“We have dedicated staff members of color who now carry their passports with them at all times, just hoping to avoid wrong detention. We’ve also seen students who were once excelling in their classes now failing, their mental health shattered by the continued and constant weight of this anxiety. This is not an environment for learning that any of us accept, and we believe that this policy change is misguided and harmful.” – John Magas, Superintendent, Duluth Public Schools
In Part 1, we examined the suspension of the “sensitive areas” policy that prevented immigration enforcement activities in schools, hospitals, and houses of worship. We also looked at ICE activities that have targeted children, including multiple instances of dangerous or intimidating acts that took place on or near school grounds. Part 1 provides important context for what we are discussing today — how activities like this affect students and staff members.
Interrupted Education, Trauma, and Learning Loss
Tear gas deployed by ICE agents against protesting students at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis
One major effect of ICE activity has been plummeting attendance across Minneapolis-St. Paul metro schools and surrounding areas. A St. Paul Public Schools board member reported that attendance at some campuses had fallen to 60%, down from its normal 90%. A Minneapolis charter school has seen a 50% drop in attendance since Operation Metro Surge began and three other charters have suspended in-person learning altogether. Other districts have also pivoted to distance learning for children afraid to come to school to try to maintain some kind of consistency in their education. Chronic absenteeism in response to ICE tactics has been reported across the U.S.. A Stanford University study found a 22% jump in absences in five California school districts during January and February of 2025, around the time ICE activity increased in the area. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (NC) saw a 14% drop in attendance when ICE activities began in their neighborhoods, including 30,000 students who were absent on the first day of the ICE operation. Edgewood ISD in San Antonio, Texas* reported that 200 students withdrew from school entirely in February of 2025 after ICE activity in district neighborhoods.
Reduced student learning goes hand in hand with absenteeism. Research from 2021 in seven large California school districts showed that immigration arrests were linked to declines in students’ academic achievement. The biggest declines were among Latino students, especially those who were English language learners – exactly the demographic ICE appears to be targeting right now. A 2023 study of students after an immigration workplace raid in Texas found increased student absenteeism, declines in reading and math test scores, and sharp rises in the number of high school students leaving the district. Again, Latino students were the most affected. None of this activity was near schools, yet learning was profoundly affected. More troubling is that the negative impact persisted over time and extended to students who did not have relatives targeted for deportation. Although districts are providing distance learning, anecdotal evidence from one source suggests that students are not completing the assignments provided. Even a rudimentary understanding of brain science and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs explains this phenomenon. If you believe your survival or the survival of your loved ones is threatened, learning stops. We saw this play out during the pandemic and and the huge learning loss that occurred and still hasn’t been remedied. For districts and students affected by ICE activity, the future holds still more learning loss. This is not theoretical – it’s a proven consequence of education interrupted by trauma.
Data confirm this trauma is coming from multiple directions. UCLA conducted a nationally representative survey of 600+ high school principals just 3½ months after the 1993 policy on sensitive areas was rescinded. Seventy percent (70%) reported that students from immigrant families expressed fear about their safety and their families’ well-being. Nearly two-thirds reported students missing school due to immigration policies and rhetoric. More than a third reported bullying and harassment directed at immigrant-origin students.** These statistics aren’t just from border states: principals in Tennessee, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Minnesota describe the same patterns. These data were collected during the summer of 2025. We can plausibly argue that things have gotten worse since then. The Superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools (MN) noted that staff were “fielding questions from children about, ‘Could I be taken? Will my parents be taken and the house will be empty when I get home?’” That’s serious trauma. The superintendent of Duluth Public Schools reported increased anxiety among students, disruptions to attendance, and families questioning whether school remains a safe and predictable place for their children. The Duluth Public Schools are predominantly White, so this quote indicates that the fear and distress caused by these activities are not just confined to children of color.
Diverted Resources
ICE activities have also forced districts to divert resources away from education and toward planned responses to those activities, including ways to address student and parental fears.
- Drops in attendance affect school funding dramatically because in many states, it’s attendance, not enrollment, that determines the monies a district receives. Even schools not experiencing ICE activity are seeing lower attendance, likely because of fears around student safety. This means less money to educate students.
- According to the UCLA study, 78% of principals have created emergency response plans for potential ICE visits. Nearly half have developed protocols for supporting students if parents are detained or deported.
- The Superintendent of the Duluth Public Schools (MN) estimates more than $500,000 of staff hours per month are being spent on emergency planning instead of normal operations.
- There is a redirection of emotional resources as well. Many of the articles cited in Part 1 noted teachers and other staff escorting kids to school, delivering groceries to families afraid to go out, and maintaining vigilance on school grounds in the event of ICE incidents. The UCLA survey noted that in many districts, staff are connecting families with legal services, setting up meal trains, and working to create safe spaces for difficult conversations with terrified students and parents. This is in the face of ICE intimidation tactics and even direct confrontation with teachers, including arresting them. All of this takes a huge psychological toll on teachers and administrators. They, too, are experiencing trauma that makes it harder for them to focus on their primary job – helping kids learn.
We are left with a situation that can only be described as bleak: traumatized children, traumatized staff, learning loss for all children that is compounding over time, and resources diverted away from education’s primary mission of learning in an attempt to protect the mental and physical health of children.
Will the Lawsuit Win?
Plaintiffs believe the federal lawsuit against the DHS, ICE, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection that seeks to ban ICE activities within 1,000 feet of public school buildings will succeed because of a Supreme Court decision from 1982: Plyler v. Doe. Plyler was brought in response to a 1975 Texas law that allowed districts to refuse undocumented students access to public education or to charge them tuition. The Court struck down that law and held that all students, regardless of immigration status, have the right to a free, public education. Plyler has been regarded as an established constitutional right for more than 40 years. The current General Council for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund*** noted that,
“By ensuring equitable access to public school, the decision ensured that millions of children could dream of a better future for themselves and their families. This has translated into immeasurable benefit to American society as teachers, doctors, artists, writers, innovators, judges, elected officials, and leaders in all areas have arisen from among those able to access school because of Plyler.”
Plaintiffs are confident the federal court will affirm Plyler; the bigger question is whether the government will comply with such a decision. Just in the first month of 2026, Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz of the U.S. District Court in Minnesota –– a Republican appointee ––noted that ICE has ignored 96 court orders across 75 cases. Ignoring a court order, then, is very much in the realm of possibility, maybe even an inevitability. It’s hard to say what the next move is if plaintiffs win but ICE refuses to comply.
There’s a higher value here that needs to be acknowledged. No matter what adults are debating or what politicized activities they undertake, the mental and physical health of children and their right to learn in safe environments should be paramount. ICE tactics in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro are deliberately targeting schools and children – something that is being reported on worldwide and is undermining our global standing. In his first inaugural address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.” His words lay bare a critical tenet of any democracy: a country that is willing to sacrifice the health and safety of its children has no leg to stand on when it touts the values of freedom and justice or argues for civil rights in other countries.
Minnesota educators are making heroic efforts to protect students from psychological and physical danger. No matter which side of the aisle we fall on, we, too, must agree that protecting children – all children – is more important than any political ideology or federal policy. Targeting public schools for ICE activities that terrorize children and expose them to danger is a line government must not cross.
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*If there are attendance statistics related to recent ICE activity in Texas, I could not find them. Texas has the second largest population of school age children with at least one non-citizen in the home, about 1 in 4 kids. ICE activity in Texas is certainly occurring and just as certainly affecting attendance in schools and student learning. It’s possible to find some anecdotal reports but not hard data. Texas collects a lot of data, so the dearth of it in this area is odd.
**It’s important to note that some of these students – perhaps many – are legal residents or even citizens of the U.S.
***This is the body that represented the plaintiffs in Plyler v Doe.