Family says ICE agents faked car trouble to lure man out of home
By Conor Wight
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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — On the same day that federal officials announced the end of Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, a nightmare began for a family in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights.
Early Thursday afternoon, a security camera captured Jesus Flores leaving his home to help people on the street suffering from apparent car trouble.
Moments later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarmed his driveway.
“[They] tricked him into coming outside,” said Flores’ son, Miguel.
Miguel and his mother, Dionicia, are heartbroken. Dionicia said that her husband is a lifeline for their six children; two of them have autism and require special care.
She said that the family provider was whisked away to El Paso, Texas — likely in violation of a federal judge’s order — within 48 hours of his detainment.
Flores is a mechanic, Miguel explained, who often takes odd jobs for people who know how to get hold of him. Flores’ family believes that the two people caught on a neighbor’s security camera checking underneath their hood in front of the Flores household are ICE agents themselves, luring Flores outside in order to detain him.
The video shows that as he begins examining the vehicle, two other cars fly in and come to a screeching halt, blocking the street on both sides. Flores appears to try to run back inside before multiple agents apprehend him. As they leave, the original car and the people feigning mechanical difficulties leave with them.
It’s incidents like this that have left some skeptical about the true extent to which people can let their guard down. Homan said that a “footprint” of federal officers will remain as operations transition back to the typical field office structure and to provide security for ICE agents in the field. He also emphasized that immigration enforcement will continue even as he said thousands of agents would begin leaving the metro.
Flores had spent recent weeks hunkering down at home, trying to avoid being swept up. His family said that he is undocumented and was deported once before about 16 years ago, leaving them with little hope that he will return home to Minnesota this time.
“My dad’s a hard-working individual,” Miguel said. “He came here to give us a better life. He has done that.”
WCCO reached out to ICE to request information about Flores and the apparent ruse that led to his detainment. As of Sunday afternoon, the agency has not responded.
Also on Thursday, Edward Lopez Mendez said that ICE pulled him over in Savage, Minnesota. In a video he captured from the driver seat, a federal officer tells him “maybe the operation stops, immigration does not stop.”
“They said they were looking for criminals. We’re not criminals,” Mendez told WCCO.
According to Mendez, he and a friend were leaving a property in Savage when ICE stopped them. Mendez, currently waiting for the next steps in an asylum-seeking process that he began in 2019, said that the ICE agents told him they were looking for someone at a specific address. Mendez said that the address did not match the house. After looking him up in their system, the agents let him go.
Mendez said he doesn’t believe the surge has really ended.
“[Homan’s announcement] doesn’t mean anything,” Mendez said.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help support the Flores family.
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