MINNEAPOLIS — Chicago Bulls guard Tre Jones returned to his home state for Thursday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves with a heavy heart.

The Twin Cities area has been the epicenter of recent conflict around Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, which began in early December and escalated after the killing of Renee Good on Jan. 7. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Minneapolis on Thursday morning with the stated goal of persuading Minnesotans to “stop fighting” against ICE agents, whose actions have included forced entry into homes without a warrant.

For Jones, who grew up in the Twin Cities suburb of Apple Valley, the news stories hit too close to home to ignore. Friends and family back home have relayed reports of ICE activity and raids in their neighborhoods. In December, students walked out of Jones’ alma mater, Apple Valley High School, to protest the initial wave of local ICE activity.

“It’s been tough to watch and follow,” Jones told the Tribune. “It’s extremely sad to see the way that people are being treated here.”

Jones was especially struck by reports of ICE detaining and interrogating children on their way to and from school. Four children in the Columbia Heights Public School district were detained by ICE before and after school Tuesday.

One of them was 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, whom ICE reportedly detained and then used as “bait” to entice family members to open the door to their home. Ramos and another child — a 10-year-old who was walking to school with her mother — have been transferred to a detention center in Texas.

“It’s just sad to think about kids that might have been going to school with their families dealing with these types of things,” Jones said. “It’s people that weren’t causing any harm to the communities. They’re only bringing good. They’re showing up to school just like the rest of us, having fun and doing things all kids want to do, and they’re facing this.

“It’s sad. We never wanted to see this happen.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Monday that ICE officers were removing the “worst of the worst” with these raids. U.S. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino said Thursday that protestors have “violently assaulted” ICE officers, and President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to send troops into Minnesota.

ICE’s actions have been defended repeatedly by Bovino, Vance, Trump and DHS as necessary due to crime and danger caused by immigrants in the Twin Cities. It’s a familiar scenario to Chicagoans, who saw their city branded as a “hellhole” and “haven for criminals” during similar ICE campaigns over the last four months.

Jones doesn’t believe this depiction of his hometown. He sees a different truth that doesn’t reflect federal officials’ rhetoric focused on violence.

“People here know that it’s an amazing city built by amazing people,” Jones said. “It’s a great community here. People look out and stick up for one another. That’s what we see and feel.

“After some of the horrific things that happened here in the past five or six years, the community continues to come together and stick up for one another. That’s just how this city is.”