The TAKEN HERE project began on a winter afternoon in St. Paul, Minnesota.

My name is Andrea.

What happened next is why TAKEN HERE exists.

I turned onto my block with my dog, Kiwi, and walked straight into them. Six federal agents from ICE — Immigration and Customs Enforcement — dressed in tactical gear, rifles slung across their chests.

For a moment, I thought I had turned onto the wrong street. Then Kiwi pulled toward our front steps, and I realized: this wasn’t happening somewhere else.

This was happening here.

Then I saw him.

His name was Andrés.

Andrés was delivering medication to a neighbor when he was pulled over and detained in broad daylight while neighbors watched from sidewalks and windows.

When I asked an agent why he was being detained, I was told it was because he was from Colombia.

I didn’t know it yet, but he had a valid work permit, a driver’s license, and a Social Security number, and no criminal record. He had never missed an ICE check-in — In fact, he had reported just three days earlier.

Andrés had done everything right.

When they drove him away, his car remained in front of my house, the keys still sitting on the front seat.

In that moment, I didn’t know his name. I didn’t know where he lived. I didn’t know if anyone knew what had happened to him.

Time seemed to stop.

In the days and weeks that followed, a different story began to unfold.

People across neighborhoods, cities, and state lines reached toward a family they had never met.

Meals were delivered. Donations were shared. Doors opened. People showed up for one another in ways that were both quiet and extraordinary.

For months afterward, a handmade sign remained in my window — a small reminder that something had happened on my street, and that the people, families, and communities forever changed by immigration enforcement should never disappear from our collective memory.

Over time, that simple act of witness grew into this project.

A marker.

A public act.

A refusal to forget.

10% percent of net proceeds supports the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota and its work providing legal services to immigrants.

The story behind TAKEN HERE project is also the subject of a forthcoming book.

—Andrea DeGaetano, Founder, TAKEN HERE