"There is snow on the ground, but for some Chicago families, this is a moment of unfreezing. ICE is still out there, but Commander Gregory Bovino and his strike force have moved on. After months, Operation Midway Blitz has quieted. In places like the elementary school where I am principal, some parents who were hiding are poking their heads out doors. Children holding their breath since September are beginning to exhale."
"But in one Chicago school, a third grade boy stopped eating because he was afraid to type in his lunch code, worried ICE would somehow see it and know where he was, or his family. In another, agents entered a schoolyard in the middle of the day and took a landscaper while children were inside learning. The Department of Homeland Security says these operations target gang members, rapists, kidnappers, and drug traffickers, the worst of the worst."
"They want us to imagine dark strangers who put others in danger. Trump himself calls immigrants animals and rough people who are poisoning the blood of our country. But when they talk about immigration, they are talking about our students. About you, or your grandmother. Your neighbor. People who walk their kids to school. Most years, my job is to make sure we have enough copy paper and to observe classes,"
Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago has quieted after months, prompting some previously hiding parents to emerge and children to relax. ICE raids and sting operations have occurred in multiple cities, including LA, Washington DC, Charlotte, New Orleans, and Minneapolis. Agents have entered schoolyards and taken workers while children were inside classrooms. Fear has altered student behavior, including a third-grade boy who stopped eating rather than type a lunch code. The Department of Homeland Security frames the raids as targeting serious criminals. Rhetoric portraying immigrants as dangerous contrasts with the reality of students, neighbors, and caregivers affected by the enforcement.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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