Two Columbia Heights elementary school students detained in Texas facility return to Minnesota

Two Columbia Heights elementary students and their mother have returned to Minnesota after nearly a week in a federal detention facilities, according to a statement Wednesday, Feb. 4, from Columbia Heights Public Schools.

The second- and fifth-grade Valley View Elementary students were detained Jan. 29 after their mother was detained during an immigration check-in.

Valley View Principal Jason Kuhlman then escorted the boys from their classrooms to the Whipple Federal Building at their mother’s request. The family was flown to the Dilley family detention facility outside San Antonio and released after a Jan. 30 court order.

The two students are among at least seven in the small suburban school district who have been detained by federal agents recently, said Peg Nelson, a Columbia Heights educator. The school district has been among the most vocal in Minnesota to speak out against the surge in immigration enforcement agents and the impact on its students and staff.

More than half of the district’s 3,000 students are Hispanic or Latino.

The boys attend the same school, Valley View Elementary, as 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who is also back home in Minnesota after his detention attracted international attention. Nelson said at least 27 Valley View family members have been detained.

“It’s hard to keep track because we have some family members who are just disappearing,” she said.

The school district said Elizabeth Zuna Caisaguano, a fourth-grade student at Highland Elementary School, was the first student from the district detained by immigration agents, on Jan. 6, though it’s unclear when the mother and daughter will return to Minnesota because of a measles outbreak at the Dilley facility that may require a quarantine.

The Valley View boys and their mother are healthy and “eager to resume the boys’ schooling,” district leaders said.

While detained, according to the district statement, the students encountered another Valley View fifth-grader in the facility cafeteria — a girl whose family had not been in contact with the school for nearly a month.

School officials said they were initially unaware the student and her family had been detained but have since connected them with legal representation. The district also said a 17-year-old Columbia Heights High School student and her mother are at the same facility and staff is working to provide resources and assistance.

“We are committed to bringing back all of our CHPS students who are in detention facilities and will continue to advocate for all children being released from detention,” the statement read, adding that staff is concerned about the health and well-being of children in detention and want a “diplomatic and peaceful solution to end this terror that the enhanced immigration enforcement is causing in our community, our state and our country.”

A neighboring school district, Fridley, joined Duluth and Education Minnesota in suing the federal government on Feb. 4 over ICE conducting operations near schools.