A dozen law enforcement officers dressed in camouflage and with weapons out stood together in the alley behind the grocery store in my neighborhood, waiting to do something.

It wasn’t ICE.

But a picture of the men posted Monday on the social media app Threads caused a small panic in Annapolis. The immigrant community has been on edge as raids aimed at purging them sweep the nation.

Then, ICE agents arrived at another grocery on Tuesday morning, in a neighborhood halfway across town.

“MARTES, 13 de enero de 2026, 11 a.m. Annapolis, Maryland. ICE CONFIRMADO,” an observer wrote on Facebook in Spanish and English.

“Tuesday, January 13, 2026, 11 a.m. CONFIRMED ICE. We have various reports of ICE detaining multiple people in multiple locations throughout this morning in Annapolis.”

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Parts of Annapolis have been waiting for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to change tactics here, bringing raids like those seen in places such as Portland and Minneapolis.

Volunteers were ready when things changed on Tuesday, posting to the Anne Arundel Rapid Response Network Facebook page

“We are a grassroots organization of neighbors who draw inspiration and guidance from our immigrant community,” a spokesperson for the group said. “We are committed to providing support, resources and civil rights education to, and with, our immigrant neighbors in Anne Arundel County.”

Annapolis is a small blue city, with thousands of Latino residents. Many are Salvadorans who moved decades ago to the United States and are under temporary protected status. They have jobs, friends and children in schools.

During President Donald Trump’s second-term purge of people born outside the U.S., ICE agents have been targeting Annapolis by ones and twos.

After each incident, emails go out, asking for a lawyer, for information, for help.

“[Carlos] was thrown into a holding cell somewhere in Baltimore after he reported to immigration authorities as required,” a friend wrote me last week. “I have been trying all day to locate him to send money so he can call his wife but NO ONE WILL TELL US WHERE HE IS !!!”

Now something else is happening.

“Stressful day in Annapolis as we received multiple sightings and arrest reports throughout the city,” restaurant owner Monica Alvarado wrote on Threads. “A turn in approach locally, as to date they have primarily been executing warrants, but today they were stopping cars and arresting drivers.”

There is no small risk in being a witness, in speaking up. Alvarado’s gotten death threats. Renee Good, a woman monitoring ICE actions in Minnesota, was shot to death by an agent.

Groups that help immigrants navigate language and culture barriers are keeping a low profile, trying not to draw attention to their communities. Officials in local government, powerless to stop the federal government, do what they can and weep that they can’t do more.

So the volunteer network stepped in, sharing video and details like a photo of a Chrysler minivan they believe agents were using Tuesday.

“It is critical at this moment for our neighbors to have accurate up-to-the-minute information so that they can work, live and feed their families without fear,” the spokesperson said. “This is not a political response. It is a community care and support response.”

There are other offers to help, to escort children of Spanish-speaking families to school. When Anne Arundel County Public Schools learned ICE was sweeping through Annapolis, principals met to discuss what they could do.

The vigilance echoes in county government, which set up a Family Protection Hotline at 410-222-0319 to connect those left behind with legal resources and information.

County Executive Steuart Pittman put the number of people detained at 7, and encouraged the community to donate to nonprofits helping families through the Family Protection Fund.

It echoes in Washington, where U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth joined other Democrats in signing onto articles of impeachment against Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem one day after the raids in Annapolis.

Local police officials are in the dark. They won’t help ICE, and they only knew the agency was in Glen Burnie on Christmas Eve because its agents shot someone.

“We don’t work with ICE,” Anne Arundel County Sheriff Everett Sesker said.

His agency delivers warrants from Maryland courts, not administrative warrants from a federal agency. Immigrants are not being held in county jails.

For every social media warning, other posts cheer the agents on with reminders of crimes committed by immigrants. Pittman’s statement generated more than 3,000 comments on Facebook — many of them full of hate.

“Haven’t you had enough of TWO women being murdered by illegals In just MD? Isn’t that scary?” Annya Isaienko Schwenk wrote Tuesday morning on a neighborhood Facebook forum.

There have been murders. In September, an undocumented immigrant living in Bowie was charged with killing DaCara Thompson, a 19-year-old from Lanham, and dumping her body near Annapolis.

There’s no sign that anyone picked up by ICE in Annapolis is involved in wrongdoing other than breaking immigration rules. It’s a civil offense. Yet supporters of ICE paint all immigrants with the violent crimes of a few.

“How do you think that makes them feel?” one immigrant activist asked. “How do you think it makes our children feel?”

It’s not clear who was taken. ICE isn’t answering questions.

Activists count the number of men grabbed off the street by waiting for families to call in, asking for help.

This moment of fear and loathing is leading us somewhere.

In Minnesota, it led to the death of Good, a 39-year-old mother of three. After a brief exchange on a snowy street, an agent shot her in the face as she began to drive instead of getting out of her parked SUV.

In Annapolis, it is drawing a line between those who believe in a nation of immigrants and those who forget where they came from.

The photo shared Monday was taken from a distance. The officers were there to arrest men suspected in a carjacking and robbery.

If you’re watching ICE in Annapolis, take the same precautions.

“Do not argue with an officer in the street,” said Sesker, who commanded police training in Prince George’s before being elected sheriff.

You’re within your First Amendment rights to record law enforcement agents. You can call them names, but antagonizing them can escalate to violence.

Use your phone, but don’t stick it in an agent’s face.

“You’re dealing with someone who has a gun, and you don’t have a gun,” Sesker said.

In the video of Good’s death, someone is shouting at the agents. The words could just as easily be heard in Annapolis.

“Shame! Shame! Shame!”