A federal judge in Minnesota heard arguments Wednesday on whether the Department of Homeland Security should be required to treat schools as protected areas free of immigration enforcement.
As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents flooded the Twin Cities in February, the Fridley and Duluth school districts along with the state teachers union asked the court to compel Homeland Security to restore its former policy that recognized schools as off-limits.
They argued immigration enforcement conducted near schools had damaged student attendance and enrollment. During Operation Metro Surge, Minnesota districts with widespread federal activity saw as many as 20 to 40 percent of students staying home from school.
In Wednesday’s hearing, lawyers for the districts offered examples of ICE staging operations in school parking lots, pulling people from their cars on their way to school and targeting people for detainment in school parking lots or near bus stops.
One testimony alleged ICE agents drove near an elementary school blaring the song “Ice Ice Baby” in what schools say was an attempt to create fear and intimidation.
In one example, a testifier said that even well after Operation Metro Surge had ended in the middle of March, ICE was still making arrests affecting students. Another said ICE agents made a violent arrest on a property by a school bus stop in a move that frightened children and parents who were waiting to go to school.
Although ICE agents were no longer a daily presence near Fridley schools, students and staff were still affected by what had happened in January and February, said Brenda Lewis, superintendent of the Fridley Public Schools.
“Our educators are still in a constant state of standing up emotional support, not only for their children, but for their families and each other,” Lewis said.
“We also still have families that are not with us, that are in detention facilities,” she added. “So the impact is not just that we haven't had ICE agents on our property in eight weeks, which is good, however, the impact is longstanding and will be seen for many years.”
In January 2025 the Trump administration rescinded its 32-year safe-harbor policy for schools, hospitals and churches, saying that “criminals” would no longer be able to “hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.”
Lawyers for the Fridley and Duluth schools argued the move violated the federal Administrative Procedures Act.
In arguing to keep the current policy, a government lawyer Wednesday said immigration enforcement officers already apply discretion around when and where they conduct operations and it’s not necessary to create “bright line rules” around where they operate.
She said the Trump administration’s changes last year just eliminated bureaucracy.
Judge Laura Provinzino said at the end of the hearing that this was an important case to her personally as the daughter and granddaughter of educators. She did not indicate when she planned to rule on the matter.
