The Schoolchildren of Minneapolis

""The other day, the school was unusually quiet. Its corridors, colorful with children's art, had phrases of encouragement ("together is always better") painted on the walls. One hallway had a line of bikes for kids to learn how to ride; a corner had a bin full of cross-country skis for their use. On a lobby bulletin board, photos introduced the members of a "Volunteer Piano Ensemble," most of them gray-haired, who come and play the piano as children arrive at school.""

""Her husband was picked up at the courthouse, and he's in El Paso, Texas." The family was from Ecuador, and the mother had decided that they would return there. "I mean, her son is a student in my class, and he doesn't know how to read in his native language, and now he doesn't know how to read in English, either, because his year has been interrupted," the teacher said. "And now they're going home, and I'm scared for them.""

"She said she had begged another parent, who works as a maid at a downtown hotel, not to risk going to work; another mother who worked as a hotel maid had already been detained-"by an ICE agent staying at the hotel," the teacher said. The mother who worked at the downtown hotel would not be dissuaded, even when several others from school intervened."

School corridors were unusually quiet, decorated with children's art, encouragement phrases, a row of bikes, a bin of cross-country skis, and photos of a gray-haired volunteer piano ensemble. Two teachers consolidated diminished classes and managed routines with patience, using a timer during cleanup and a rug for a math lesson. A Spanish-fluent teacher relayed that a student's father was detained in El Paso, prompting the Ecuadorian family to plan a return and leaving the student behind academically. Teachers and families worried about interrupted learning as some parents, including hotel maids, faced detention or continued to risk work despite offers of rent and grocery support.

Read at The New Yorker