COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. — The goldendoodle named Sage padded across the library floor at Valley View Elementary, and a little girl reached out to stroke her blond coat. Social worker Nicole Herje knelt beside them.
“How does it feel when you pet Sage?” Herje said.
“I like it,” the girl said. “In Ecuador, I had a dog.”
That small interaction, described by Herje, is one of the ways school staff are trying to help children heal from the trauma of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge that flooded this suburban Minneapolis community with officers earlier this year. The crackdown, part of a broader federal push to arrest and deport people living in the U.S. without legal status, left deep marks on the city’s immigrant families. Children watched as neighbors and relatives were taken away; some were themselves picked up and transported to detention facilities far from home.
At Valley View, attendance plunged during the height of the operations. Families kept children at home to avoid encounters with immigration agents, and students spent weeks indoors, afraid. The Associated Press reported that at least four students from the school were detained and sent to a family detention center in Texas, hundreds of miles away. Others lost relatives to deportation.
In response, Herje and other staff members began bringing Sage to school as a trained therapy animal. The dog is part of a broader mental-health strategy that includes counseling and classroom support. School officials said the presence of the dog has helped children who were withdrawn or anxious begin to talk about their experiences.
The girl from Ecuador, whose name was not released, is one of many students who have slowly begun to open up. Herje said that when the girl touched Sage’s coat, she started talking about her life before coming to the United States — a conversation that might never have happened without the dog’s presence.
Months after the enforcement surge, the school is still working to address the lingering trauma. Attendance has improved but remains uneven. Counselors are monitoring children for signs of prolonged stress. And Sage remains a regular fixture in the library, ready for the next small moment that might help a child feel safe again.