The Minneapolis public school system (MPS) has gone all-in on an effort to shield/conceal illegal alien students (and the illegal-alien parents of students) from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in order to frustrate ICE’s enforcement of federal immigration law. However, in doing so, MPS officials are seemingly violating felony provisions of § 274 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 274 prohibits concealing, harboring, or shielding illegal aliens from detection. Penalties generally include imprisonment of up to five years, with much more severe penalties if serious injury or death to any person results.
On January 9, The Associated Press reported that MPS “will offer families the option of remote learning for a month, officials said. … Under the temporary plan, teachers will simultaneously deliver lessons from their classrooms to students in the classroom and at home.”
Why? The AP story stated that MPS was “responding to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out in a city where tensions are high over federal immigration enforcement”. It also quoted a Minneapolis school administrator’s e-mail to staff stating “This meets a really important need for our students who are not able to come to school right now[.]” The story noted that while “Advocates in other cities facing federal [immigration law enforcement] interventions have sought remote learning options, particularly for immigrant families that might feel vulnerable … Minneapolis appears to be one of the few districts to reintroduce the option of virtual learning.”
Also, on January 8, Marcia Howard, president of the Teacher Chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators (MFE), Local 59, posted on Facebook explaining that “MPS is going to be offering an option for students to learn from home until February 12. This is an OPTION in addition to regular classes and exactly what so many families need right now. MFE members brought this to MPS and MPS listened.”
By the way, Howard also posted that:
Minneapolis … is the place the powers-that-be believe that its breakage could signal the death knell of all resistance in America. As we go, goes the nation.
But this flyover, midwest state of “nice” white people, righteous Natives, northern Black folk, third gen immigrants, earnest transplants, the queer, quirky, and cool af — we know how to do US. We all we got. And it will be enough.
Let’s show them what community looks like. Then show [ICE] the exit.
She also posted “ICE OUT!”
Why can’t Minneapolis public school students come to school — because they “don’t feel safe”. On January 9, Becky Dernbach quoted Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in the Sahan Journal:
“Districts need the flexibility to be able to respond in this moment[.] I’m horrified that this option needs to be on the table, distance learning — we need kids in school.” But, [Flanagan] said, she understood that districts might need this option “when children don’t feel safe, because there are federal agents who clearly do not have the safety of children in mind.”
Dernbach also quoted Amanda Otero, co-executive director of TakeAction Minnesota, as saying “Many families are not feeling safe to go out right now. In fact, they are not safe to go out right now[.] So it’s really important that we have options, and give folks and families information to make the best decision for their family.”
As to Twin Cities public school students feeling safe, some of their schools might want to close their doors permanently. Minnesota Public Radio reported in 2023 that:
St. Paul public school students, parents and staff say their biggest safety concerns are the presence of weapons and violence between students. That’s one of many findings contained in a school safety survey presented to the school board. …
Nearly one quarter of families reported at least one of their children being the victim of physical violence — which includes being punched, kicked or knocked down. The survey found that violent incidents were reported more often in elementary and middle schools than in high schools. … [Emphasis added throughout.]
Students at Harding High School — where a student was fatally stabbed in a hallway earlier this year — felt more unsafe than at other schools. Forty-two percent of Harding students reported feeling unsafe in the school’s traditional restrooms.
[T]he district’s research director Kara Arzamendia read a parent’s note from a listening session.
“My student will not use bathrooms at school for fear of violence and exposure to drugs,” read the note. “They try and ‘hold it’ all day.”
In any event, “feeling safe” clearly means feeling safe from the enforcement of duly enacted federal law. The AP reported that:
This fall, Chicago school board members called for a remote option during a federal [immigration law enforcement] intervention there, but Chicago Public Schools has resisted offering it. New York state last year allowed districts to offer virtual schooling to students afraid of Trump’s immigration crackdown, but it’s not clear how many districts took advantage of it.
While the Chicago public schools resisted the urge to impede federal law enforcement efforts, MPS has decided to join the Resistance.
Section 274 of the INA provides that:
Any person who ... knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation ... or ... engages in any conspiracy to commit any [such] act[], or ... aids or abets the commission of any ... [such] act[], shall be punished as provided [below].
Statutory penalties are as follows:
A person who violates [the above] shall, for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs ...
- in the case of a violation ... be fined … , imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both;
- [if] the offense was done for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain, be fined … , imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both;
- in the case of a violation ... during and in relation to which the person causes serious bodily injury ... to, or places in jeopardy the life of, any person, be fined … , imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both; and
- in the case of a violation ... resulting in the death of any person, be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, fined … , or both.
Does what MPS is doing constitute concealing, harboring, or shielding illegal aliens from detection? In 2013, the Second Circuit ruled in U.S. v. Vargas-Cordon that:
[To] “harbor” ... a defendant must engage in conduct that is intended both to substantially help an unlawfully present alien remain in the United States — such as by providing him with shelter, money, or other material comfort — and also is intended to help prevent the detection of the alien by the authorities.
What does “substantial help” mean? In 2007, the Fifth Circuit explained in U.S. v. Shiu Sun Shum that “we hold that to ‘substantially facilitate’ means to make an alien's illegal presence in the United States substantially ‘easier or less difficult’”.
In 2009, the Seventh Circuit ruled in U.S. v. Xiang Hui Ye, in the context of defining harboring’s sister crime “shielding”, that unlawful facilitation does not even need to be “substantial:
Neither “conduct tending substantially” nor any similar wording appears in the text of the current statute or its previous versions, nor is it even mentioned in the legislative history. ... Rather, it is merely a judicial addition to the statute. ... Whether ... conduct “tends substantially” to assist an alien is irrelevant, for the statute requires no specific quantum or degree of assistance.
Congress could not have been clearer: it said that concealing, harboring, or shielding from detection an alien is unlawful conduct, regardless of how effective a defendant’s efforts to help the alien might tend to be. If a person commits a relatively nominal act that is proscribed … , the executive branch has the discretion to forego prosecution. Courts’ overlaying the statute with the “tending substantially” veneer appropriates that discretion and also invades the province of Congress by de-criminalizing lesser forms of conduct — i.e., actions that only “tend slightly or moderately” to help an alien.
No other circuit appears to have adopted this analysis. In any event, it seems pretty clear that MPS is engaged in conduct intended to substantially help unlawfully present aliens to remain in the U.S. and to help prevent their detection by the authorities. The whole point of keeping them at home is to prevent their detection!
It is true that MPS has opened up the stay-at-home policy to all students. But keep in mind that the AP reported that:
One concern some school districts have raised is they are normally prohibited from asking families about their immigration status. If the school offers virtual learning for students worried about immigration enforcement, it could unintentionally identify that someone in their home is here illegally.
To get around this problem, advocates have urged districts to offer the option to everyone, not just students from immigrant homes.
MPS is clearly offering the option to all students for precisely this purpose. Again, it seems pretty clear that MPS is acting with the goals of substantially helping unlawfully present aliens to remain in the U.S. and helping prevent their detection by the authorities.
It seems pretty clear that MPS officials are blatantly committing federal felonies in broad daylight (even if there is not much of that in Minneapolis this time of year).