As immigration agents in the US continue a mass crackdown on illegal migrants in Minneapolis, Bermudians in the Midwestern city described how the operation has created a climate of fear among ordinary citizens.

“I wish I was back home,” Jan, a Bermudian with US citizenship, told The Royal Gazette, using only his first name and limiting his personal details to protect his identity.

The married father of two said he had avoided the protests convulsing the city as officers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security follow through on President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance campaign against unlawful aliens.

“You can just drive down the road and you’ll see people getting pulled over and taken away. Last week a father took his kids to the school bus and they snatched him,” he added.

He recalled one of his brother’s staff getting apprehended while taking out the trash from his home.

Heavily armed agents and the apparent aggression of the operations have antagonised many residents, particularly after two fatal shootings — most recently on Saturday — of citizens.

Jan said: “It makes me angry. They don’t care for human life.”

He said of Trump: “I think he wants people to react so he can do that Insurrection Act. He’s trying to rile people up.

“He’s crying about the peace prize and look what he is doing to the public.”

Jan, 38, has been coming to Minneapolis, Minnesota, since 2014. He met his wife there and the couple have a son, 9, and a 6-year-old daughter. He said they have just bought a house in a community about 25 minutes outside the city.

He said of ICE agents: “Two weeks ago, I got pulled over by them. That was an ugly feeling because of what I’ve been seeing on the news and streams I follow. They’re ripping anybody out of their cars for whatever reason.”

Jan said he was “100 per cent” American but still getting his documentation in order through his lawyer.

He suspected immigration officers stopped him while he was running his children to school because they checked his car’s licence plates and saw the name of his wife, a Latina, on the registration.

He recalled stopping at a gas station because his daughter wanted a snack and spotting a vehicle with Iowa plates behind him. As he headed on with his children, another vehicle cut him off at the front.

He was at pains to point out the agent who approached him was unmasked and “very professional”.

He added: “It’s some of them, not all of them. The bad apples.” He was questioned and released. Had he been detained — he said he did not yet possess a US passport — his family knew to contact his lawyer.

He said of his children: “They felt first-hand how it feels getting pulled over. I’d told them a couple of days before that incident to be strong and then this happened.”

Jan said he kept his distance from the flashpoints between protesters and officers.

“I’m staying far away from that. I have kids here that dearly love me. They don’t want to see me get caught up in all that drama.

“It’s safer to stay at home. They’re shooting people for having a phone. Even at the federal building, they’re blasting people with mace.”

The former charter fisherman, who is now 1,750 miles from home, added that he longed to put some distance between himself and the ugly climate in Minneapolis.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “The hate is real out here.”

He added: “At this point, I just want to go home. If I had the choice, I would go. I want to go home and go back fishing.”

Baron Barton, 36, a Bermudian with dual US nationality, said that as a Black man in a environment where people were being racially profiled he now carried his American passport when driving.

He also no longer brings his Bermudian identification.

The insurance claims specialist added: “I don’t carry that any more in case I get pulled over. There are different precautions you have to take.

“I try not to drive so much.”

Mr Barton said he and his girlfriend had recently bought an apartment not far from downtown.

“I personally haven’t interacted with ICE here,” he said. “If I hear of ICE somewhere, I go the other way.”

Two employees were hauled out of a Target outlet where he shops and the Costco where the couple buy groceries was raided.

He said the couple knew someone who had become caught up in an ICE operation while driving and ended up being pepper-sprayed and had their car windows broken.

“If you talk to someone here, if they haven’t had that interaction, they know someone who has. It really feels like being invaded by the Federal Government.”

Mr Barton said he was proud of the decency of Minnesotans.

“The thought of moving back to Bermuda does cross my mind — but after eight years I can tell you Minnesotans are some of the friendliest people ever.”

He said he shared their sense of injustice and the desire to protest but felt it better to keep a safe distance.

“You want to do what you can because what’s happening here is not right,” he said. “As a Black man, you definitely feel it.”

He added: “Nobody feels safer. We’re afraid of ICE. We’re not afraid of immigrants.”