Kids are missing from class. Schools have been cancelled. Children are not only afraid to go to school, but also fear coming home and finding their parents are gone.

On Jan. 20, five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias were taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers just outside of Minneapolis. 

Destiny Jackson, a Minnesota mother, said her 6-month-old baby was tear gassed and in need of CPR. 

Non-white students at the University of Minnesota are carrying around two or even three forms of identification, fearing the ICE agents who sleep in hotels down the street.

Governor Tim Walz commented on these developments, stating “All it does is cause terror and trauma to the children,” referring to increasing deportation initiatives put forth by the Trump administration. Walz rebukes deportation efforts on kids, arguing that “none of this makes Minnesota any safer.”

Trump’s deportation plan began by targeting undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds, then sanctuary cities, and more recently, children. 

Jack Sanda, a University of Denver (DU) student from Minnesota shared his thoughts on the current situation back home.

“I think what happened with Liam and his father was terrible. To snatch a little kid coming out of school is evil,” Sanda argues, “the Trump administration’s messaging commonly paints immigrants as criminals.” 

That message has been a point of contention in politics, but it is important to note that as of Feb. 7 it has been found that 73.6% of immigrants being held in detention centers possess no criminal conviction.  

Tom Homan, Trump’s newly appointed border czar, announced on Feb. 4 that the administration would be withdrawing 700 agents from Minneapolis in order to “end the surge” and ensure only the detainment of “undocumented criminals.” 

One must wonder, though, if the damage is far too irreversible, and if the trauma that families, parents and children alike have seen has surpassed what anyone should be experiencing in the United States of America. 

Ta’Khya Carlisle, a Minneapolis student at Roosevelt High School claims she will never feel the same about law enforcement after ICE sprayed chemicals and became aggressive with members of the school. After the incident, 17-year-old Carlisle said, “I don’t think I will ever get over seeing somebody in any kind of authority’s uniform without my heart dropping,” a sentence that no child in the United States should utter.