Giancarlo, a 10-year-old in Minneapolis, still takes the bus to school each day, but his mother describes the routine as something she has learned to fear and improvise around. Each morning, as he waits behind a wrought-iron fence, she pulls him into the shadow of a tree and prays because she worries federal immigration officers deployed around Minnesota will detain her family. She spoke with The Associated Press on condition of partial anonymity, saying she fears being targeted by immigration authorities.
For many immigrant families, the decision to send a child to school has become a choice made under uncertainty, with some parents keeping children home out of fear or because they lack reliable transportation for door-to-door travel. The fear has also turned into reported detentions, including the case of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was taken into custody as he arrived home from school in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights, according to the AP report.
The AP said Ramos and his father, originally from Ecuador, were sent to a detention facility in Texas and later returned after a judge ordered their release. The story described schools, parents and community groups mobilizing to help students get to class so they can learn, socialize and have steady access to meals. For families who still send children, the trip to and from school has become one of the risks some parents say they are willing to take.
Giancarlo’s school day, the AP reported, has become a refuge in the midst of home confinement. In his Minneapolis elementary school, he plays soccer at recess, attends lessons and plans to learn the flute next year when fifth graders choose an instrument. Even so, his mother’s fear affects his home life, and the AP reported that Giancarlo saves school breakfast and lunch to share because of the stress at home, where he also reported weight loss and applied for asylum.
The AP report said that absenteeism surged across schools in the Twin Cities area this winter, as school absenteeism and demand for online learning increased when immigration officers showed up in school parking lots. In St. Paul, the report said more than a quarter of students were absent on Jan. 14—over 9,000 students out of about 33,000—based on data obtained by AP. It also said that in Fridley, a Minneapolis suburb, attendance dropped by nearly a third, citing a lawsuit the district filed this week seeking to block immigration enforcement operations near schools.
In St. Paul, the AP reported that kids wrote letters to Superintendent Stacie Stanley asking for online learning, and that during an interview her voice shook as she read one letter from an elementary student saying they did not feel safe coming to school because of ICE. When the district introduced a temporary virtual learning option, the AP report said more than 3,500 students enrolled in the first 90 minutes, and that enrollment later rose to more than 7,500 students.
The Associated Press also described how longstanding guidance that had treated “sensitive places” such as hospitals and churches as off-limits for ICE had been thrown out by the Trump administration, according to the AP report. The story said children, no matter their immigration status, have a constitutional right to attend public school. It added that some immigrant parents responded by changing commuting patterns—sometimes relying on rides with white Minnesotans who were strangers just weeks earlier—rather than using their own vehicles or staying with their children.
Near school dismissal, the AP report described steps taken at Valley View Elementary School, where Liam Conejo Ramos attends prekindergarten, for an operation intended to reduce exposure for nearby students. After school on Wednesday, around 20 teachers and a retired principal met in the front office for a briefing before escorting children who live nearby, and school officials said several other students and more than two dozen parents had been detained, according to the AP report.
“Your only goal is to bring the students home, no matter what you see,” family liaison Rene Argueta told staff, according to the AP report. Argueta, who is an immigrant from El Salvador, organized the teachers walking and driving students home and told the group, the AP reported, “We don’t approach ICE. We don’t take out our phones.” After distributing walkie-talkies, he and two other teachers met a group of 12 children waiting in the hallway.
The AP described how, as the group walked outside, a girl yelled “ICE viene,” or “ICE is coming,” and ran back toward Argueta. In that account, Argueta kept hold of the child’s hand and told her he was not afraid, and he said he lied about having papers so she would not feel alone. The AP reported that the girl asked if he was in the country legally and, after a brief exchange, her hand relaxed and she smiled again as they reached her doorstep.
Associated Press data journalist Sharon Lurye in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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