Conor Wight joined WCCO after cultivating his skills as an award-winning investigative reporter in Syracuse, NY. As a newcomer to Minnesota, he's excited to explore this beautiful state and all that the Twin Cities have to offer.
A woman from Mexico tells WCCO that she hasn't left her St. Paul, Minnesota, apartment for the last month. She said it takes courage to even take out the trash.
"We immigrants only want to come to work, to help our families move forward, to support them. Like I said, we didn't want to come to leave our families," the woman said.
WCCO agreed not to share her name as she welcomed our crew inside on Sunday. She was receiving a grocery delivery from Bymore Supermercado, which has worked to get food and essential items to immigrants afraid to leave the house for more than two months. The woman said that she is undocumented, first arriving in Minnesota about two years ago in pursuit of a life that she said wasn't possible to find back home.
"I think we come more out of necessity, and most of us follow all the rules," she said.
White House border czar Tom Homan announced this past Thursday that Operation Metro Surge was coming to an end, adding that a smaller number of federal agents will stick around to help provide security in the field. He said that day-to-day operations will be transitioning back to the local field office, telling Face the Nation Sunday that about 1,000 agents have left Minnesota. The woman stuck in her apartment in St. Paul says she doesn't believe any of this is over.
Ramiro Hernandez, the owner of Bymore Supermercado, said that he feels the same way. He felt relieved when he first heard the announcement, but he doesn't know what it will take to fully believe that life can begin to return to normal for his neighbors. He said that the government has broken any existing trust that it had with people in the community.
"People that is afraid and they don't want to go outside for different reasons, we go to them," Hernandez said.
Hernandez said that he and his volunteers made more than 30 deliveries on Sunday alone, adding that some of the people staying home have the legal status to be in the United States. Still, he said that means little to people who have seen documented cases of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detaining American citizens during Operation Metro Surge.
Jeff and Charlotte Dische are part of Hernandez's team. The St. Paul couple said that they have completed about three delivery runs per week for the past month. They said that they didn't feel comfortable engaging in certain kinds of observation work at their age, but realized that the delivery operation was something they could accomplish.
"It's not the brave thing that those people are doing out on the streets, but it's significant. It's something we can do, and it's better than sitting around at home and, oh, you know, grinding your teeth and feeling helpless," Jeff Dische said.
For the woman whose world has become her apartment, she said that she missed the window to be able to apply for asylum. She dreams of one day becoming a teacher and finding a way to own a home.
"We are not criminals. Our only 'crime' is not being from the United States. But we are good people," she said.
Homan said that immigration operations will continue even as additional agents leave the state. A CBS News review of an internal Department of Homeland Security document shows that the vast majority of undocumented immigrants arrested by ICE have not been charged with or convicted of a violent crime. Less than 14% of immigrants arrested by ICE in 2025 had a violent criminal record and 40% had no criminal past at all.