Amidst the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge, a predominantly Latino Minneapolis school is confronting fear in the classroom while building systems of protection beyond it.
A teacher at the Spanish immersion school started her day like most days on Jan. 26, 2026. Going through breathing exercises and talking about the students’ feelings, this has been one of her strategies to keep the students’ anxiety down during what she calls a scary time.
As part of the routine, students are asked to choose from a set of illustrated gorillas to describe how they feel. Most days, they point to the scared one or the sad one.
“Our community feels attacked,” said Teacher A, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. That day, she said, the fear became personal.
Around noon, a student’s mom, who is in the United States as an asylum seeker, went to her monthly immigration appointment. She was arrested there by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Shortly afterward, the student’s father called the school. He said ICE agents had asked him to bring his daughter to them. The school refused to bring the student anywhere.
Later that afternoon, he called the school again.
“Please don’t bring my daughter home,” he told school staff. “I’m worried they’re after her because I didn’t bring her when they asked.”
Within minutes, the community stepped up. The family had five different housing options and someone to transport the father and student to new housing.
The family later heard from the safety of their new home that ICE had paid a visit to their now vacant residence.
The masterminds behind the family’s swift transition to new housing was what Teacher M, called “A group of five super moms.”
These mothers created a shared document coordinating volunteers, teachers, parents and community members who do not feel immediately at risk from ICE, to help transport students who do.
‘JOY TEAM’
What began as an emergency response has grown into a broader mutual aid network.
“The community is just coming together in an incredible way,” Teacher M said.
The group now organizes weekly food distribution, alternating weeks of hygiene supplies such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, and cleaning essentials including laundry detergent, dish soap, and diapers. They formed a “joy team” that delivers art kits and cake kits to families. They also built a network of on-call lawyers and notaries.
Teachers like M have recently become notaries to assist families signing legal documents like Delegation of
Parental Authority forms. DOPA forms allow another adult to care for the child for a maximum of one year if the parents are detained. Teachers and community members have been named in these documents, ensuring students and families have a safety plan if they are deported.
While the paperwork offers families a measure of security, it also places educators in legally complex positions.
ICE PUSHING LEGAL BOUNDARIES
Steve Jaun, a private immigration attorney who has practiced in Minnesota for 19 years, said ICE enforcement has increasingly pushed legal boundaries.
“ICE agents feel free to break the law by arresting people without a judicial warrant or without concrete evidence that someone has no legal status,” Jaun said.
Federal policy was changed in January to allow ICE agents to enter schools and churches without a judicial warrant. However, Jaun emphasized that the authority is limited.
“They still need a judicial warrant to enter private spaces within those buildings,” he said. Regardless of immigration status, individuals retain constitutional rights.
“If stopped, people can state that they are choosing to remain silent and that they do not consent to any searches,” Jaun said. “They should remain calm and polite throughout the encounter.”
NINE of 27 REMAIN IN-PERSON
Following the shooting of Renee Macklin Good on Jan. 6, the intensified immigration enforcement and civil unrest have led this school to offer online classes. For Teacher A, this means nine out of her 27 students still attend in-person school.
The school does not have enough mobile hot spots for all students learning from home. Some children have attempted to complete assignments on phones, often using their parents’ devices, but many are unable to do so.
Of more than 40 fifth graders learning remotely, only seven submitted assignments that week.
“It’s just not equitable. It feels like we are encouraging legal segregation,” Teacher A said.
A colleague, she added, put it more starkly.
“What are we even doing?” the coworker said to Teacher A. “We might as well be talking to Anne Frank in the attic online.”
‘TIRED AND FED UP’
Teachers say they are trying to support students academically and emotionally while navigating their own exhaustion and anger.
“We as teachers are so tired and fed up, acting like nothing around us is happening, but that’s the expectation you show up to work, and you teach,” Teacher A said.
Some students walk into class and immediately begin to sob.
“I cried with her,” Teacher A said. “I feel for you, I feel your heartbreak. We can’t make them feel better; the only way they will feel better is if none of this existed.”
THINKING CRITICALLY
Even so, teachers say they aim to remain neutral, helping students think critically about the world around them. Coincidentally, the class is currently studying the American Revolution.
“As educators, how are we teaching our students to be critical thinkers?” Teacher A said. “I can present to you the fact that’s current with the hope that my questions and prodding will get you to think about what I could mean.”
She added, “These experiences are molding our children, hopefully for the better.”
Still, the school finds rays of light in this dark time.
“We did a demonstration on the first floor,” Teacher A said. “The kids made the most beautiful signs. ‘We miss you.’ ‘We miss our friends.’ We all stood and sang songs of resistance.”
Although teachers know the Latino community will persevere, there will be deep wounds.
“We are a community that will be stronger for sure, but some families will have irreparable harm done to them, either by their family members being deported or just the trauma that the children have to go through, that trauma will last,” Teacher M said.
Editor’s note: Southwest Voices is not naming the school involved in this story because the teachers interviewed believe this will put their students in danger.
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