Whistles and walkie-talkies: Minneapolis keeps guard over schools amid ICE arrests

Parents are guarding schools after reports of ICE activity ICE presence has cut attendance and pushed some schools to cancel or move online DHS denies targeting schools, but families and educators report detentions nearby By Brad Brooks MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Peter Brown’s gray mustache and beard were matted with ice as he stood watch on a frigid Friday afternoon outside Green Central Elementary, not far from where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good last week. Wearing a neon green vest and equipped with a whistle and walkie-talkie, Brown, an 81-year-old retired lawyer who lives nearby, kept his head on a swivel. His eyes were taking in each passing car and pedestrian near the campus as he stood ready to sound the alarm should federal immigration personnel approach the school, which teaches in English and Spanish and is around the corner from the spot where Good died. “I never did like bullies, and that’s what the federal government has become,” Brown said, explaining why an octogenarian stood outside for four hours in -2 degrees Fahrenheit with wind chill (-19 Celsius). “What’s happening in my city is nothing more than authoritarian intimidation, and me and my neighbors are not going to put up with it.” PARENTS PATROL SCHOOLS The Trump administration has deployed about 3,000 federal agents across the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, making it the latest region targeted by the president’s mass deportation program. People who normally might be organizing parent-teacher association meetings are arranging security patrols at their kids’ schools to watch for immigration agents. Some parents not on patrol are escorting foreign-born teachers or staff members, driving them to and from their homes and schools to make them feel safer. Others are delivering groceries and prescription medicines to immigrant families who are too afraid to leave their homes or send their kids to class. U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat representing Minnesota, said on Friday she had met with school principals from her state “and heard horror stories of kids and parents ‘under siege’ by ICE.” “Little kids scared. Dangerous encounters. This is no longer about a fraud investigation,” Klobuchar wrote on social media, as she urged residents to remain peaceful. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and the Border Patrol, said this week more than 2,500 people have been arrested during the effort that officials have dubbed Operation Metro Surge. DHS has repeatedly said its agents are not targeting schools, but focusing on convicted criminals. But parents and school leaders say otherwise. A spokesperson for Saint Paul Public Schools said in a statement that two of its contracted student transportation vans were pulled over by ICE agents this week. Several schools and daycare centers have emailed parents to notify them of teachers and staff who have been detained, according to school leaders and parents. DHS did not respond to requests for comment for this story. SOME STUDENTS LEARNING ONLINE Schools have notified the public that some parents have been detained at bus stops after dropping off kids. Border Patrol agents clashed with protesters on the grounds of Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis as classes ended, just a few hours after Good was shot and killed. DHS said the clash followed agents’ pursuit of someone who had rammed one of their vehicles several miles away and fled to the school grounds. Several school districts — including those in Minneapolis and St. Paul, the state’s two largest — have cancelled classes some days and are allowing students to learn online instead of attending classes in person for the next several weeks in response to the immigration operations. “Many families in my area are afraid to send their kids to school because ICE is staking out our bus stops,” state Representative Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn, a Democrat and co-chair of the Minnesota House of Representatives’ Children and Families Finance and Policy Committee, told the Star Tribune newspaper. Nate Byrne, a spokesperson for Kids Count on Us, a coalition of 500 community-based childcare centers in Minnesota, said it is receiving daily reports about ICE officers on or near childcare center grounds, and that such centers in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods have seen a 50% reduction in attendance. Kids Count on Us has received reports of childcare workers taken into ICE custody, Byrne said, though he did not have specific figures. PARENTS DELIVER FOOD, RAISE MONEY “Parents who are not fearful of being detained by ICE — typically because they are white — are forming teams to patrol outside their childcare centers during drop-off and pick-up and when staff need to come and go,” Byrne said. “Parents who are fearful of being detained by ICE due to the color of their skin are being extremely cautious.” St. Paul parent Kelly, who spoke on the condition that her last name not be used, citing fears of retribution from the federal government, said she was helping deliver food to immigrant families that attend her children’s school but were afraid to leave their homes. Parents are also raising money to help pay rent for the families across the metro area, as the parents are missing work, according to Kelly and other parents. Kelly, who was attending a Friday night protest against ICE with her husband and two children, ages 6 and 9, said she was bewildered by what has become of her city amid the immigration raids. In years past, she volunteered for parent-teacher association events. Now, she carries a whistle everywhere she goes and said she is ready to confront federal agents if they approach her kids’ school. “There’s no parenting handbook for this,” Kelly said. “My parents never had to sit me down and explain that my classmates who are suddenly missing from school aren’t there because their parents are afraid of being snatched by the government.”