How ICE enforcement operations impacted Minnesota schools, students

School districts with large immigrant populations like St. Paul, Columbia Heights and Minneapolis have reported losing dozens of students and millions of dollars in funding that they attribute to Operation Metro Surge. A new series by Fox 9 Documentaries details how schools that were once considered sensitive locations and off-limits to ICE agents became targets during the surge. Anyone and everyone is being picked up, even kids. The kids have done nothing wrong. And we knew that ICE was targeting kids at the bus stops. ICE agents. parked their vehicles in our parking lots. This is not a public parking lot. This is a school parking lot. You need to have probable cause and you need to have a warrant. Do you believe that those places should be off limits to immigration enforcement? I don't think there's anywhere you should be able to go where you're no longer subject to the laws of the land in which you live. We saw people not going to school, children not going to school because they were fearful. They absolutely came onto our school property. The school can tell you that we don't want you in here, and your administrative warrant doesn't override their authority over that space. But she most certainly can sit in the parking lot, sit across the street, wait outside. The middle schooler who lives near me called me and asked if Ice was chasing him home from the bus stop, if he could hide in my house. And so how do we keep kids out of it instead of... Deporting them and saying they're the worst of the worst. They're not. I put that 12-year-old in my car and I drove him down the street and I said, you can hide in that house, you can hide in that house, you can hide in that house. I have a lot of moments that I'll share about, you know, whether it's our first student, little 10-year-old Elizabeth, who was detained with her mother on her way to work. I've seen many people break down in grief, but the image of Elizabeth's father will stay with me forever. I watched him sit in his car. Bury his head in his hands and cry uncontrollably. Zuriel's family, that was one of our fifth graders who was in Dilley, we didn't know. You know, we knew they were missing. We knew we lost contact with them, but we didn't know where they were. All the way to little Liam Conejo Ramos, who was our fourth student out of seven who was detained. When officers approached Conejo Ramos... He and his child were in a vehicle. I was on scene shortly after he and his father were taken. His father's car was still running in the driveway by the time I got there. Abandoning his child in the middle of winter in a vehicle. One of our officers stayed behind with that child while other officers apprehended his father. Any of the comments trying to debunk the truthful and accurate statements that I was making were made by people who weren't here, were not on the scene. And there was this photo. And this photo spread like wildfire. I knew it was a compelling story when I saw the photo. I did not have an understanding of how far it would go and how much it would really touch the hearts of the entire world. It gained national, if not international, attention. And that really put a spotlight on Who is getting picked up in this operation? So the story is that ICE detained a five year old. Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five year old child freeze to death? You have the Trump administration on one hand saying that they're going after the worst of the worst. And then this reality where in this case, a five year old elementary school student is picked up. He's just a sweet innocent little kid kids standing there with Eight armed Masked, unidentified men in fatigue surrounding him and them, and it was a very traumatic scene, and you could, I think, really see that on his little face. And you can see he's scared. They're little humans. No matter what we think, they're little humans running around, learning. There was one day that was probably the worst day of my entire career, and I've been in education nearly 30 years. Oh, it was horrible. Principal Kuhlman from Valley View called me and said, I have a mom who's at the Whipple Building, and she just called me and asked me to take her children to the Whipple Building. She goes, if I'm going to be deported, I'd rather be deported as a family so we can stay together. I couldn't say no. The principal brought their entire file, their immigration file, and said, I've got her immigration papers here. You can see she's here legally, no crimes. She's done everything she's supposed to do. So I presented them with this paperwork. I said, hey, by any chance, here's an active asylum case. This is her paperwork. We made copies of it. Is there any chance I could take her and the two boys home with me? Because they're following the law. Well, you know, I'll have to run it by my supervisor. And then they said, oh, well, we'll review the paperwork. Within an hour, they were on a plane. And so I would say we left at probably about 2.30. By 3 o'clock, they were on a plane already going down to Dilley, Texas. The agent didn't look at the paperwork at all, just stuck them on a plane, and away they were. Thin Ice includes interviews with education officials and ICE observers who tried to protect schools and students during Operation Metro Surge. Part one premieres Wednesday at 10.35 p.m. on Fox 9.