LIMA, Peru (AP) — Alfredo Santiago has a unique job in Peru 's capital city of Lima: he's a bee rescuer.
The 35-year-old began as a beekeeper but added rescuing the stinging insects to his services. He often checks his cellphone for messages from people seeking help removing hives from house windows, playgrounds or even graveyards.
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Beekeeper and rescuer Alfredo Santiago removes a colony of bees from a house garden, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
Beekeeper Alfredo Santiago, who also rescues bees, uses a bee smoker before opening a beehive, on the patio of his home, on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
Beekeeper and rescuer Alfredo Santiago carries a box containing a beehive recovered from a house garden, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
Beekeeper and rescuer Alfredo Santiago removes a colony of bees from a house garden, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
Bee rescuer Alfredo Santiago removes a colony of bees from a house garden, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
“I do it out of passion, to defend these animals that are so important to nature,” he said.
Once he has gotten enough requests, Santiago dons his white, one-piece beekeeper suit, takes a smoker and a wooden box and hits the streets of Lima, a city of 10 million.
Sometimes Santiago arrives at a location and people have already killed the bees. But when he’s able to rescue them, he takes them back to his home on the outskirts of Lima, where he lives as a beekeeper and sells honey.
He is apparently the only person in the city doing the job for free. “It is volunteer work. Some plant trees, others collect abandoned dogs or cats,” said Santiago, whose parents are also beekeepers.
“I am the driver, the one who carries the box, the operator, the one who (secures himself with) harnesses, the one who takes the photo and uploads it to the networks,” he said as he checks out the dark green car that he drives around the city.
Recently, Santiago had to motor more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) from one side of Lima to the other to find a hive in a house's garden. He also went to a graveyard after a man who had gone to bury his mother was stung by some bees, and they discovered that the insects had found a place on a wooden coffin.
Santiago says he gets around 100 requests a year to come and remove bee hives, and he estimates that he has rescued around 4 million bees since he started his unpaid job in 2020. People had begun to learn about him on social media.
Life for bees in Lima is not easy because the heavily populated city doesn't have lots of parks or green spaces.
On the large patio of his house, Santiago has more than two dozen green wooden boxes in which more than 400,000 bees live and “recover” after being rescued. There is honey over two plates, while some drops of water come out of a tap that fall on a piece of wood. All for the bees. After a few months, sometimes six, he takes them to the Andean forests of Peru, more than 225 kilometers (140 miles) from Lima, where his parents live and also take care of bees.
It's a family affair: Santiago said he's already thinking of buying a small beekeeper's suit for his 3-year-old daughter.
Beekeeper and rescuer Alfredo Santiago removes a colony of bees from a house garden, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
Beekeeper Alfredo Santiago, who also rescues bees, uses a bee smoker before opening a beehive, on the patio of his home, on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
Beekeeper and rescuer Alfredo Santiago carries a box containing a beehive recovered from a house garden, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
Beekeeper and rescuer Alfredo Santiago removes a colony of bees from a house garden, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
Bee rescuer Alfredo Santiago removes a colony of bees from a house garden, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.
In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.
Video of the clash taken by The Associated Press showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.
Immigrant advocacy groups have conducted extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.
But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away.
More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement.
The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer on Wednesday.
“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”
Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.
People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.
More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .
“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.
The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.
Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.
While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.
“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."
The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.
Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”
"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.
Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”
The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests in cities across the country over the weekend, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Oakland, California.
Contributing were Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; Thomas Strong in Washington; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio.
A woman gets into an altercation with a federal immigration officer as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A federal immigration officer deploys pepper spray as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member, center, reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Bystanders are treated after being pepper sprayed as federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Federal agents look on after detaining a person during a patrol in Minneapolis, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Bystanders react after a man was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
People stand near a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
A man looks out of a car window after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Border Patrol agents detain a man, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People shout toward Border Patrol agents making an arrest, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Protesters react as they visit a makeshift memorial during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
