Peter Brown's gray mustache and beard were caked with ice as he stood guard on a frigid Friday afternoon outside Green Central Elementary School in Minneapolis, not far from where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot Rene Goode last week.
Wearing a neon green vest, equipped with a whistle and a walkie-talkie, Brown, an 81-year-old retired lawyer who lives nearby, kept a constant eye on his surroundings. His eyes scanned every car and passerby near the school complex, ready to raise the alarm if federal immigration officials approached the school, which offers classes in English and Spanish and is located around the corner from where Goode was killed, Reuters reported today in its article "Whistles and walkie-talkies: Minneapolis keeps watch over schools amid ICE arrests."
"I've never liked bullies, and that's what the federal government has become," Brown said, explaining why an 80-year-old man stood outside for four hours in minus two degrees Fahrenheit (-18,89 degrees Celsius) with a cold wind.
"What is happening in my city is nothing short of authoritarian intimidation and I and my neighbors will not tolerate it," Brown said.
Renee Goode was killed on January 7 in Minneapolis by an ICE officer.
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Parents patrol schools
US President Donald Trump's administration has deployed about 3.000 federal agents across the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, making it the latest region targeted by the president's mass deportation program, according to Reuters.
People who would normally be organizing parent-teacher meetings are now organizing security patrols at their children's schools to keep an eye out for immigration agents.
Some parents who don't participate in patrols accompany foreign-born teachers or school staff members, driving them to and from school to make them feel safer. Others deliver groceries and prescription drugs to immigrant families too afraid to leave their homes or send their children to school.
US Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat who represents the state of Minnesota, where Minneapolis is located, said on Friday that she had met with school principals from the state and had heard "horrific stories of children and parents under siege by ICE."
"Little children are scared. Dangerous encounters. This is no longer about a fraud investigation," Klobučar wrote on social media, urging citizens to remain calm.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE and the Border Patrol, said this week that more than 2.500 people were arrested during the operation, which officials called "Operation Metro Reinforcement." DHS has repeatedly maintained that its agents are not targeting schools.
"ICE does not go into schools to arrest children — we protect children. Criminals can no longer hide in America's schools to avoid arrest. The Donald Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement officers, but trusts them to use common sense. If a dangerous illegal offender were to escape into a school or if a child sex offender were to work as an employee, a situation could arise in which an arrest is made to protect public safety. But that did not happen," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Parents and school leaders, however, argue otherwise.
A spokesman for St. Paul Public Schools said two vans used by the school to transport students were stopped by ICE agents this week. Several schools and daycare centers sent emails to parents informing them that teachers and staff members had been detained, school officials and parents said.
Some students study online
Schools have reported that some parents have been detained at bus stops after dropping off their children. Border Patrol agents clashed with protesters on the grounds of Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis after school ended, just hours after Goode was killed. DHS said the confrontation occurred after agents chased a person who had crashed into one of their vehicles a few miles away and then fled into the school complex.
Several school districts - including Minneapolis and St. Paul, the two largest in the state - have canceled classes on some days and allowed students to study online instead of attending in-person classes for the next few weeks, in response to the immigration operations.
"Many families in my area are afraid to send their kids to school because ICE is lurking at our bus stops," state Rep. Karli Kotiza-Vithun, a Democrat and co-chair of the Minnesota House of Representatives' Finance and Children and Families Policy Committee, told the Star Tribune.
Nate Byrne, a spokesman for Kids Count on Us, a coalition of 500 community child care centers in Minnesota, said they receive daily reports of ICE officers in or near daycare centers, and that such centers in neighborhoods with high immigrant populations have seen a 50 percent drop in attendance.
"Kids Count on Us," according to Byrne, has also received reports of daycare workers being detained by ICE, although he did not have precise data.
Parents deliver food, collect money
"Parents who are not afraid of being detained by ICE - usually because they are white - form teams to patrol outside daycare centers during the arrival and departure of children, as well as when staff come and go. Parents who are afraid of being detained because of the color of their skin act extremely cautiously," Byrne said.
St. Paul parent Kelly, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of federal retaliation, said she is helping deliver food to immigrant families at her children's school who are afraid to leave their homes. The parents, she and other parents said, are also raising money to help pay rent for families across the metropolitan area, who are missing work as a result.
Kelly, who attended an anti-ICE protest Friday night with her husband and two children, ages six and nine, said she was shocked by what her city had become amid the immigration raids. In previous years, she had volunteered at PTA events. Now she carries a whistle with her at all times and says she is prepared to confront federal agents if they come near her children's school.
"There is no parenting manual in these circumstances. My parents never had to sit me down and explain that my classmates, who suddenly disappeared from school, are not here because their parents are afraid the government will kidnap them," Kelly said.
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