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ST. PAUL, Minn. — Lawyers representing two Minnesota school districts and the state’s prominent teachers union petitioned a federal judge on Wednesday to halt a policy change initiated by the Trump administration. This change has allowed immigration officials more freedom to carry out enforcement activities in school areas.
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security withdrew longstanding national guidelines that restricted immigration enforcement actions at “sensitive locations.” These include schools, school bus stops, churches, and hospitals, which were typically regarded as off-limits except under exceptional circumstances.
In response, the Fridley and Duluth school districts, along with the Education Minnesota union, filed a lawsuit in February to challenge the new policy. This lawsuit came at a time when the Department of Homeland Security had deployed approximately 3,000 federal officers to Minnesota as part of Operation Metro Surge. Notably, federal agents involved in this operation were responsible for the deaths of two citizens in Minneapolis in January.
On Wednesday, the plaintiffs requested either a stay or a preliminary injunction from the court to reinstate the previous restrictions.
Attorney Amanda Cialkowski, representing the school districts and union, mentioned to the press that it remains uncertain whether a favorable ruling would extend beyond Minnesota or apply to other “sensitive locations” such as churches and hospitals.
“We’ll just have to wait and see what the judge does,” she said.
Teachers across the country have detailed the ways Trump’s immigration crackdown has shaped their work and the lives of their students. In court filings in an ongoing case filed by national teachers unions in federal court in Oregon, educators described rumors of raids that scared away students, immigrant parents who stopped sending their children to school altogether, and stories of parents and students being arrested at bus stops.
And a demand by Democrats that federal authorities refrain from enforcement operations around schools, churches and hospitals is one of the unresolved disputes in the standoff between Congress and the administration over funding for Homeland Security.
The arguments before U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino on Wednesday hinged mostly on complicated legal issues of whether the districts and union had legal standing to sue, and could show they had been directly harmed by the policy change, and whether the new guidance counted as the kind of final agency decision that a court would have the legal authority to review.
Justice Department attorney Jessica Lundberg said “swapping out” last year’s policy guidance for the previous guidance, as the plaintiffs want, wouldn’t really have a meaningful impact. Even under the old rules, she said, enforcement action in and around schools was always a possibility.
Provinzino said she would rule “as quickly as I can … but also making sure I get it right.”
The superintendents of both the Fridley district, in suburban Minneapolis, and the Duluth district, in northern Minnesota, were in the courtroom for the arguments.
Fridley Superintendent Brenda Lewis said that the change “deeply impacted” attendance because families did not feel safe in sending their children to school. She said her schools had to pivot to virtual learning for many students, which put an additional strain on resources.
The superintendent also said her district has lost 72 students since December, which has hurt funding that was dependent on the numbers of pupils and meals served. Some enrolled in districts they considered safer, while others have left the country, and some are in detention centers, she said.
While the official end of Operation Metro Surge means Fridley hasn’t seen ICE officers on school property in eight weeks, Lewis said the impacts will last for many years.
Duluth Superintendent John Magas pointed out that his district — which is about 150 miles north of Minneapolis — is well outside the Twin Cities metro area but started feeling the effects of the policy change long before the surge.
Minneapolis Public Schools had over 8,000 students stay home on the last school day in January, close to 30% of students. And Fridley saw attendance drop by nearly a third, according to court filings.
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