Trump’s mass deportation plan has broken the quiet of small US towns: ‘We have to take care of each other’

Immigration agents have conducted enforcement operations across rural western Wisconsin, arresting dozens of undocumented immigrants in politically conservative towns during the Trump administration's mass deportation push. The sweeps have targeted workers at businesses including a Mexican restaurant that has remained closed since February raids, as well as an Ecuadorian market that has reopened with heightened security measures. These operations mark a shift in enforcement geography — deportations have historically concentrated in urban areas, but now small towns dependent on immigrant labor are experiencing direct federal action. Local residents in these communities are grappling with economic disruption and social fracture as essential workers disappear from local restaurants, farms, and markets. The raids underscore the broad reach of the administration's deportation agenda and its reverberating effects on rural economies and social cohesion.