Charles Homans

So this is the Lynn Lake area of Minneapolis.

We're in South Minneapolis, and it's named after this intersection that we're standing at, actually, which is Lyndale Avenue.

and Lake Street.

It's kind of the place where sort of the recent waves of immigrants and settled refugees and the Minneapolis of the kind of white liberal urban culture intersect.

And those groups have been kind of have been brought together in an interesting way by this ice crack down in the city.

I mean, the thing that's different about Minneapolis compared to Chicago or Los Angeles or other cities that have been targets of this crackdown so far is that it's a very small city.

It doesn't have that many people in it.

And the number of federal agents that have been sent here is really quite huge.

And what I've been hearing just talking to people here is that, you know, in the last few weeks, people who are potential targets of these raids have really felt like they can't leave their homes at all.

And so that has kind of become a focus of the organizing of a lot of these local organizations and businesses, which are kind of gathering donations.

Sure.

So we're going to go to Smitten Kitten, which is a sex shop on Lindale here.

And it's been playing a very interesting role, kind of what's been happening here lately.

Okay.

Well, let's go inside.

That's what's in the store.

I'm curious what you think it says about sort of Minneapolis right now that a shop like this is kind of on the front lines of the community response to the situation.

What should we do?

Should I park on the other side of the road from him so that he doesn't feel that we're obstructing?

Well, the official Trump administration explanation is this fraud scandal that's been sort of building for a while that does implicate a number of members of the Somali community of Minneapolis.