Some Minneapolis donors have moved on. The immigrants waiting for help haven’t : NPR

Tania Fischer and Carissa Coudray, volunteers with the Juntos Podemos mutual aid group, carry boxes of food into A&A Barber Studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 24. Juntos Podemos continues to distribute food and other donations to families as they recover from Operation Metro Surge.

Tim Evans for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Tim Evans for NPR

MINNEAPOLIS — On a Thursday evening in late April, dozens of people gathered at a local brewery in south Minneapolis. The Cha Cha Slide resonates through the speakers.

Between sips of craft beer, customers wander around a silent auction hosted by Juntos Podemos, a volunteer support group that helps immigrants with groceries and rent.

Anaí Tepozteco, co-founder of the group, mingles and occasionally looks at the handmade donation tracker.

“Our goal is $20,000 – we’re currently halfway there,” she says.

It’s an important evening. His group saw a sharp decline in donations since Operation Metro Surge ended in February and thousands of masked federal immigration agents left Minneapolis after arresting more than 3,000 immigrants and upending parts of the city. Again and again, officers, protesters and officers. Two American citizens were shot dead there by federal agents.

Masked ICE, Customs, and Border Protection agents no longer remove immigrants from their cars and homes. Community members no longer wait on street corners, ready to whistle to alert neighbors of ICE’s presence. But immigrants here still need support.

“We want to continue to help families with groceries, but also families who are behind with rent,” says Tepozteco.

Guests mingle on a patio during a mutual aid fundraiser hosted by Juntos Podemos at Arbiter Brewing Co. in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 23. The event raised approximately $15,000 to support community members who continue to be impacted by federal immigration enforcement as a result of Operation Metro Surge.

Tim Evans for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Tim Evans for NPR

Anaí Tepozteco, co-founder of the Juntos Podemos mutual aid group, attends a fundraiser hosted by the organization at Arbiter Brewing Co.. The group has raised $15,000 of its $20,000 goal.

Tim Evans for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Tim Evans for NPR

At the end of the evening, Juntos Podemos raised $15,000, about $5,000 short of its fundraising goal.

Since Operation Metro Surge ended in February, donations to volunteer aid groups have plummeted. The number of volunteers has also decreased.

Despite the ongoing needs of the community, people seem to have moved on.

Many immigrants who spoke to NPR said they stopped working during Operation Metro Surge and were still trying to recover economically. Many reported accumulating debt and worrying about not being able to pay their rent on time.

Paola, an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador who asked NPR to identify her only by her first name because of her immigration status, told NPR she was worried.

“Without a salary, I don’t know how I’m going to make my rent and pay my bills,” she says.

Paola, an Ecuadorian immigrant whose husband was deported in August 2025, hid for two months during Operation Metro Surge. During this wave, Paola lost a large part of her income and fell behind in repaying her debts.

Tim Evans for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Tim Evans for NPR

According to HOME Line, a nonprofit tenant advocacy organization in Minnesota, the eviction requests were filed in April in Minneapolis. increased by 26% compared to April last year.

Minneapolis resident Sulia Altenberg co-founded her neighborhood’s rent relief effort and says she worries they won’t be able to help enough people anymore.

“The other day I got like $8 overnight, and I was like, ‘You’re kidding!'” she said. “It’s so sad.”

Altenberg says there were some days in February and March when his group received up to $10,000 in donations from community members. They were able to help more than 230 households pay their rent.

Sulia Altenberg helped raise funds for rent relief for more than 60 households in Minneapolis’ Powderhorn neighborhood.

Tim Evans for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Tim Evans for NPR

Altenberg holds the backpack she used to distribute rental assistance funds to neighbors affected by Operation Metro Surge.

Tim Evans for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Tim Evans for NPR

In April, the group received $300,000 in donations from two local communities foundations, enough money to pay the rent for more than 60 households.

“It’s all gone,” Altenberg said. “Literally, the bank account is empty.”

She wonders what will happen next, with less money and fewer volunteers.

“There’s just no way to spread the load after people continue to come down,” she said. “People talk about it saying, ‘Oh, we’re going to bring new people here,’ and they’re like, where are they?

This frustration – and this pressure – is also felt by Alexandria Guzman Gomez. She started a a separate rent reduction effort in Minneapolis in January that helped pay more than $1.5 million in rent.

She said community members were exhausted.

“They don’t have time…and they don’t have money anymore either,” she said.

Alexandria Guzman Gomez, a local mutual aid organizer who helped raise more than $1.5 million in rental assistance for residents of Minneapolis’ Phillips neighborhood.

Tim Evans for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Tim Evans for NPR

Food and gas prices have increased. Since the start of the war in Iran, the price of gasoline has exceeded $4 a gallon here. A few months ago, it was less than $3.

“So these little changes and these groceries are more expensive and things are more expensive…And people just don’t have money anymore,” Gomez said.

People continue to help their neighbors directly, but it’s not enough, she said, and donors and volunteers have jobs and lives to return to.

Gomez herself will begin graduate school in the fall to study social work.

“I was actually in the middle of submitting my graduate school application in mid-January when the city was falling apart,” she said.

She says her volunteer time will likely end. She hopes others will take over.

“There is still a huge need for relief and support in the Twin Cities,” she said.

This story was supported by the nonprofit journalism organization The Draft report on economic difficulties.