesses, saying they were invoking the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, posted signs at their entrances forbidding ICE agents from coming into the business to take anyone into custody unless they have a judicial warrant signed by a judge authorizing them to arrest someone.
A group of people visited Rochester’s Target stores Monday to speak with managers there and ask them to do the same. The group included volunteers from ISAIAH, Indivisible 507 and other Rochester social justice organizations. Olivia Bergen, who helped organize the effort, said that allowing ICE agents to pick up customers or Target employees jeopardizes their safety. She pointed to an incident in Richfield, Minnesota, in which two Target employees were taken out of a store by ICE agents. One, a teenager, was dropped at another store and allegedly thrown to the ground by agents and left by himself in a parking lot.
A sign on the door of a Rochester bunsiness Jan. 15, 2026.
John Molseed / Post Bulletin
“I think (Target) should be concerned about protecting their customers and protecting the safety of their own workers,” Bergen said.
The group was rebuffed at each Rochester stop.
David Perdomo, Southeast Minnesota lead organizer with Community Organizing Power and Action Latinos (COPAL), said as of midweek, his organization had confirmed that 14 of Hispanic origin had been taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. COPAL, along with the Immigrant Defense Network began collecting food and other essential items for households affected by ICE detentions or unwilling to risk leaving their homes.
Kim Sin, a Cambodian immigrant, began making videos in Khmer language to help Rochester Cambodians understand their rights. At least three East Asian immigrants —
two people from Cambodia — have been taken into custody by immigration officials,
Cambodian community members confirmed. One man taken into custody based on an arrest in 1996, family members said.
A group gathers to deliver a petition to management at Rochester’s southeast Target location Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, urging the company to be a “Fourth Amendment workplace.”
Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin
John Molseed joined the Post Bulletin in 2018. He covers arts, culture, entertainment, nature and other fun stories he’s surprised he gets paid to cover. When he’s not writing articles about Southeast Minnesota artists and musicians, he’s either picking banjo, brewing beer, biking or looking for other hobbies that begin with the letter “b.” Readers can reach John at 507-285-7713 or jmolseed@postbulletin.com.