Luxembourgers in Minneapolis tell of horrors of ICE crackdown

American Luxembourger Rebecca Shamblin lives in a western suburb of Minneapolis that has been at the centre of global headlines for weeks, for increasingly violent and sometimes deadly raids and arrests by federal ICE agents.

There has been a huge surge of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in the city over the last few months, leading to outcries of seemingly arbitrary arrests of citizens. ICE agents shot dead 37-year-old US citizen Renee Good at the start of January, provoking a global outcry.

“We’re all so scatterbrained because you can’t focus, I can’t read, I can’t even sit down and watch a movie because I’m constantly checking to see what’s happened now,” 44-year-old Shamblin told the Luxembourg Times. “I think everyone’s in danger, ultimately, but it’s my friends who are people of colour who are really in danger right now.”

Shamblin has two daughters and works full-time for Luxembourg Legacy, a company that helps US citizens claim their Luxembourgish citizenship. She lives about a 20-minute drive from downtown Minneapolis where major protests against the actions of the federal agents have been taking place.

“But ICE is picking people up at stores in my neighbourhood, in my community less than a mile away,” she said, describing the atmosphere where she lives as “stressed and scared”.

“Sometimes you feel like you need to look away, but then you feel obligated to watch because we need to watch it and acknowledge what is happening,” she added.

Although she has never personally encountered any ICE agents, she said that it is on her mind every time she goes out and her community is filled with stories of people affected by the events.

Just recently a friend of hers was picking up her child from creche. At the same daycare centre there was a three-year-old girl whose parents never came to pick her up – they had been taken by ICE. The local doctor’s surgery near her will lose an Indian staff member.

“She doesn’t feel safe coming to work anymore […] she’s from India, she’s got brown skin and that puts a target on her,” said Shamblin, who has been attending local protests near her house with her daughters – Bellatrix, 12 and Aurora, 9.

CBS News reported earlier this month that as of 15 January 2026 the number of people in ICE custody was around 73,000. The fact-checking Poynter Institute reported on 23 January that only 52% of detainees had either criminal convictions or pending criminal charges as of 7 January.

On 24 January the federal crackdown sparked further national and international outrage when agents shot a 37-year-old intensive care nurse. Officers killed Alex Pretti during a protest against the ICE crackdown.

“My first thought was ‘that’s an execution’,” said Shamblin.

As Shamblin followed the news from her home, Kevin Wick, who has dual US-Luxembourg citizenship, felt the incident sorely. He is in a band that plays every Sunday in a bar on the same road that Pretti was killed.

“I can’t say that I’ve ever met Renee Good or Alex Pretti, but they’re the people I see in the audience every week,” he said. “It’s awful, we feel that they’re no different than us.”

“I don’t expect to go this week without another death,” Wick added, describing Pretti’s death as “awful” and “heartbreaking”.

The raids and violence have led to a change in atmosphere in the city, and people are afraid.

Another US-Luxembourger – who wished to remain anonymous for fear of his safety – recently went shopping near the spot where Good was killed. He said shops were virtually empty, with only one or two cash registers open, and only about five customers.

“It’s like a ghost town, post-apocalyptic or zombie invasion, where there are only two people around and nothing else,” he said. “It’s strange.”

He too, also knows of people detained by the federal agents – cleaners from his building that have been arrested and taken to Texas. “People are afraid to go to work because they can be arrested when they are outside,” he said.

Wick, who describes himself as a “6ft tall, white man” said even he doesn’t feel safe, such is the nature of the raids, protests and atmosphere in the city.

When he sees ICE agents it conjures feelings of anger and frustration and it’s “obviously designed to intimidate us”, he said.

“I was at a party this weekend and multiple people were just crying, and we all knew why, and it’s surreal,” said Shamblin.

For Wick, the only way forward is to keep monitoring the situation and holding the agents and authorities to account. “I would never break any law, but I think it is our duty to video what they’re doing and document it,” he said. “This is happening here to our state, our neighbours, our friends and family, our community.”

“Because of that, we feel a responsibility to stay and support peaceful resistance for as long as we possibly can,” Wick added.