Twin Cities mobile home parks feel the pain of immigration enforcement, often in isolation [View all]

MPR, 2/21/26
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/02/21/twin-cities-mobile-home-parks-struggle-amid-immigration-enforcement-and-ice-raids

Sahan Journal visited six mobile home parks in Apple Valley, Burnsville, Maplewood, Little Canada and Inver Grove Heights this week, and spoke with several residents about federal enforcement activity. Most of the parks’ streets were empty, and many homes had their blinds closed. Children were often the only people seen outside, and only while walking home from school bus stops.

. . .

Federal agents often park at nearby gas stations or behind local businesses to stay out of view from neighbors, according to several residents and activists who spoke to Sahan Journal. Many mobile home parks are also located on the outskirts of suburban cities along highways or busy roads, reducing their visibility to other residents.

Federal agents are typically seen parked for long hours at mobile home parks waiting to stop residents, according to several residents. Federal agents have been reported at mobile home parks around midnight and in the early morning between 5 a.m. to 8 a.m., presumably waiting to run into parents accompanying their children to school bus stops.

“Just camping out at the bus stops,” John Carey, a resident of the Arbor Vista mobile home park in Burnsville, said of the federal agents.

'In the past few days, agents have been spotted driving around or parked for hours outside several mobile home park offices. Some residents said they’ve seen drones surveilling their parks nearly every day, and suspect that federal agents are watching them.