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The Conversation
The Conversation
Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, Associate Professor of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara

Federal immigration enforcement near schools disrupts attendance, traumatizes students and damages their academic performance

High school students gather for an anti-ICE protest outside the state capitol in St. Paul, Minn., on Jan. 14, 2026. Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images

The Trump administration’s recent surge of more than 3,000 federal agents to Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, is creating ripple effects for students, teachers and parents that go well beyond ongoing protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. These protests escalated after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7, 2026.

Some Twin Cities parents are arranging security patrols to look out for ICE agents, while others are keeping their kids home altogether. Several large Minneapolis-St. Paul school districts announced on Jan. 15 that they would offer remote learning so students could stay home.

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