Isabella Merriweather: ‘It’s made everyone very uneasy.’
Isabella Merriweather Ampuero is a sophomore studying food science at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.
“Honestly, I’m very fortunate. I never really had any encounters with ICE at all. I only ever saw an ICE officer once driving on the highway, but luckily, somehow, I’ve managed to avoid everything going on. I mean, there’s still the impact of being scared to walk around campus because there’s so much happening on campus. But I made small adjustments; I think for a while I carried my passport on me at all times, and I have an ICE whistle I keep on my keychain now. But luckily, I never had any run-ins with any ICE officers or had any experiences where I felt like I was in danger.
“I think it did impact the atmosphere a bit. I think people — because everything was happening when the semester was just starting up — there was a sense that people didn’t want to be in person in classes, and it felt kind of uneasy. I’m taking a Spanish class, and my professor is not from the U.S.; she’s from South America, and so she has been really stressed and worried because she also has a baby on the way. So we’ve actually been online this entire semester. We’re just going back in person this upcoming week, just because we wanted to be sure that everything was going to be OK.
“It’s made everyone very uneasy, but another way to look at it is, I think you see online how the community is coming together, and everyone’s being very supportive of their neighbors. My mom, she’s Hispanic, she’s from Peru, and so many of her neighbors and coworkers reached out and said, ‘If you need any groceries or anything, I’m more than happy to go out and get them for you.’ So, it was terrible circumstances, but it was very nice to see everyone coming together and supporting each other.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview by Isabelle Curry
