On the morning of January 17 in southern Minneapolis, something very ordinary happened: a 12-year-old girl got her period for the first time.

Everything that happened after that was out of the ordinary.

For the last two weeks, federal immigration agents have been on the streets of Minneapolis, conducting one of the largest crackdowns in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. The Department of Homeland Security says it is getting criminals off the street; many immigrants and people of color who spoke to NPR say they are terrified of going outside.

That’s how the simple act of obtaining a menstrual pad for a pre-teen’s first period turned into an underground operation involving a faith leader, multiple neighbors and a clandestine network of Minneapolis volunteers.