Walz demands DHS stop detaining Minnesota children

Gov. Tim Walz denounced how Operation Metro Surge is treating Minnesota’s children on Tuesday, Feb. 3, and sent a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, demanding her agency stop tactics that put kids at risk.

“These are the people that our children should be around,” he said of education leaders by his side, “not masked agents carrying automatic weapons that are pulling them away from their families” and into inhumane conditions.

Though Liam Conejo Ramos, a Columbia Heights preschooler whose detainment in a Texas facility captured national attention, is now finally home, Walz said officials weren’t sure how many other Minnesota kids were sent out of state to detention centers with their parents.

Thanks to a court order, Liam and his father were released and returned to Minnesota on Sunday. But school leaders know of four Columbia Heights students who are still detained in Texas, he said.

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have increasingly been spotted at schools, he said, he’s “demanding clear answers” from Noem about how many kids have been taken and why.

Walz said his expectations related to ICE haven’t changed since he met with Tom Homan, known as Trump’s border czar, a week ago.

“This force must leave Minnesota,” he said, adding that the two fatal shootings at the hands of federal agents, along with other human rights abuses, must be investigated by the state and nonpartisan professionals.

None of this is normal and none of it makes Minnesota safer, Walz said.

“All it does is cause terror and trauma” to the taken children and their classmates, he said.

Willie Jett, Minnesota’s education commissioner, said ICE agents’ actions are making children unsafe and interfering with their education, while Dr. Brooke Cunningham, Minnesota’s health commissioner, raised concerns about conditions in detention centers and the psychological strain detainment causes.

People are delaying doctor visits because they’re afraid to leave their homes, Cunningham said.

The ramped-up presence of federal immigration agents — and the fear it’s created — has disrupted normal school day routines for thousands of students across Minnesota. Attendance has dropped sharply, as some kids are afraid to go to school. More schools have offered virtual learning options. And some schools, from Minneapolis to Fridley, closed temporarily over safety concerns last month.

“Since doing that, the retaliation has been real and it’s been escalating every single day,” she said.

ICE agents staged at two Fridley schools on Jan. 31 and have been following her, she said, while school board members have had ICE vehicles park outside their homes.

Meanwhile, attendance has plummeted and the school has made many adjustments to serve families who don’t feel safe, she said.

“ICE does not belong in and around our schools,” she said.

Tracy Xiong, a social worker at Highland Elementary in Columbia Heights, said her days have changed, too. Rather than meeting with students, she coordinates food deliveries to families stuck at home and children’s transportation to school.

Xiong mentioned a fourth-grader, Elizabeth Zuna, who was taken by ICE to Texas with her mother, and recalled seeing her father cry uncontrollably when he realized what had happened.

Walz said educators, state officials and parents would “stand with our children” for as long as it takes and children who are detained need to be returned today.