For Minneapolis residents, the sight of federal immigration enforcement agents roaming through neighbourhoods and near their children's schools has become increasingly common.
Many have seen friends, colleagues and neighbours taken away – sometimes in broad daylight – by masked agents in unmarked vehicles.
“I have a three-year-old kid and I worry a lot about him seeing this, having to explain it, or just how traumatising that would be for kids to just have this happening around them,” said Justin Fleming, a research scientist and resident of north-eastern Minneapolis.
“We see ICE everywhere now, it's a definite, notable uptick,” he told The National, referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
ICE's Minnesota presence is under a spotlight after an agent killed Renee Nicole Good, 37, a mother of three, on Wednesday after a brief altercation as she was in her car on a frozen Minneapolis street.
Video appears to show her trying to drive away from an agent as he grabs the driver-side door of her car, before another official in front of the vehicle opens fire three times. Local leaders have said Ms Good was on the street to observe ICE operations.
It is not clear whether her car came into contact with the agent who opened fire, but the administration of President Donald Trump was quick to describe her as a “violent rioter” who tried to run over agents in an “act of domestic terrorism”.
Mr Trump blamed the “radical left” for sparking such incidents, saying agitators are threatening and assaulting agents “on a daily basis”.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has rejected the Trump administration's assertion that the agent fired in self-defence, saying video contradicted what he called the government's “garbage narrative.”
On Thursday morning, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at a federal building where an immigration court is housed, chanting “shame” and “murder” at armed and masked federal officers, some of whom used tear gas and pepper balls on protesters. Protests had taken place or were planned in other cities, including New York, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
Police in Portland, Oregon, another city that has previously been the focus of Mr Trump's ire, reported on Thursday that two people were in hospital after being shot by federal agents. An ABC News affiliate reported that those involved in the shooting were Customs and Border Protection agents and that the FBI was leading the investigation.
'Everyday Minnesotan'
Minnesota officials have said Ms Good was a regular resident and parent, and a very relatable one, who had stuffed animals in the glove box of her car. Her Instagram account said she was a poet, writer and guitar player, and her former husband told AP that Ms Good and her current partner had moved to Minneapolis last year from Kansas City, Missouri.
“Minnesotans feel very strongly that Renee Good is a representation of an everyday Minnesotan who cares deeply about her community and was doing the most innocent of acts and tasks, bringing your child to school,” said Hwa Jeong Kim, St Paul city council's vice president.
“Most folks see Renee, and I hate to boil it down to those titles, but as a wife, a partner, a mother – a very regular, non activist, non-obstructionist person, and I say that in a good way.”
Ms Kim called for the swift arrest of the ICE agent, but that seems unlikely as local and state authorities have been barred from investigating the federal case.
Dr Yohuru Williams, a history professor and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative in Minneapolis, said ICE actions were part of a deliberate effort by the administration to inflict “maximum cruelty on certain communities".
“Innocent lives are treated as collateral damage,” Dr Williams told The National. “After reviewing the video multiple times, it does not appear to me that the ICE agent’s use of force was justified.”
Mr Trump has made battling illegal immigration a major focus of his second term, posting cadres of federal agents to big cities across the country. Residents of many cities have taken to the streets to protest against it and film agents as they look for migrants.
Community organisations and neighbourhood social media groups have been circulating alerts to notify residents when agents are nearby.
Mr Fleming said he was not surprised by news of the shooting and described living under constant anxiety, compounded by the threat of gun violence in his Midwestern city of about 430,000 people.
Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that the shooting was a “tragedy of the making of the far left".
“They have radicalised a very small segment of the population, taught them that ICE agents are engaging in wide-scale violation of people's rights,” Mr Vance said.
He also said local and state authorities had no jurisdiction in the federal case. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said the case would be handled solely by the FBI. Mr Vance added that the agent involved was protected by “absolute immunity”.
“He was doing his job. The idea that Tim Walz and a bunch of radicals in Minneapolis are going to go after and make this guy’s life miserable because he was doing the job that he was asked to do is preposterous,” he added, referring to the state's Democratic Governor.
Dr Williams said Minneapolis residents would be right to be concerned about “a potential cover-up".
On Wednesday, the Trump administration said it was preparing to send up to 2,000 federal immigration officers to Minnesota. The state has drawn attention in recent months because of its large Somali-American community, which Republicans say is at the centre of fraud schemes in social services. Mr Trump has described the Somali-American community as “garbage” and accused them of stealing “billions of dollars”.
Even before the shooting, Minnesota officials had spoken out strongly against immigration raids in the state. After the shooting, Mr Walz announced he had put the state's National Guard on alert, telling Mr Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “you've done enough”.
Mr Frey had a more straightforward message. Using an expletive, he told ICE to "get out".
