Antonio Olivo | St. Michael, MN | July 21

Chicago Tribune - Breaking the silence in a middle-class enclave of tract homes and cul-de-sacs, federal immigration agents recently swooped in and grabbed Sara Munoz, carting away the illegal Mexican immigrant before her five crying U.S.-born children.

In nearby Minneapolis, community activist Juana Reyes was nabbed for her illegal status as she stepped out of her car, spurring a rapidly transforming neighborhood into action on behalf of her 9-year-old daughter, an American citizen.

And, 110 miles south in Austin, Minn., a divided community seethes after several recent deportation arrests. Latin American immigrants are afraid to open their doors, while longtime residents press the mayor to do more to stop the changes in a former union town built around the global headquarters of the Hormel Foods meatpacking operation.

Similar scenes nationwide are part of a ramping-up of federal arrests of illegal immigrants, activity that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently warned is "gonna get ugly" after immigration legislation failed in Washington last month.

Arrests from workplace raids have skyrocketed from about 845 in 2004 to nearly 4,000 already this year, federal records show. Arrests of illegal immigrants who have ignored court orders to leave the country have doubled since last year to a rate of about 685 per week.

"We're gonna do more enforcement actions," Chertoff said during a recent Chicago Tribune editorial board meeting where he lamented Congress' failure to move immigration reform forward and predicted extensive grief. "And, if they have kids at home, even if we make arrangements with social services to take care of the kids, the kids are gonna be scared because Mommy or Daddy is not coming home that day."

Though the arrests will be "as humane as possible," Chertoff said, "We do have to get control over this general problem of illegal immigration."

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"We have a tsunami coming at us in terms of enforcement measures," said Angela Kelly, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant advocacy group in Washington. "That's pretty terrifying in terms of what it means for the 12 million undocumented immigrants and their families."