When ICE Came, This Minnesota Restaurant Stepped Up

El Burrito Mercado has been a bedrock of West Side community in St. Paul for nearly 50 years. It’s changed a lot over that time, evolving from a small grocery store into a restaurant, deli, bakery, and so much more. Now, it’s had to change again, as thousands of federal immigration agents have descended on this Twin Cities neighborhood over the past few months. Milissa Silva, the co-owner and CEO of El Burrito Mercado, tells us the story of how her immigrant parents’ business became a community hub, and how she and her staff have increased security and set up a food delivery operation for people afraid to leave their homes. Check out El Burrito Mercado’s website and Instagram for ways to help the West Side community in St. Paul. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Kameel Stanley, Jared O'Connell, and India Rice. Production help in this episode by Kyle Shiely. Right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful . Get all your favorite podcasts, more than 200 ad-free music channels curated by genre and era, and live sports coverage with the SiriusXM app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You can listen to When ICE Came, This Minnesota Restaurant Stepped Up online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

When ICE Came, This Minnesota Restaurant Stepped Up is an episode from The Sporkful by SiriusXM Podcasts.

This episode is 00:37:30 long.

This episode was published on Mar 2, 2026.

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