The superintendent of Fridley schools says there is still fear among students and staff as Operation Metro Surge begins its third month in the Twin Cities.
Dr. Brenda Lewis told the WCCO Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar that safety precautions continue at all school buildings in the district, a similar story told at other metro school districts.
"I will continue to do my patrols as I do, I will continue to love up on our school staff, our administrators, I'll continue to get our message out," said Lewis. "We need helpers. We need people to get this to stop. We need safety back in our schools."
Lewis says about 20 percent of Fridley's student population are on virtual learning, making the hallways and lunchrooms less crowded than usual.
Lewis says for many who are coming to class, the fear is that when they get home after school, parents or guardians will be gone.
Fridley's reactions to the increased ICE activities was highlighted in a weekend New York Times article.
Lewis says this fear is still very real among students.
"They're worrying that when they get home, they'll get home to a parent or an adult caregiver that has been taken," Lewis explained. You can feel it when you walk in our halls."
Lewis says safety procedures that have been in place over the past several weeks will stay in effect.
The comments from Lewis come a day after a 5-year-old boy and his father are back in their home in neighboring Columbia Heights after being detained by ICE agents since Jan. 20. He was released following a judge’s order and returned to Minnesota on Sunday.
On Monday, Columbia Heights school district officials called off school due to a threat of some sort. According to a post on their website, they say they're doling so out of an "abundance of caution," and because of what they call "a credible threat."
Images of immigration officers surrounding the young boy in a blue bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack drew outrage about the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minneapolis.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not target or arrest the boy, and repeated assertions that his mother refused to take him after his father’s apprehension. His father told officers he wanted Liam to be with him, she said.
Neighbors and school officials have accused federal immigration officers of using the preschooler as “bait” by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would come outside. DHS has called that description of events an “abject lie.” It said the father fled on foot and left the boy in a running vehicle in their driveway.
The government said the boy's father entered the U.S. illegally from Ecuador in December 2024. The family’s lawyer said he has an asylum claim pending that allows him to stay in the U.S.
The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review’s online court docket shows no future hearings for Liam’s father.