Last winter, Juan Leon bought a tow truck to supplement his income from delivering building materials. His intention was modest: to “help pay for my daughter’s quinceañera, get stuff together for the house, have a little extra money.”

The timing was fortuitous. Days after Juan returned from Tennessee to Minnesota with the tow truck, he says, federal immigration agents converged on the Twin Cities for Operation Metro Surge. They arrested and detained residents by the thousands, regardless of legal status or criminal record.

Many of the detainees were pulled from their cars. “ICE, when they were picking them up, they would leave their vehicles running sometimes, windows wide open, windows busted out, smashed into the side of the barriers,” Juan says. “Sometimes they would T-bone them; they would pinch them in. Sometimes vehicles were left on and locked up.”

And now Juan had a tow truck. Continue reading Juan Leon