Some Minneapolis donors have moved on. The immigrants waiting for help haven't

Tania Fischer and Carissa Coudray, volunteers with the mutual aid group Juntos Podemos, carry boxes of food into A & A Barber Studio in Minneapolis, Minn., 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 recent Thursday evening in late April, dozens of people hang out at a local brewery in south Minneapolis. The Cha Cha Slide blasts through the speakers. In between sips of craft beer, patrons walk around a silent auction put on by Juntos Podemos, a volunteer mutual aid group that helps immigrants with groceries and rent. Anaí Tepozteco, a co-founder of the group, mingles and every now and then looks at the handmade donation tracker. "Our goal is $20,000 — right now we are halfway there," she says. It's an important night. Her group has seen a sharp drop 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 turning parts of the city upside down. Over and over, agents and protesters and agents. Two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by federal agents there. Masked ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents are no longer dragging immigrants out of their cars and homes. Community members are no longer waiting on street corners, ready to blow their whistles to alert neighbors of ICE's presence. …