As US raids spread, a grassroots pantry delivers food, medicine and basics to immigrant families too afraid to leave home

Last summer, months before Memphis became overrun with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, local activists and Latino leaders came together to figure out how to best meet their community’s needs. The Trump administration’s expansion of ICE was still nascent; the agency had conducted raids in Los Angeles, but hadn’t yet begun its operations in Chicago or Minneapolis.

Amber Hampton and another member of Indivisible Memphis, a volunteer-run chapter of the nationwide civil rights organization, attended the meeting. Though neither of them spoke much Spanish, and many of those gathered from the Latino community spoke little English, they understood each other, Hampton told the Guardian.

“There was a communication barrier, but there was not a feeling barrier,” she said. “You could see the emotion and feel the pain and fear in that room without even having to understand the words that were being spoken.” Some people were afraid to leave their homes, and when ICE began its foray into Memphis months later, some parents kept their children home from school.