When Border Patrol arrested a beloved mechanic in Froid, Montana, neighbors were forced to reckon with national immigrat
Community members first noticed the Border Patrol cars in early January.
Though Froid — a tiny town in northeast Montana — is just 50 miles from the U.S.-Canada border, Border Patrol cars are not a common sight outside of the occasional gas station stop. About two weeks ago, however, residents told Montana Free Press that the number of Border Patrol vehicles increased. Two cars were stationed outside a local auto repair shop and one near the shop owner’s house, they said.
It didn’t take long for word to spread in the small community of about 195 people that the federal immigration agents were watching 42-year-old Roberto Orozco-Ramirez. The father of four, who is technically a citizen of Mexico, has lived in Froid with his family for more than a decade, long enough that the local auto repair shop, Orozco Diesel, bears his name.
Orozco-Ramirez, his wife and their four sons are fixtures in the small community. His sons are active in school sports, and Orozco-Ramirez coached baseball Little League teams in his spare time. He built an auto shop where community members say he went above and beyond for customers. Though Orozco-Ramirez worked long hours, Froid residents say, he made time for school and community events, often showing up in his work clothes.
As of this week — following a sequence of events that is forcing a deeply red town to confront their own complicated beliefs on immigration — it’s unclear if he will be in the United States much longer.
https://montanafreepress.org/2026/01/28/froid-montana-border-patrol-arrest-immigration/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Former next-door neighbor last night and she told me that ICE beat up a friend of ours in town, a guy with developmental issues, he was terribly traumatized. Guess it was last week that it happened.
