Minnesota Schools Fight Back Against Trump’s ICE Crackdown in and Around Classrooms

The Trump administration’s war on immigrant communities has found a new battleground: the schoolyard. Two Minnesota school districts—Fridley and Duluth—and the state’s largest teachers union, Education Minnesota, have asked a federal judge to block a 2025 Department of Homeland Security policy that stripped away longstanding restrictions on immigration enforcement near schools, churches, hospitals, and other “sensitive locations.” The change effectively gave ICE and other federal officers free rein to conduct raids and arrests where children learn and play.

The districts and union filed suit in February amid the chaos of Operation Metro Surge, a federal crackdown that deployed some 3,000 officers to Minnesota. The surge culminated in the killing of two Minneapolis residents by federal agents in January, underscoring the deadly consequences of this militarized approach. Now they want a judge to reinstate the previous policy that largely kept immigration enforcement out of schools, arguing the new rules have caused direct harm.

Fridley Superintendent Brenda Lewis described the fallout in blunt terms: attendance plummeted as families feared sending their children to school, forcing a costly pivot to virtual learning. The district lost 72 students since December, a hit to funding tied to enrollment and meal programs. Some families moved their children to safer districts, others fled the country, and some ended up detained. Duluth, nearly 150 miles north of Minneapolis, felt the impact long before the surge, showing how far-reaching the policy’s damage has been.

Attendance data from the Twin Cities area paints a grim picture. St. Paul schools saw over 9,000 students absent in mid-January—more than a quarter of the district. Minneapolis schools lost close to 30% of students on a single day, while Fridley’s attendance dropped by nearly a third. These numbers reflect a community terrified by the threat of ICE raids at bus stops and school entrances, a terror that disrupts education and fractures families.

The Department of Justice argues that the policy change is a minor shift, claiming enforcement near schools was always possible under the old rules. But this legal hair-splitting ignores the real-world consequences of the administration’s decision to weaponize schools as sites of immigration enforcement.

As the case awaits a ruling from U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino, the stakes could not be higher. The outcome will determine whether schools remain sanctuaries where children can learn without fear, or become extensions of a brutal immigration crackdown. For communities already battered by federal overreach, this fight is about more than policy—it’s about protecting the basic rights and dignity of immigrant families.

We’ll be watching closely as this case unfolds. Because when the government targets schools, it targets the future of our democracy.