By Rich Larson, KYMN News
The Northfield Police Department is facing heightened tension as federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations continue across Minnesota, creating uncertainty for local law enforcement and the community, and making a difficult job – even in a town like Northfield – even harder.
Northfield Chief of Police Jeff Schroepfer described the situation as a “daily battle.” He has had to wrestle with misinformation, rumors, and calming a long line of nervous citizens, while also trying to maintain an idea of what the federal agents are doing or planning within his jurisdiction. He noted that ICE’s mission seems to have shifted from targeted arrests of violent offenders to what appears to be broader, less transparent enforcement. Initially, he said, federal agents communicated with local departments about their actions, but that cooperation has largely disappeared.
“When this started, they would come in and arrest violent offenders, grab them, go, and then they would call me and I would ask, ‘What was the arrest for?’ I would turn around and say, ‘Hey, this person was a child molester’ for instance. And it was one of those things where we thought, ‘All right, people are good with that.’ Now we have no idea. I think it’s getting more random, if you want to call it that. Initially, it was that targeted list of people that they were after, and now we don’t know.”
Schroepfer has said in the past that the Northfield Police Department does not have the responsibility of enforcing federal immigration law, and that has not changed. But while his department has no role in immigration enforcement, federal actions, he said, inevitably impact local officers.
“Our hands are tied when this enforcement is happening. We can’t stop it. What’s very difficult for us is that the public looks at us and says, ’Hey, we look at you as our public safety, as our safety of a community, and we call you to stop things that we see that shouldn’t be happening.’ So when we have to turn around and say we have no authority to stop that – I understand – that’s difficult for the citizens to hear, but it’s also difficult for us because we’re in this terrible situation. We’re stuck in the middle.”
The uncertainty has fueled anxiety among officers and residents alike. Schroepfer emphasized that Northfield police remain committed to protecting the community while maintaining trust and transparency—values he fears could erode amid federal operations. In the years since the murder of George Floyd, he said, it took a significant amount of time and work for police across the country to restore the public’s trust. The actions of Federal ICE Agents, he believes, has eroded, and maybe even erased that work. While he, of course, supports the legitimate and necessary work of federal agents, he is frustrated by a group that he sees having a lack of leadership and training, but an extremely high public profile, affecting the ability of law enforcement to be able to do their job.
“We lost a lot of [public] trust after the events of George Floyd. We were just getting back to a point of rebuilding and regaining trust and rebuilding those relationships, and now here we are again, dealing with something that’s completely out of our control. We have nothing to do with it, and we’re just getting slapped back down again and now we to restart that whole rebuilding process.”
Despite the challenges, Schroepfer urged residents to work with local officers during this period.
“Please understand how much our hands are tied on this whole thing,” he said. “If we do have an event happen in town that draws a crowd, please work with us.”
Rich Larson is the owner and General Manager of KYMN Radio. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
