Watching ICE in My Neighborhood

“Hielo” means “Ice” in Spanish. This is a black & white comic drawn with thick wobbly lines and a handful of gray fills. Panel 1’s top-left caption reads, “October 2025.” It depicts the author, Tanya L. Crenshaw, a 40-something woman with long frizzy hair. She’s dressed in a plaid flannel shirt and black pants. She is closing a water bottle to put into a backpack. The second caption reads, “I’m heading out for a volunteer shift at the food bank garden.” Panel 2’s caption, “It’s been a good season.” She rides her bike along a quiet residential street. Panel 3’s caption, “Not many tomatoes this year, but apples did well.” She rides her bike through an industrial area. She passes a fenced-in parking lot. There’s an 18-wheeler parked in the lot and barbed wire on the fence. The caption, “Just a few blocks from the garden…” precedes the next three panels. Panel 4 shows her riding her bike. Panel 5 depicts a black blur passing her in the opposite direction. In panel 6, she’s stopped riding. Her eyes are wide. She says, “Oh no.”

In panel 7, the foreground has a menacing, black Suburban, a very big car with tinted windows. In the background, she stands with her bike and says, “ICE!” Panel 8 offers a close-up of her face. She says, “Keep going cheesedick.” Panel 9 depicts the car driving away with a “Ssssscccccreeeeeeech”. Panel 10’s top caption, “I wasn’t there the day that ICE came back.” Below it is a panorama of the food bank garden where five gardeners stationed about the garden have all stopped working. In the foreground are two big black Suburbans, both with engines running, emitting exhaust. A masked ICE agent wearing tactical gear is leaning against one of the cars, looking at his phone. Two other masked agents wearing tactical gear are approaching one of the gardeners who is pointing at a sign that reads, “Authorized personnel only.” Two gardeners are holding each other as they watch the agents. One whispers to the other, “Hielo.” Three captions read, “They didn’t have a warrant.” And, “They were asked to leave.” And, “They haven’t yet returned.”

Panel 11’s top-left caption, “But they did their damage.” It’s another day. The author is in the garden, pushing a wheelbarrow full of apples. She’s passing another gardener holding a bucket of marigolds. She asks, “Where is Alicia?” The other gardener replies, “Alicia isn’t coming anymore.” Panel 12’s top caption, “Women who had volunteered for years couldn’t risk returning to the garden.” The author is looking up at a whiteboard that lists the day’s projects at the garden. At the top left on the whiteboard is a small photo. Panel 13 is a close-up of the same photo. The photo is of three women. Two have been cut-out of the photo, represented only by their outlines. Panel 14’s top caption, “Now a monitor keeps watch in the parking lot” The author stands with her arms crossed in a small parking lot. She has an angry look and her hair is blowing in the wind. The caption reads, “Sometimes I take a turn.” She says, “They call me ice pick.”

February 2026, a reflection from Tanya about this comic:

In November 2022, I set this intention, "I'm going to start volunteering once a month. I want to think about something other than my sad, blobby self." I've been a regular volunteer at my local food bank and its community garden ever since.

There have been scary and heavy things happening in the world. My regular volunteer shifts have been a source of purposeful relief. I can't do much about what I see on the screen, but I can harvest and pack potatoes for my food-insecure neighbors. I can make comics about my volunteer gigs and share them with my friends.

And yet... Last year, in October, some of the scary and the heavy touched the garden. I made this comic to process my grief. Making the comic took a while. I didn't finish these fourteen panels until Jan 1, 2026. Then:

On Jan 7, ICE Agents killed Renee Good in Minneapolis.
On Jan 8, ICE Agents shot Luis David Nino-Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras in Portland.
On Jan 24, ICE Agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

It’s not over. The scary and the heavy remain. Yesterday, I escorted an undocumented person to their arraignment hearing at Washington County Courthouse. The day before, ICE agents had picked up a man just six blocks away.

Fuck ICE / Chinga Hielo / Chinga La Migra.

If you didn't feel like reading this one, I get it.

If you do read it, thanks.

The best advice I ever heard: Find your favorite place in the world and fight like hell for it.

Watching ICE in My Neighborhood

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