Frozen exhales rise in the cold air outside Union Station as several dozen protesters chant: "Say it once, say it twice, we will not put up with ICE!"
The rally and march took place weeks after federal immigration agents in Minneapolis shot and killed poet Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7. Government agents shot and killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti on Jan. 24.
Among the crowd was Jennifer Degraff, a 62-year-old woman from Glen Carbon, bundled against the frigid temperatures while clutching a sign that read "Justice for Renee Nicole Good." Antonia, her adult daughter, stood beside her.
"We never thought it would happen here. It's here, and we have to take action, and it's not going to stop," said Jennifer Degraff. "It starts in Minneapolis. Where is it going to stop?"
Degraff's feelings of fear, sadness and "anger beyond belief" were echoed through the crowd at the rally, sentiments shared by educators, community leaders and businesses working closely with immigrant and Spanish-speaking communities in St. Louis.
A year into President Donald Trump's second term, the ripple effects of his expanded immigration enforcement are reshaping daily life far beyond the major cities where federal agents have carried out raids and fatal shootings.
In the St. Louis area, community members say fear has led families to stay home, students to miss school and businesses to quietly adapt, as residents brace for the possibility of large deployments of immigration agents, even in the absence of confirmed activity.
On any given day, Reddit threads and Facebook groups light up with unverified rumors of federal agent sightings or images of random vehicles feared to be undercover immigration officials.
"Unconfirmed or unverified sightings instill a level of fear in the community that is both traumatizing and redirects them from what the actual potential risk is," said Emily Stuart, a volunteer with the St. Louis-based Rapid Response Line. The coalition of community groups verifies activity by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and provides support if someone has been detained by immigration officials.
"People staying in their homes for the next three years is not a strategy," Stuart said. "They deserve a quality of life. They need to be able to work. Their children need to be able to go to school."
Verifying quickly spreading misinformation has challenged some of the hotline's volunteers, according to Sara Ruiz, executive director of the Ashrei Foundation, which supports the program. In addition, volunteers have had to navigate a decrease in the quality of information shared and harassment from people opposed to their work.
"It makes it significantly harder for our volunteers to support the individuals who are currently detained, the families who are actively surviving detention and deportation in our community," said Ruiz of unverified reporting. "It's hard psychological and emotional work to be both receiving information about ICE sightings, but also talking to family members who are facing deportation, family separation, detention and [...] a significant absence of control over their own destiny."
Advocates suggest taking several matters into account when reporting immigration enforcement activity, including response size and time of day.
A business sign
Ana Vazquez has seen the growing fear in the community while running Diana's Bakery on Cherokee Street. The south St. Louis street has been an economic hub for the city's Hispanic community for decades, and Vazquez's bakery has been there for nearly 20 years.
"They are afraid to leave their homes — to go shopping, to simply go to the doctor or to their children's schools — because of the fear that they might not return," she said in Spanish of her clients, both citizens and without legal status, as workers whisked around her, baking dozens of Mexican sweet breads and pastries. "What this president has been doing has been blatant — the way he's attacking immigrants with violence and weapons. [...] This man is doing everything possible to intimidate us."
The Trump administration has said that it intends to only go after immigrants without legal status who have committed severe crimes, but citizens of color and those pursuing legal pathways to citizenship have been swept up in the crackdown, as reported by NPR.
Vazquez said that people's fears about being targeted by federal immigration agents have kept people home and hurt her small business. Misinformation has fueled those anxieties.
"[People] have said that [federal immigration enforcement has] been here on Cherokee several times," she said, adding that she has never personally seen such reports bear out. St. Louis Public Radio has canvassed the street several times over the past year and has not seen federal immigration agents present.
But the bakery owner is taking action.
Vazquez put up a sign inside Diana's saying federal immigration agents do not have the authority to enter her business without a judicial warrant, a measure she said is to protect her staff and customers. Last month, the bakery posted on social media that it was taking payments over the phone and could deliver bread and pastries to customers' cars.
"I'm not doing this for business or to sell anything," she said in Spanish. "I'm doing it simply because I'm human — because I have children, and I feel deeply frustrated by everything that's happening."
The baker said she's waiting for the midterm elections with bated breath. "So we can decide who to vote for in the future," she said. "And do our research before deciding."
A school district on edge
Ritenour School District officials have also seen misinformation about immigration enforcement spreading in their north St. Louis County community. The district had a 5% drop in daily attendance for its Spanish-speaking and English-language learner population in January.
"This is absolutely fomenting fear," said Chris Kilbride, Ritenour's superintendent. "It's causing some students to stay home from school, to miss the education that they're entitled to, and that's the new obstacle that we've been dealing with over the course of the last couple of months, really coming to a head here in the month of January."
Ritenour is home to a growing population of Spanish-speaking and immigrant families. The district has seen its Hispanic student population steadily growing — about 7% in the past five years.
A school day can grind to a halt for 30 to 60 minutes at a time after a tip is called in, as school administrators work to figure out the next steps and answer students' questions.
"We're put in a reactive position where what we can do is respond to the social, emotional needs of our students," Kilbride said. "What we try to do here in the district … is to humanize every single child that comes to our school."
The district has been receiving an average of six calls per day about unverified immigration enforcement in north St. Louis County.
He said the Ritenour Co-Care Food Pantry, which serves 300 to 400 families per week, has seen a drop in customers, which he believed is due to immigration enforcement rumors.
"It's not because that [food insecurity] has decreased. It's because there's a level of fear," Kilbride said. "People are not wanting to get in their cars. People are not wanting to make their way through the community to the pantry."
Stuart, the hotline volunteer, said people are ending up in ICE detention largely through interactions with their municipal police departments — even if they don't have a formal 287(g) agreement, which delegates some immigration enforcement duties to local law enforcement.
Immigration lawyers working in the St. Louis region have told STLPR that the limited number of individuals being detained by federal immigration agents are taken into custody during scheduled check-ins.
Vanessa Henriquez-Pimblott, a Ritenour school board member and organizer with the Missouri Workers Center, said that the false reports are representative of people's fear but also their desire to help.
"It's also rooted in people wanting to take care of each other and protect each other," Henriquez-Pimblott said. "From my vantage point, it's going to take some serious community organizing to go beyond just the [tips] and into real structural changes that actually protect our communities in the long term."
Kilbride said the district has developed plans in case a student's parents or guardians are detained, but he would not provide details for security purposes. He said the primary focus would be to ensure the student had a safe place to stay, along with necessary food and care items.
Ritenour officials said that the best way to report any immigration enforcement-related tips is to its Safeline, which can be found on its website.
ICE in St. Louis
The Trump administration has not named St. Louis as a focus for large-scale immigration enforcement.
STLPR asked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if the agency plans to scale up immigration enforcement efforts in the St. Louis region, but did not hear back as of Thursday morning.
"We encourage the community to remain vigilant and to continue to keep their eyes out in support of the safety of their neighbors, but also understanding that a lot of this is happening through established channels, the way it's always happened," said Stuart, the hotline volunteer. "It's not a flashbang. It's not a big public event. Honestly, it's very mundane and administrative."
Despite St. Louis not being a named target of the federal immigration enforcement crackdown, several law enforcement entities have agreements with federal immigration enforcement.
The Missouri Highway Patrol — along with more than 30 state and local agencies — has recently signed or renewed formal 287(g) agreements with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In September, Gov. Mike Kehoe also dispatched the Missouri National Guard to support ICE by performing administrative and clerical duties.
Officials in St. Louis said they have distanced themselves from such efforts. Mitch McCoy, a spokesman for St. Louis police, said the department does not partner with federal immigration officials for operations.
St. Louis Sheriff's Office spokesperson John Gieseke said the office would not sign an agreement with ICE because the department doesn't enforce criminal law.
Mayor Cara Spencer told STLPR the city and its Office of New Americans regularly meet with immigrant organizations working with the community to discuss the current climate.
"I want you to hear from me personally that I care about your safety and your well-being, and we will do everything we can to protect you," said Spencer in a recorded video days following Pretti's killing. "St. Louis is strongest when we lead with empathy, courage, and community in moments of uncertainty. We choose to stand together."
Copyright 2026 St. Louis Public Radio