This story was originally published by The Imprint, a national nonprofit news outlet covering child welfare and youth justice. Sign up for The Imprint’s free newsletters here.
In yet another example of the impact on families from the immigration crackdown in Minnesota, a mom landed in ICE detention following a routine court appearance Thursday.
But there were no clear plans for her 7- and 9-year-old Valley View Elementary school children. Who would pick them up from school? Who would make dinner, tuck them in that night? Who would tell them why their mother had suddenly vanished?
Without family nearby to take them in, she asked school officials to bring her kids to the Brutalist-style concrete federal building in Minneapolis, MPR reported.
“I don’t have words,” Jason Kuhlman, the principal of the school the children attend told the station. “The frustration, the anger, yeah, it’s overwhelming.”
Amid the unprecedented federal invasion of American cities that has grown increasingly deadly, Minnesota families like these are being advised to make plans they may have never considered before: finding someone to care for their children if immigration agents whisk them away to be detained or deported. The goal is to avoid foster care, and any additional trauma or terrifying instability.
Some fearful parents try to not leave their residence at all, hoping to avoid exposure to ICE agents patrolling the streets. But they’re also relying on a Delegation of Parental Authority form as a first-line tool should they become separated. The forms, easy to fill out and formalize, give another trusted adult in a child’s life the right to make medical, educational and travel decisions on behalf of their absent parents.
Once the two-page form is notarized, parents can legally delegate the authority to “provide a home, care, and supervision of my child” to another adult.
“I would say the analysis has gone from just ‘deported’ to, ‘I could be killed.’ It’s very scary to think about being separated from your children, but that’s the reality that parents are facing.”
Scotty Ducharme, attorney
Since the end of November, federal immigration agents in the state have raided homes, workplaces, businesses and schools, smashing windows and dragging people from cars, detaining tiny children and fatally shooting peaceful protesters in the Twin Cities. The heavily armed hunt for alleged criminals in President Donald Trump’s second term has swept up racially profiled U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants alike.
Against this backdrop, legal advocates are helping parents prepare. Once finalized, the Delegation of Parental Authority lasts one year. It does not need court approval, but new caregivers are advised to carry the document to doctor’s visits and other situations when they need to prove their legal authority.
The recent invasion of federal immigration enforcement led a group of attorneys, programmers and translators to launch an online portal on Jan. 21 where parents can learn about the form and follow instructions in English or Spanish to fill it out online.
It is unknown how many have used these forms to date, but why they are choosing to do so is clearer. Federal agents claim to have arrested more than 3,300 people in Minnesota in past weeks, and it is unknown how many are parents.
The stakes grew on Jan. 7, when federal agents killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother. On Jan. 25, they shot to death intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens. Víctor Manuel Díaz, a father, died at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Texas detention facility Jan. 14 after he was detained in Minnesota.
Rockpine Law attorney Scotty Ducharme has helped lead the effort to get care for kids lined up in advance.
For parents, “I would say the analysis has gone from just ‘deported’ to, ‘I could be killed,’” Ducharme said. “It’s very scary to think about being separated from your children, but that’s the reality that parents are facing.”
Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid attorney Pheng Thao said one of his clients abruptly became a caretaker after her mother and stepfather were detained. Then her brother was arrested, leaving her to care for her school-age siblings.
But she is running out of money, Thao said, and she can’t leave the house to go to work because of the risk. Meanwhile, the threat of being separated from her siblings looms, and the children’s custody is unclear because the family did not sign a Delegation of Parental Authority form.
“The fear is that if the sister is detained and removed, and there’s no one else, then Child Protective Services will get involved,” Thao said. “Who knows what’s going to happen to these two.”
The forms transferring parental authority can be a comfort for some, but they have limitations.
They provide only a short-term solution because they expire in a year unless they are renewed. Children typically cannot be placed on the employer-sponsored health insurance plans of the adult who agrees to care for them, Thao said. And low-income families who take in children cannot use the forms providing for temporary custody to apply for public benefits.
“The fear is that if the sister is detained and removed, and there’s no one else, then Child Protective Services will get involved.”
— Pheng Thao, Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid
Minnesota advocates suggest parents consider an option called standby guardianship, which also names a legally approved temporary custodian, following a “triggering event.”
But the designation must be signed by all related parties in the presence of two outside adult witnesses and approved by a court, which can take time many families do not have.
According to the National Immigration Law Center, arresting ICE officers must allow parents to make child care arrangements, which means families can ask to call someone to pick up the children. ICE policy says officers should wait for that person to arrive and not leave children alone. If no one can come, officers must call Child Protective Services.
These rules have been tested repeatedly this month. On Jan. 20, agents detained Columbia Heights 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his dad when they arrived home from the boy’s preschool. He is one of at least six children detained by ICE in the Columbia Heights Public School District. The world saw photos online of the child wearing a blue rabbit-eared hat and Spider Man backpack as an agent guides him towards the back of a black SUV. School officials say adults pleaded with agents to let them keep the child.
On Jan. 22, a 2-year-old was also detained along with her father in Minneapolis. She has since been reunited with her mother.
During a visit to Minneapolis that same day, Vice President JD Vance claimed the 5-year-old’s father abandoned his child while fleeing agents.
“If the argument is that you can’t arrest people who have violated our laws because they have children, then every single parent is gonna be completely given immunity from ever being the subject of law enforcement,” Vance said. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Local officials have spent weeks confronting the high-stakes challenges the federal immigration surge has imposed on their communities.
When Dakota County Commissioner Joe Atkins got a call on Dec. 22 from a school official, he figured it was about a crosswalk making it hard for kids to get to class in his district south of St. Paul.
Instead, she called to say that four kids, ranging from age 1 to 17, had no one to care for them. Their mother had been detained by ICE, and the official didn’t know where to turn. Atkins said to call county social services for advice. The kids are now living with a neighbor.
“I want them to be reunited,” Atkins said in an interview. “But first things first, I want them to be safe.”
