Four students from the Columbia Heights school district, north of Minneapolis, including a five-year-old child, have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in recent weeks, according to local authorities. Superintendent Zena Stenvik informed at a press conference that the minor, five years old, was arrested along with his father at the entrance of their home after returning from preschool. Stenvik indicated that agents have patrolled neighborhoods, surrounded schools, followed buses, and detained students at different times of the day, generating fear and concern among families and teachers. 'The sense of security in our community and around our schools is shaken, and our hearts are broken,' she stated. Among those detained is also a 17-year-old high school student arrested on his way to school, a student of the same age detained with her mother last week, and a 10-year-old girl arrested two weeks ago while walking to school with her mother. The minors' families have active asylum cases and none had a deportation order. Immigration authorities have not commented on these detentions, but a day before they were made public, the head of the border patrol, Gregg Bovino, assured the press that ICE will not leave Minneapolis despite the wave of rejection shown in repeated protests, justifying their presence by saying they focus on detaining undocumented individuals with criminal records. After Renee Good, a 37-year-old American woman, was killed by a gunshot from a migration agent at the beginning of January, tensions between the Trump administration and the Democratic governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, have intensified, leading to mutual accusations in different courts and disputes over the excesses of federal agents or the intervention of local authorities in their operations.
