On an evening in late January, Emily was driving through her Minneapolis neighborhood doing something that had become part of her routine in recent weeks: patrolling for ICE.

Emily, who NPR is only identifying by her first name because she fears retribution from the federal government, says she followed an ICE vehicle at a safe distance into a parking lot. “And then someone leaned out of the passenger side of that SUV and took a picture of me and my car,” she says.

Emily says she decided to leave at that point, but the SUV made a sudden U-turn and barreled towards her, braking next to her driver’s side window. A female agent wearing a gaiter-style mask rolled down the window, leaned out — and addressed Emily by name.