Shakopee Student Speaks Out After Immigration Stop Near School
A Shakopee High School student spoke at the State Capitol after being stopped by immigration agents days after Operation Metro Surge ended, as advocates raised concerns about ICE activity and conditions at the Dilley detention center.
Emily Rojas, a student at Shakopee High School, told a packed crowd at the state Capitol on Thursday, Feb. 26, that immigration agents stopped the car she was riding in on Feb. 16 — four days after Border Czar Tom Homan announced the end of Operation Metro Surge and one week before DHS told members of Congress that agents had been directed not to stage near schools.
“On my way to my friend’s house from school, I was in a car when we were stopped by immigration agents,” Rojas said. “There were multiple vehicles there, and it became a very stressful situation. I wasn’t afraid for myself as much as I was afraid for someone else in the car.”
Rojas was one of several speakers at a rally organized by Unidos MN. Participants marched to the second floor of the Capitol rotunda in opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Speakers and clergy emphasized that despite a significant withdrawal of federal agents, the broader immigration fight is far from over.
Participants held large cardboard signs displaying letters and drawings made by children held at the Dilley immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas.
“What worries me most is the idea of something like this happening at our school,” Rojas said. “Schools are supposed to be places where students feel safe, where we focus on learning, friendships and our future. The enforcement actions that continue to happen near or at schools are causing fear and disruption for students like me.”
Rojas said the encounter has changed how she thinks about daily routines, including which routes she takes to and from school. Her experience comes amid assurances from DHS field office director Sam Olson, who told lawmakers that agents should not stage near schools, hospitals or places of worship.
Homan announced Feb. 2 that Operation Metro Surge had concluded. Rojas’ encounter occurred four days later.
“I remember feeling so shaken and very unsure about what had just happened,” Rojas said. “Experiences like that affect how young people move throughout the world. You start thinking about what areas to avoid, what routes feel safe, and how easily a normal day can turn into something very frightening.”
Conditions at Dilley
The rally came the same day ProPublica reported that staff at the Dilley facility had raided cells and confiscated letters and drawings after publishing its Feb. 9 investigation, “The Children of Dilley.”
About 3,500 detainees, more than half of them minors, have cycled through the Dilley center since it reopened in March 2025. Nearly 300 children have been held longer than the 20-day benchmark established under the Flores Settlement Agreement.
“The Children of Dilley” documented reports from children and parents of contaminated food, including worms in meals, and limited access to medical care.
Six students from Columbia Heights Public Schools were detained by ICE and sent to Dilley. Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos returned to Minnesota earlier this month after a federal judge ordered his release.
“The truth is, he’s not the same boy he was before,” Liam’s father, Adrian Conejo Arias, told MPR News. “He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy.’”
Three Columbia Heights students are believed to remain in detention at Dilley, where two cases of measles have been reported, raising concerns about unvaccinated children.
Community Response
“When your father is deported to Honduras after 11 days, and you are an elementary school student, that feels like you’re being orphaned in some ways,” said Pastor Melissa Gonzalez Melnick of Tapestry Church. “And let me tell you about our U.S. citizen-born children who are basically incarcerated in their own homes because they or their parents are too afraid to go out, and it is a fear that is justified.”
“I know that having children in detention is not a new thing,” said Emilia Gonzalez Avalos, executive director of Unidos MN.
Gonzalez Avalos reflected on the emotional toll of organizing over the past several months, as activists she worked alongside were detained by federal agents.
“Sometimes in my fear, I blame myself,” Gonzalez Avalos said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.”
She closed with a note of optimism, expressing confidence that the same resistance movement that pressured DHS agents to scale back operations in Minnesota could help end what she described as an immigration system that indiscriminately detains children.
“Minnesotans, there’s going to be a day in which we look back from a place of victory,” Gonzalez Avalos said. “We’ll be celebrating how we got children out of detention centers, how we reunited families, how we organized people who were not in agreement with us, and together, we saved our democracy.”
Additional protests are scheduled for Friday, Feb. 27, beginning at 3:30 p.m. at Nicollet Mall and 12th Street. A rent strike vote from the Twin Cities Tenant Union is expected Saturday, Feb. 28. Later that evening, noise demonstrations are planned at various hotels suspected of housing ICE agents, beginning at 8 p.m.