MINNEAPOLIS — Standing outside his son’s elementary school, a father heard a warning crackle over his walkie-talkie: a suspicious car nearby.
At another school, volunteer Joe Dirkswager stood watch, nodding at passing vehicles. Miles away in St. Paul, Matthew Kearns was questioning unfamiliar individuals near the school he graduated from decades ago.
The three are among the volunteers who have begun patrolling streets around elementary and high schools in the Twin Cities, using walkie-talkies, Signal group chats and whistles to warn families and school staff of immigration enforcement activities. The informal patrols have emerged amid a sharp surge of federal immigration personnel in Minnesota and the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer last week.
On Thursday afternoon, about two dozen adults lined the perimeter of Green Central Elementary School in central Minneapolis, just blocks from where Good was killed. Patrol volunteers scanned nearby streets and relayed updates in real time.
The father, Greg, a 42-year-old who asked that his last name not be published because of safety concerns for his family, said the patrols have forced families into impossible decisions on a daily basis.
“Every morning I feel like I’m forced with the choice of ‘Do I try to do patrol to protect my daughter and her preschool or do I come to my son’s kindergarten to do patrol here?’” he asked.
“Those are the kind of choices that the community is being faced with.”
Greg and eight other volunteers who spoke with NBC News said the patrols are especially aimed at protecting parents and school staff who are not U.S. citizens and fear being detained while coming and going from schools.
Minneapolis public school families, educators and students hold a news conference in Minneapolis on Jan. 9 to demand ICE be kept out of schools.Kerem Yücel / Minnesota Public Radio via AP
More than 3,000 federal immigration personnel have descended on Minnesota in recent weeks, and more than 2,500 undocumented immigrants have been apprehended in Minneapolis since November, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The enforcement push — dubbed Operation Metro Surge — follows renewed scrutiny of a state fraud investigation involving a number of individuals of Somali descent, a link that community leaders say has fueled fear beyond those accused.
The heightened enforcement has coincided with clashes between teachers, parents and federal law enforcement officers.
On Wednesday, a parent was detained by ICE at a school bus stop in Robbinsdale, a Minneapolis suburb, according to a statement from Robbinsdale Area Schools Superintendent Teri Staloch. And last week, on the day Good was killed, U.S. Border Patrol agents clashed with teachers and protesters at the nearby Roosevelt High School. At least one educator was detained and released, according to the teachers union.
Border Patrol agents detain a man near Roosevelt High School during dismissal time the same day Renee Good was killed.Kerem Yucel / AFP – Getty Images
In response to the disruptions, the Minneapolis Public School District said last week it would offer online classes to its roughly 30,000 students until Feb. 12. St. Paul Public Schools, which serves more than 30,000 students, said Thursday it would offer a similar online option and will close school several days next week to prepare.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that “ICE is not going to schools to arrest children — we are protecting children,” and that “criminals are no longer able to hide in America’s schools to avoid arrest.”
“Our officers are highly trained and in the face of rioting, doxxing, and physical attacks, they have shown professionalism,” she added. “They are not afraid of loud noises and whistles.”
Bearing witness
Kearns, 56, said the heightened enforcement has been visible beyond the schools where organized patrols first appeared. On Friday afternoon, he drove around Riverview Elementary School on Minneapolis’ west side — which has a large Latino population — watching sites he said have become flashpoints in recent weeks.
“We have basically a Gestapo coming in and infiltrating our neighborhood and just doing whatever they feel like they want to do,” he said.
The sightings pushed Kearns to begin patrolling the area around his former school.
“I grew up, born and raised here, went to this school, played football here, kissed my wife when I was a little boy,” he said, pointing to a field on the school’s property. “We protect our kids in our community. I mean, that’s what every other community would do in this situation or any situation.”
As NBC News spoke with Kearns, a handful of volunteers — most of them parents — watched nearby. Several appeared visibly shaken, declining to discuss how the patrols were organized or how volunteers communicate, citing safety concerns about publicizing their plans. St. Paul Public Schools expressed gratitude for the “care and concern” from the community but noted the patrols are being organized independently. The Minneapolis Public School District did not immediately return a request for comment.
The patrols in Minneapolis mirror tactics that have emerged in other Democratic-run cities amid stepped-up immigration enforcement. In recent months, volunteers in cities including Chicago and Los Angeles have deployed similar patrols.
Leah Hood, 42, an instructor at a nearby university, said she started patrolling Green Central Elementary School this week after hearing from her friends who were already volunteering. She said the presence of observers feels crucial in a moment when families fear encounters could happen without witnesses.
“I mean, how horrifying that you would be kidnapped off the street while coming and going from school at all?” she asked. “But how much more horrifying and terrifying is it to think that that could happen and no one would see it, and no one would be able to attest to the fact that this is real, and they did this to you?”
Leah Hood, 42, has been volunteering to patrol streets near Green Central Elementary School in Minneapolis this week. Courtesy Leah Hood
Hood pointed to directives from state and local officials in recent days. Prosecutors have asked the public to submit videos related to Good’s killing, as much of the evidence gathered by the FBI remains inaccessible to local authorities. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz this week encouraged Minnesotans to “peacefully film ICE agents as they conduct their activities.”
Kids scared and confused
Parents and teachers who spoke with NBC News said children have been fearful and confused amid the heightened enforcement.
Desiree, who has patrolled Green Central Elementary School for weeks and asked that her last name not be published due to safety concerns, said her son has repeatedly asked about law enforcement sightings nearby.
“It’s not a mystery to them that something terrible is happening and that it’s happening right around them,” she said.
Greg said the community, shaped by past trauma over George Floyd’s killing, has responded with solidarity.
“You get on this corner and all day long it’s just cars passing by, and everyone’s waving and saying ‘thank you’ because we’re all looking out for each other,” he said.
Dirkswager, 38, said the events last week compelled him to patrol Bancroft Elementary School in the Central neighborhood of Minneapolis, blocks away from where Floyd was murdered in 2020.
“The events last week pushed me to the point where I had to get outside and do something — even if it’s just standing on a corner and blowing my silly little whistle at federal agents that are driving by,” he said.
