EXCLUSIVE — Liberal activist groups, such as the environmental organization Sunrise Movement and the Latino advocacy nonprofit UNIDOS, are organizing Minneapolis high school students to protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Activists plan for students to walk out of class on Friday and organize another protest during school hours on Tuesday, Jan. 27, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
“Minnesota is under attack, and schools are on the frontlines. Our classmates are teargassed, kidnapped or missing,” a student walkout guide from the Sunrise Movement and UNIDOS MN read. “Trump is experimenting on us to see how far he can take his authoritarian agenda.”
In a slideshow shown to students, Sunrise Movement organizers said there were three options for high schoolers to make their voices heard during the walkout. Students could participate in a “mass buy and return” at Target, rally at a state government building, or volunteer and gather supplies.
“We are seeing this surge in ICE agents because we live in an authoritarian regime,” another slideshow shown to students reads. “ICE is being used to terrorize and divide everyday people, while billionaires get richer.”
“Mass buy and return” protests are designed to clog up employees’ time so that other shoppers are inconvenienced, thus harming the company.
None of the documents reviewed by the Washington Examiner indicated that parents had been informed of the walkout or had been asked for permission. The Sunrise Movement did not respond to a request for comment.
Students are advised to record ICE operations on school grounds in the Sunrise Movement presentations.
“If ICE is on your school grounds (code orange). Record whatever you see (do NOT livestream). Help people get inside the school to stay safe. Don’t escalate the situation. Do not physically get into fights with ICE agents. If ICE is in your school (hasn’t happened, code red). Lock doors, stay in classrooms,” a training guide read.
The Saint Paul Federation of Educators, a local teachers union, is also planning its own “Day of Action,” meaning members would walk out and refuse to teach their classes on Friday.
“Parents, teachers, and community members need to put a stop to the teachers unions and their nonprofit allies training minors to be street activists in service to advancing their far-left political agenda,” Rhyen Staley, Director of Research for Defending Education, a conservative watchdog organization, told the Washington Examiner.
“Not only are students not getting the education they deserve, but they are being encouraged to forgo class time to protest. The school-to-activist pipeline must come to an end.”
The SPFE and UNIDOS have the same demands: “1. ICE must leave Minnesota now. 2. The officer who killed Renee Good must be held legally accountable. 3. No additional federal funding for ICE.”
The Sunrise Movement also has its own specific demands on behalf of Minneapolis students, demanding an end to truancy limits and a pause on standardized testing due to “unequal education.”
One of the group’s organizers is Simon Aron, a Brown University student and activist. He has participated in pro-Palestinian encampments as part of the group Jews for Ceasefire Now and is co-president of Brown Rise Up, a student organization dedicated to protesting the federal government’s demands on Brown University and similar Ivy League colleges.
The Sunrise Movement works to “force the government to end the era of fossil fuel elites, invest in Black, brown and working class communities, and create millions of good union jobs,” according to its mission statement.
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“It’s time for us to take over, classroom by classroom, school by school, city by city,” its website reads.
The Sunrise Movement receives funding from the Ford Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and the Windward Fund. It is also partnered with the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of University Professors, Indivisible, and Socialist Alternative.
Tensions are heightened in Minneapolis, as anti-ICE protesters follow federal officers as they conduct immigration enforcement actions in the city. ICE operations in the city have been controversial, including the recent detention of a 5-year-old on Tuesday and the shooting of Renee Good on Jan. 7.
Violent confrontations between protesters and federal law enforcement have been common in the city since the beginning of “Operation Metro Surge” in December.