Tag: ICE

  • Children With Disabilities Particularly Vulnerable to Minneapolis ICE Crackdown – The 74

    Children With Disabilities Particularly Vulnerable to Minneapolis ICE Crackdown – The 74


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    The Trump administration’s weeks-long immigration enforcement campaign in Minneapolis, which has shuttered schools and terrified students and parents, has left one group particularly vulnerable: children with disabilities. 

    Their families, who already fear their kids shutting down, running away, harming themselves or acting out when confronted under normal circumstances, have seen their anxiety skyrocket as they contemplate worst-case scenarios with federal agents. 

    Thousands of Minnesotans gathered in sub-zero temperatures Friday to demonstrate against the federal government’s ongoing presence, including surrounding the airport terminal and flooding the streets downtown.

    Idil Ahmed, who lives near the epicenter of raids and protests, worries about her 6-year-old autistic daughter having a meltdown during an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

    “If they stop us, all hell will break loose with my child,” Ahmed said. “And there is no talking to these people.”

    Parents tell The 74 they have no faith, after federal agents ripped a disabled, autistic woman from her car and, according to school officials, used a 5-year-old as bait this week to lure his mother from their home, that immigration officials would be patient with a child who can’t immediately respond to orders.

    “When I saw that image of this young boy with his backpack, I thought, ‘That could be my son,’” said Najma Siyad, mother of a 5-year-old with autism. 

    Both Ahmed and Siyad are members of Minneapolis’ Somali community, the largest in the United States and one that has been virulently targeted for removal by President Donald Trump. 

    They are among many Somali families whose children have autism; a neurodevelopmental condition that is prevalent in their community.

    They and other Somali-Americans say their children are doubly vulnerable by virtue of their race and disability: While the first is obvious, making them a potential mark for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the second is not. 

    They and other families with special needs kids have missed school, skipped doctor’s visits and, in many cases, are not getting the occupational, physical and speech therapy services that help their children manage their lives and progress academically.  

    Ahmed said her daughter missed three consecutive weeks of occupational therapy because her therapist was too fearful to enter their neighborhood.

    “OT for us is so important,” Ahmed said. “It regulates her emotions, helps with fine motor skills, simple things like dressing, eating, body movements, the teaching of how to be physically independent.”

    And while multiple districts are offering remote learning to families afraid to leave their homes, online instruction isn’t a viable option for children who need a team of skilled school staff to access their education. 

    “It’s not a solution for us,” said Anisa Hagi-Mohamed, founder of an autism advocacy group called Maangaar Voices. 

    Regression, both educationally and socially, is a constant concern, these parents say. But stronger still is their worry about their child coming face-to-face with a federal agent who doesn’t know — and perhaps doesn’t care — why they won’t interact. 

    A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and CBP, said he was working on a response as to whether agents are trained to interact with autistic children and others with disabilities. Minnesota law requires autism training for peace officers but this does not apply to ICE and CBP, Minneapolis advocates say.

    Hagi-Mohamed has three kids, a 9-year-old son and two daughters, ages 5 and 8. All are “on the autism spectrum,” and each has their own unique vulnerability, she said.

    Her middle child is nonverbal and frequently runs away to no particular destination. 

    And her son looks far older than his age. He also has difficulty responding to anyone who commands him to act. 

    “He would completely shut down, self harm and get hurt in the process,” Hagi-Mohamed said, imagining him in an ICE encounter. “I worry all the time.”

    She’s advised him not to talk to any adults outside of school or home. 

    She’s frightened, too, for her 5-year-old, who treats all grownups with the same deference as her parents. 

    “The stranger danger thing is not so strong in her,” Hagi-Mohamed said. “She is one of those kids who if you tell her to do something, she will do it.”

    These families say they have remained petrified ever since an ICE agent in Minneapolis killed unarmed motorist Renee Good on Jan. 7 just after she dropped her 6-year-old son off at school. Hours later, federal agents wreaked havoc at nearby Roosevelt High School. 

    Maren Christenson, executive director of the Multicultural Autism Action Network, said she lives so close to where Good was shot that she’s worried tear gas will seep through the family’s windows from the ongoing protests. 

    Maren Christenson and her son, Simon Hofer (Maren Christenson)

    Christenson’s 14-year-old son, Simon Hofer, has autism and she can’t predict how he would respond to an ICE agent. 

    The boy said he’s worried — not so much for himself, but for his friends. 

    “I have been feeling angry, scared, sad,” he told The 74 on Thursday. “It feels kind of hopeless sometimes and overwhelming. Friends of mine and classmates are afraid to go to school and so they attend online.”

    His mother has told the special education community that even if someone is Caucasian, is a citizen, has a disability and can articulate their challenges, they are not free from peril. 

    Her advice? “Comply: do what they tell you to stay safe.” 

    But she’s unsure whether that strategy would work for people with autism who can become unmoored by such an encounter. Stress might hamper their ability to communicate, she said.

    “We have held a number of community conversations and brainstormed, asking, ‘What could we do? What are people doing?’” she said. “But the truth of the matter is we are in uncharted territory. There is no guidebook, no best practices for when your city is under siege.”

    A mother of two boys with autism who lives in the southern suburbs of Minneapolis and who asked not to be named to protect her family’s safety, said her children, ages 8 and 5, are just now learning about the concept of police. 

    They cannot at all understand the complexity of immigration enforcement — or the harsh tactics that have come with it — so she’s keeping them mostly at home.

    “There is only so much I can do when I am not with them,” she said.

    Hodan, the mother of an 18-year-old college student who has autism, said her son has always had high anxiety. But now, she said, it’s worse. She’s given him a list of a dozen phone numbers to call in an emergency that he keeps in his jeans and in his shoes. 

    “He has his citizenship card in his pocket and when we drive, I make him put it on the center console,” said his mom, who asked that her last name not to be used to protect her family.

    Along with school and therapy sessions, also gone from families’ routines are winter afternoons at indoor play spaces, trips to the gym for their teenagers and other child-friendly destinations. 

    Siyad, a mother of three who lives 18 miles south of Minneapolis, close to St. Paul, said they recently took the 26-minute drive to the Minnesota Children’s Museum and had to turn around when they were three minutes away after witnessing an ICE encounter on the road. 

    “That fear is daily,” she said. “I am a naturalized citizen but I was not carrying my passport at the time. We had to turn around immediately.”

    The painful irony, she said, is that her children, like all of the others in this story, their parents said, are U.S. citizens. 

    “Our kids are as American as apple pie,” she said. “This is their home.”


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  • Fear, arrests and know-your-rights: How one school district is grappling with ICE coming to town

    Fear, arrests and know-your-rights: How one school district is grappling with ICE coming to town

    by Alexandra Villarreal, The Hechinger Report
    January 23, 2026

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — “They took her, they took her, they took her.”  

    Those were some of the words Assistant Principal Cora Muñoz could discern while on the phone with the guardian of one of her students. As the caller sobbed and struggled to speak, Muñoz realized that immigration enforcement agents had detained a kid from Wilbur Cross, the high school she helps lead. 

    Again.

    There was a reason why Muñoz was a go-to contact for the student and her guardian: She — and New Haven public schools more broadly — have worked hard to earn the trust of immigrant families in their diverse district, even as the second Trump administration has made it easier for immigration officers to enter schools and launched a mass deportation campaign.

    The district’s teachers and administrators have nurtured deep relationships with immigrant-serving organizations and helped kids access resources — attorneys, social workers, food — when needed. They’ve hosted sessions to inform students about their rights, and sent home cards with legal information in case of an encounter with immigration officers. And when the worst has happened — when someone’s child or parent has been detained, which has occurred over and over in recent months — they have taken immediate action, writing letters in support of the family member’s freedom and raising money alongside a larger coalition of advocates trying to bring that person home. 

    “In these moments where it’s hard, you show up,” said Muñoz, “and you do what you can.”

    Yet nothing has been able to entirely snuff out the fear of deportation inside the city’s schools, say students and educators. That may have contributed to a decline this October in the number of English language learner students enrolling; their numbers dropped by more than 2,000, or nearly 3.8 percent, across Connecticut between fall 2024 and fall 2025, and by hundreds — or 7.3 percent — in New Haven, with many immigrant families who were expected to return to school simply disappearing. 

    Chronic absenteeism rates fell in New Haven during the 2024-25 academic year. But after President Donald Trump took office, students said their families told them to skip extracurriculars or early college courses at a university campus in case immigration enforcement was around. For some, a college degree has started to feel more out of reach, as they adjust their dreams to fit within a new anti-immigrant reality. Teachers have seen kids stop participating in class after friends have been detained and they wonder if they could be next. 

    “I live with fear,” said Darwin, an 18-year-old student from Guatemala who has lived in New Haven for two years. His last name, like those of others in this story, is being withheld for safety reasons. “Sometimes I don’t even want to attend school because it makes me afraid to go out of the house.”

    In many school districts around the country, immigrant enrollment is down, as far fewer asylum seekers are able to reach the United States and some immigrants have chosen to self-deport to avoid the specter of detention. That said, the consequences of Trump’s mass deportation campaign on immigrants’ education vary greatly depending on the community, its demographics and the level of enforcement activity there, said Julie Sugarman, associate director for K-12 education research at the D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. 

    In the Minneapolis area, for instance, where a federal officer shot and killed Renee Good after she dropped off her 6-year-old child at school, districts are offering a virtual learning option for the many kids who are staying home in fear.  

    “We are definitely hearing anecdotally that there are kids not going to school,” Sugarman said. “Obviously, losing a whole year of education or however long they’re not in school, they are missing out on opportunities to develop their content knowledge, to learn literacy, to develop English, and also to develop academic skills in their native language.” 

    Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter featuring the most important stories in education. 

    With seven institutions of higher learning in the area, New Haven is known as a college town. But it is also a city of immigrants: More than one in six New Haven residents are foreign-born, a statistic that underscores a point of pride for many who welcome the city’s diversity. Families in the public school system speak more than 70 languages. 

    At the Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy, a K-8 school with around 430 students, notices go home in English, Spanish, Pashto and Arabic. The school’s front doors have welcome signs posted in multiple languages. And on a bright red poster in the hallway, photos of beaming children surround a message: “We all smile in the same language.”  

    When Trump, who has argued that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” nixed guidance in January that had generally restricted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from going into schools to arrest people, New Haven Public Schools Superintendent Madeline Negrón was prepared. Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, her team reviewed how the district had protected students during his first term and in what ways they could fortify their response. They developed a district-wide policy on how to act if ICE officers sought to enter their buildings. It involves a series of steps — including legal counsel’s verification of a valid warrant — before immigration agents would ever be allowed in. 

    “Without that, nobody, no one, is going to walk through my doors. Because my obligation is to keep every single one of my children safe,” said Negrón, who also shared the policy in a letter to parents. 

    Negrón led an effort to train all administrators in the protocol, and then those staff helped to train all 2,900 district employees — including custodians, cafeteria workers, teachers, security guards and secretaries.

    Some schools went even further, holding know-your-rights presentations for students and their families. “Things like a judicial versus administrative warrant — you know, I wish that no kid in New Haven needed to know that,” said Ben Scudder, a social studies teacher at High School in the Community. “But we live in a world where they do, and their families do, and so we’re gonna make sure that they get the training they need to do that.” 

    Related: Immigration enforcement is driving away early childhood educators 

    So far, ICE hasn’t tried to enter New Haven’s public schools. But outside of the classroom, arrests and family separations abound.

    In June, a mother and her two children — an 8-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, both U.S. citizens — were in their car going to school when vehicles on the street surrounded them and men in ski masks approached. The kids watched, crying, as the immigration agents handcuffed their mom and led her away. 

    Staff members at the Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy, which the kids attend, fundraised for gift cards to grocery stores and delivery services to help their two students. They wrote support letters for the mother’s immigration case, asking for her release. But around a month later, she was deported to Mexico. 

    Now, whenever the younger sibling sees someone in uniform at school — a security guard, a police officer — he asks them why they took his mom, said Adela Jorge, Clemente’s principal. 

    “He’s not able to understand what happened,” Jorge said. “All he knows is that his mother was taken.”

    Soon after that, two Wilbur Cross students were nabbed one after the other. First was an 18-year-old named Esdras, arrested at his summer job, shuffled to detention facilities around the country, and almost put on a removal flight to Guatemala. 

    After more than a month — with the help of advocacy groups, his attorney, the teachers union, government officials and school employees who came together during summer break — Esdras was released. When he returned to Wilbur Cross, he told staff members all he wanted was to be normal, a request they have tried to honor by quietly reintegrating him into classes.

    Then, shortly after the start of the new academic year, another student — the one whose guardian had called Muñoz in a panic — was detained.

    “At first I thought she was mad at me or something,” said 17-year-old Melany, recalling when her friend suddenly stopped responding to phone messages. “But when she didn’t come to school, it really scared me. And I asked the teachers, but they couldn’t tell me anything.”

    Her friend was eventually freed, too. But teachers and administrators say they’re fed up that their students keep being targeted and treated so poorly.  

    “They’re our kids, and they’re being detained in these cages. And the day before, they were eating pizza in our cafeteria,” said Matt Brown, the Wilbur Cross principal. 

    Rumors and fears at times disrupt learning. One day in mid-October, around 10:20 a.m., immigration agents in tactical gear were seemingly staging in a park near a New Haven area college, setting off concerns that students were their targets. But about twenty minutes later, the agents instead hit a car wash in Hamden, Connecticut, arresting its workers. 

    “I don’t know what rights they had in those moments. It didn’t seem like they had any. There were no rights there,” said Laurie Sweet, a state representative whose district includes Hamden. “I think the intention is to cause chaos and make people feel destabilized, and that definitely is what happened.”

    ICE took eight people into custody that day, some of them parents of school-aged children. Tabitha Sookdeo, executive director of Connecticut Students for a Dream, said her organization searched school records for the kids, trying to ensure they were okay. But no one could find them.

    “We just hope and pray to God that they were able to have someone to pick them up from school,” Sookdeo said. 

    Related: What’s happened since Texas killed in-state tuition for undocumented students

    Teachers say all of this has made immigrant students quieter, more reserved, more observant — and more hopeless. Kids who used to exchange greetings with their teachers in the halls now trudge around like the walking dead, or ask for passes to leave the classroom more often. 

    “I’ve seen a lot more sadness, and I’ve seen a lot more students who are good students skipping classes. And it’s for no reason except that they just, you know, they have too much going on emotionally to make them go to their classes,” said Fatima Nouchkioui, a teacher of English as a second language at Wilbur Cross’ International Academy. 

    Sookdeo has noticed a drop in students at her organization’s college access program, as they question why they would try to get a college degree when they don’t know whether they’ll be in the U.S. tomorrow.

    “You’re sitting next to them,” she said of the high schoolers she works with. “And they’re literally shaking.”

    Many of the kids already have a pile of pressures to navigate. In some cases, they are living in the country by themselves, balancing school with jobs that allow them to send money home to parents and siblings. Darwin, for example, came to the U.S., leaving behind his mom and three younger siblings, and lives in New Haven alone — all to give his family members who remain abroad a better life. 

    And then there’s always the next arrest, constantly looming. 

    “Do we anticipate having kids detained again?” said Brown. “I haven’t seen anything that would make me think we shouldn’t.” 

    Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at [email protected].

    This story about fear of deportation was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

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  • ICE Fears Keeping Minneapolis Kids Home From School

    ICE Fears Keeping Minneapolis Kids Home From School

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  • 20+ Ultimate Ice Breakers for College Students

    20+ Ultimate Ice Breakers for College Students

    This guide is designed for college professors and educators seeking effective ways to help students connect and participate. It covers 20+ practical icebreakers for college students and provides a free downloadable list with additional activities, ensuring you have the tools to foster a welcoming classroom environment. Even better, these icebreaker activities can easily be assigned in the Top Hat app. Icebreakers for college students encourage new students to have conversations, get to know you and each other and build a sense of community and trust. Icebreaker activities help students relax and connect with one another during orientation, creating a sense of community and trust in a classroom setting. Used early on, icebreakers can help students feel comfortable in your classroom or team meeting. They’re ideal for the first day of school, but can be used throughout the semester and serve as a precursor for teamwork and collaborative learning. Virtual icebreakers—facilitated via social media, discussion boards or in virtual team meetings—have also gained new meaning in helping group members warm up to one another.

    A classroom icebreaker for college students can be as simple as asking learners to introduce themselves to the class or to the students sitting next to them, but games and activities offer a chance to interact with a greater number of classmates and build camaraderie. According to a guide1 from Nottingham Trent University, for classroom icebreaker games “there ought to be a fun aspect to the activities in order to provide participants with some shared history that they can discuss later and, where possible, a relevance to the taught course/university experience.”

    It’s no doubt that icebreaker activities like scavenger hunts or Pictionary are overdone. Campus-based icebreakers, such as orientation activities or exploring campus landmarks, can also help students get familiar with their new environment. Keep in mind that some classroom icebreakers for college students could be awkward or uncomfortable, such as publicly sharing personal information. The key is to get students talking to each other, having conversations and making connections—without social risk. This could mean facilitating small group activities versus requiring students to share personal information in front of the whole class. As an educator, help your students get to know one another in a safe and effective way. Recognizing the importance of icebreakers in fostering inclusion and community can set a positive tone for the semester. Icebreakers encourage people to participate, help students find commonalities with their peers, and build rapport within the group.

    Download The Ultimate List of Icebreakers for the College Classroom and begin assigning to your students using Top Hat (get the list here).

    Introduction to classroom icebreakers

    Classroom icebreakers are a powerful way for college professors to set a positive tone at the beginning of a course. These activities help college students introduce themselves, share fun facts, and discover what they have in common with fellow students. Whether you’re teaching a small group or a larger group, icebreakers can be tailored to fit your classroom’s unique needs and the goals of your course material. By encouraging students to interact and get to know one another, icebreakers help build a sense of community and belonging right from the start. When students feel comfortable and connected, they’re more likely to participate, collaborate, and engage with the material and each other throughout the semester. Incorporating icebreakers into your teaching toolkit is a simple yet effective way to foster a welcoming classroom environment where everyone feels included.

    Benefits of icebreakers

    Encouraging participation

    Fun icebreakers offer a range of benefits for both students and teachers, especially for first year students who may be new to the college experience. Icebreaker activities help students feel more at ease in the classroom, making it easier for them to participate in class discussions and share their ideas. Icebreakers can create a relaxed atmosphere that encourages participation among students.

    Supporting academic success

    Icebreakers can also introduce students to key course concepts in a fun and engaging way, setting a positive tone for the rest of the semester. When students feel supported and included, they’re more likely to take academic risks, ask questions, and explore new ideas. Ultimately, using icebreakers helps create a classroom environment where everyone feels welcome, valued, and ready to learn.

    With these benefits in mind, let’s explore how to plan and implement effective icebreakers in your classroom.

    Planning icebreakers

    Setting goals

    When planning icebreakers for your class, it’s important to start with your goals in mind. Think about what you want your students to gain from the activity—whether it’s helping students get to know each other, encouraging participation, or introducing a new topic.

    Considering group size

    Consider the size of your class: some icebreakers work best in small groups, while others are ideal for larger groups. Choose activities that are interactive and fun, such as “Two Truths and a Lie” (a fun way to help students get to know each other), “Human Bingo” (students find classmates who match traits on a bingo card), or “The Human Knot” (a physical activity where participants untangle themselves without letting go of each other’s hands, fostering non-verbal teamwork). These classic icebreakers can be easily adapted to fit your group size and learning objectives.

    Selecting activities

    The key is to encourage students to share, connect, and engage with one another in a way that feels natural and enjoyable. By selecting the right icebreakers, you’ll set the stage for a lively and inclusive classroom experience.

    Best practices for icebreaker design

    Inclusivity and comfort

    Designing effective icebreakers means keeping your students’ needs and comfort in mind. Start by choosing activities that are inclusive and respectful, ensuring that every student feels welcome to participate. Avoid icebreakers that might make some students uncomfortable or single anyone out.

    Clear instructions

    Make sure your instructions are clear and the activity is easy to follow, so students know exactly what to expect. As the teacher, be ready to guide the activity, answer questions, and offer support as needed.

    Building community

    The goal is to create a sense of community and belonging in your class, helping students feel connected to each other and to the course material. By following these best practices, you’ll design icebreakers that not only break the ice but also lay the foundation for a positive and collaborative classroom environment.

    Now that you know how to plan and design effective icebreakers, let’s dive into a variety of activities you can use in your classroom.

    7 group games for college students (with fun icebreaker questions)

    This list features a variety of effective icebreakers for college students, including fun, low-pressure activities like Two Truths and a Lie, Human Bingo, interactive games like the Marshmallow Challenge, and simple question prompts. These activities are designed to help students relax, connect, and build community, whether you’re teaching in-person or online.

    1. Concentric circles

    This is a great team-building icebreaker for an in-person learning environment. Arrange students in two circles, one inside the other, with students facing each other in pairs. Ask a fun icebreaker question, such as “what’s your favorite thing about college and why?” Pairs discuss the answer, then rotate the circle to form new pairs for the next question—exposing students to the different perspectives of their peers. The trick is to provide open-ended questions rather than those with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to get students to talk and engage in meaningful conversation.

    2. Find someone who…

    Alternative: Human Bingo: students find classmates who match traits on a bingo card.

    • Students are given bingo cards with a grid of squares. Each square contains an item, such as ‘traveled to another continent’ or ‘has a younger sister.’
    • During the activity, students can pass their bingo cards to others to verify matches or to keep the game moving.
    • Students are given a time limit to find classmates who fit the description.
    • Whoever gets ‘Bingo’ first wins. You can even award a prize of your choice, such as a bonus point or two on an upcoming assignment.

    Human Bingo is considered an effective, low-pressure icebreaker for college students and is a good classroom activity to help your students warm up to one another at the start of the school year—especially those who are meeting one another for the first time.

    3. Name game

    Enables participants to informally interact with their teammates.

    This classic party game can also be applied in the classroom—you can even tweak it to reflect the curriculum. Write down names of famous people (or names related to course material) on sticky notes. Students place a sticky note on their forehead and interact with their classmates, asking fun icebreaker questions to understand which person they are embodying. For example, a student might ask, “Am I a historical figure?” and another might respond, “Yes, you are,” helping the student narrow down their guess. This team icebreaker helps students loosen up and informally interact with their classmates. It also helps them learn about a figure who may have previously been unknown to them.

    4. Poker hand

    This classroom icebreaker for college students is ideal for large groups (a maximum of 50). Shuffle a deck of cards and hand out a card to each student.

    • Give students a set amount of time to find four classmates and form a hand of poker.
    • The best hand ‘wins’ when their time is up—consider offering a couple of bonus points on an assignment.
    • To encourage connections among students with similar academic interests, you can adapt the activity by having students form groups based on their major, or by assigning card suits to different majors.
    • Keep in mind that not everyone knows how to play poker, so display the rules of the game on a whiteboard or a slide at the front of the classroom.

    This activity may help students develop their analytical skills.

    5. Three of a kind

    Helps students find commonalities with each other.

    • Set a time limit and instruct students to find commonalities by seeking out three other students they share something in common with—though not anything obvious or visible, such as hair color.
    • The idea is to help them make connections that may not be immediately apparent.

    For more strategies to help your students get to know their classmates, download our free list of college icebreakers.

    6. Find your pair

    In advance of class, prepare word pairs—such as salt and pepper, or ketchup and mustard—on separate pieces of paper.

    • Have students select a piece of paper from the pile, ensuring they don’t share their word with anyone else.
    • Run the activity as a quick round, giving students a limited time to walk around the room and ask yes or no questions to their peers to try and figure out what word they have (and helping them get to know more people in your class).
    • Once students have figured out what word they have, they then must find their pair (if they haven’t already) by continuing to ask fun icebreaker questions.

    7. Act and react

    Ask students to write down an event or scenario on a piece of paper. These may range from “I just got fired from my job” to “I just got stung by a bee.” For a more meaningful experience, you can choose scenarios that encourage students to connect on a personal level, helping them share relatable or significant moments.

    • Fold the pieces of paper up and put them in a bag or hat.
    • Have students randomly draw a slip of paper and react to the experience using their facial features, gestures or words.
    • The remaining students can guess what just happened.

    This activity will help lighten the mood in your class and allow for student-student interaction.

    → Download Now: 20+ Free Icebreakers for College Courses

    7 first day icebreakers for college students

    8. Two truths and a lie

    A fun way to help students get to know each other.

    Divide the class into small groups. Each group sits in a circle, and each participant tells their group three statements; two are true and one is a lie. The other students in the group must guess which is the lie. This interactive icebreaker could be used during the first day of class to make introductions and reduce first-day jitters, with each student sharing a fun fact about themselves as part of the activity.

    9. This or that

    Prompts students to choose between two options, revealing preferences through movement or gestures.

    Present students with a choice between ‘this or that.’ Topics should be relatively light, such as whether they prefer dogs or cats (though you could also tie this back to course material). For example, ask students whether they would rather visit the mountains or the beach.

    • Students move to the side of the room that reflects their choice.
    • After a few minutes, encourage one or two members in each group to defend their position amongst a new group of students.
    • Ask students to repeat this process for several rounds to help familiarize themselves with a variety of standpoints.

    Similar to would you rather, this or that is ideal for small or large groups and spurs conversations and makes connections.

    10. Longest line

    Instruct students to form one continuous line based on certain criteria, such as alphabetically by first name or from shortest to tallest. For large classes, you could ask students to gather in groups based on some commonality (such as by birthday month). Another engaging option is to have students line up according to the part of the world they are from or a country in the world they would most like to visit. The goal is for students to line up as fast as possible—a result of clear and open communication in medium-sized groups. This classroom icebreaker for college students is a great team-building activity and can help create a sense of community should it be used as a first day icebreaker or at the beginning of the year.

    11. Three Ps

    Divide students into small groups, and have them share three facts about themselves to help them connect on a personal level: something personal, something professional, and something peculiar, such as an interesting hobby or habit. This icebreaker idea can easily be used in virtual meetings. It should be noted, the personal fact shouldn’t be anything too personal—it could be something as simple as a country they’ve always wanted to travel to. Use this great icebreaker when students go back to school from the summer, helping them warm up to their peers.

    Start assigning fun icebreakers for college students directly in Top Hat. Access the guide now!

    12. Beach ball

    Like the name suggests, this activity requires an inflatable plastic beach ball. Ahead of class, write different get-to-know you questions on each segment of a beach ball using a Sharpie. Arrange students in a circle. For larger classes, you may want to divide the class into smaller groups. The fun icebreaker questions could be “what was one of your highlights from the summer?” or “who is your celebrity idol and why?”

    • Toss the ball. Whoever catches it asks the question closest to their left thumb, answers it and then tosses the ball to another student.

    In a virtual or hybrid setting, students could post their answers to the beach ball questions on a discussion board or class social media page to encourage interaction and connection.

    13. Syllabus questionnaire

    Before sharing your syllabus with students, place them into groups of five and have them fill in a Google Doc or worksheet with questions they have about your course.

    • Structure the first five minutes as a brainstorming session.
    • After each group has prepared their list of questions, distribute the syllabus and have students find answers to their questions using this document.
    • Re-convene as a group and give students an opportunity to ask any further questions that couldn’t be answered from the syllabus.

    For remote teams, this activity can be easily adapted by using virtual breakout rooms and collaborative online documents to ensure all participants are engaged, regardless of location. You may also wish to facilitate this activity using individual lesson plans throughout the semester.

    14. String a story

    Arrive to class with a big roll of yarn or string and cut various pieces ranging from five to 20 inches in length. Bunch the pieces of string together and place them to the side.

    • Have each student draw a piece of string from the pile and slowly wind it around their index finger.
    • As they are winding the string around their finger, students must introduce themselves and give a first-person account of their life—in whatever capacity they wish—until the string is completely wound up.

    For example, a student might share a story about moving to a new city for college, describing how they felt nervous at first but made friends by joining a campus club.

    6 course- or assignment-specific icebreakers for college students

    15. Blind contour

    This activity is a fun way to get your visual arts students talking in a small group of people.

    • Split students into groups of five and have each student choose an object to sketch—without looking at their paper.
    • Give students five minutes to complete their sketch, then have them share it with their team members and ask the remaining students to guess what they drew.
    • Repeat the process with another item or object, until time runs out.

    This game helps hone students’ observational skills, while making sure students are mentally present.

    16. It was the best of classes, it was the worst of classes

    This classroom icebreaker not only helps students relate to each other, it can help inform your teaching practices throughout the term.

    • On one side, write “the best class I ever had” and on the other side, write “the worst class I ever had.”
    • Without referring to specific professors or courses, ask students to share what they liked and disliked about their previous courses.
    • For example, a student might say their best class experience involved interactive group projects and clear feedback, while their worst class experience was a lecture-heavy course with little student engagement.
    • Make a list of these items to potentially implement—or avoid—in your own course this semester.

    Additionally, consider using an anonymous discussion board or a group worksheet in your virtual classroom to encourage participation.

    17. The living Likert scale

    This icebreaker question for college students lets learners see where they—and their peers—stand on a variety of topics related to your discipline.

    • Before class, write numbers ‘1′ through ‘7′ on pieces of paper and place them across the room. The sheet with ‘1′ on it could refer to ‘strongly disagree’ while ‘7′ might refer to ‘strongly agree.’
    • Acting as a facilitator, pose a series of statements related to your discipline—such as “I think television can make children act aggressive” in a social psychology class—and have students move to the side of the wall according to their stance.
    • Students who are comfortable sharing their opinions pertaining to the topic may do so.

    18. Why am I here?

    Have students draw a picture that represents why they enrolled in your course.

    • Encourage them to include their major in the drawing or explanation, and to think beyond the fact that they may need your course credit to graduate, or that their high school guidance counselor recommended your course.
    • They could think about wanting to learn more about your field, how their major connects to the course, or simply that their friends were enrolled in your class, too.
    • After five minutes, have students share their picture with the larger group if they’re comfortable—helping students feel like part of one interconnected community.

    Want to assign these icebreakers and more using your Top Hat account? Get started by downloading our classroom icebreaker resource now!

    19. Class in one word

    Have students share their perceptions of your discipline in one word, such as ‘complicated,’ ‘analytical,’ or ‘enjoyable.’

    • Students can go around in a circle—or the order they appear in your Zoom tile view—and describe their past experiences in your field using a single word.
    • In an asynchronous course, set up an anonymous discussion question in Top Hat and have students respond on their own time.

    This activity offers a humanizing view of who else is in the same boat.

    20. Philosophical chairs

    A statement that has two possible responses—agree or disagree—is read out loud.

    • Depending on whether they agree or disagree with this statement, students move to one side of the room or the other.
    • After everyone has chosen a side, ask one or two students on each side to take turns defending their positions.

    This allows students to visualize where their peers’ opinions come from, relative to their own.

    Classroom icebreakers aren’t just a ‘feel good’ exercise. The best icebreakers can help students create connections and build a sense of camaraderie in your classroom. It can also help educators get to know their students and build better relationships. Whether you’re in a physical classroom or in a remote team setting, the above icebreakers will surely create a light-hearted environment for your students to thrive in.

    As Jennifer Gonzalez explains on her website, Cult of Pedagogy, “building solid relationships with your students is arguably the most important thing you can do to be an effective teacher. It helps you build trust so students take academic risks, allows you to better differentiate for individual needs, and prevents the kinds of power struggles often found in poorly managed classrooms.”2

    5 good icebreaker questions to engage college students in your classroom

    21. Dream dinner party

    Ask students: If you could invite any three people, living or dead, to a dinner party, who would they be and why? This question allows students to share their interests, values, and the historical or influential figures they admire. It can spark interesting conversations and provide insights into each student’s personality.

    22. Bucket list sharing

    Ask students to share one item from their bucket list. This can range from travel destinations to personal goals. It helps students discover shared interests and aspirations, fostering connections based on common goals.

    23. Memory lane

    Ask each student to share a significant or memorable experience from their past, such as a favorite childhood memory, a significant achievement, or an interesting travel story. This allows students to open up about their lives in a positive way.

    24. Favorites icebreaker

    Ask students to share their favorites, such as their favorite book, movie, food, or vacation spot. This simple icebreaker can reveal common interests among students and provides an easy topic for conversation.

    25. Superpower scenario

    Ask students, if they could have any superpower, what would it be and why? This question adds a creative and imaginative element to the discussion, and students can explain the reasoning behind their choice, providing insights into their personalities.

    Download The Ultimate List of Icebreakers for College Students, packed with 20+ easy-to-implement activities that you can assign directly in Top Hat. Get the full list of fun icebreakers.

    Related stories

    References

  • Creating a welcoming digital community: Teaching online with personality, compassion and with real interaction. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.ntu.ac.uk/media/documents/adq/flexible-learning-documentation/creating-a-welcoming-digital-community.pdf
  • Gonzalez, J. (2017, July 23). A 4-Part System for Getting to Know Your Students. Retrieved from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/relationship-building/

    • Frequently asked questions

    1. What are the most effective icebreakers for college students on the first day of class?

    Effective first-day icebreakers for college students are activities that help students feel comfortable, reduce anxiety, and encourage early participation. Popular options include Two Truths and a Lie, Human Bingo, and This or That, all of which allow learners to connect quickly without feeling put on the spot. These activities work well for both small and large classes and set a positive tone for discussion and collaboration throughout the semester.

    2. How do icebreakers help build community in the college classroom?

    Icebreakers for college students support community-building by breaking down social barriers, encouraging conversation, and helping classmates discover shared interests or experiences. When students feel more connected to one another, they are more likely to participate, collaborate on group work, and engage with course material. This sense of belonging is especially important for first-year students who may be adjusting to a new environment.

    3. What types of icebreakers work best for large college classes or lecture halls?

    For large groups, the best icebreakers for college students are high-movement or fast-interaction activities. Examples include Longest Line, Poker Hand, and Concentric Circles, which encourage students to meet many peers in a short period of time. These scalable activities help foster connection in spaces where traditional discussion-based icebreakers may be less practical.

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  • ICE Detains Ferris State Prof., DHS Calls Him “Sex Offender”

    ICE Detains Ferris State Prof., DHS Calls Him “Sex Offender”

    DHS said ICE arrested Sumith Gunasekera on Nov. 12.

    Lawrey/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained a Ferris State University professor, according to a Department of Homeland Security news release that calls him “a criminal illegal alien sex offender from Sri Lanka.”

    ICE arrested Sumith Gunasekera in Detroit on Nov. 12, DHS announced in its Nov. 25 release. That’s the date Ferris State “became aware of accusations regarding” Gunasekera, university spokesperson David Murray said in an emailed statement. Murray didn’t answer further questions from Inside Higher Ed Monday, including whether the university performed a background check on Gunasekera before hiring him.

    “He has been placed on administrative leave while the university gathers more information,” Murray wrote. “This is a personnel issue and it would be inappropriate for the university to further discuss the matter.”

    The university’s website lists Gunasekera as director of its Data Analytics Consulting and Research Center. A Sumi Gunasekera is also listed as an assistant professor of marketing.

    As of last week’s news release, DHS said Gunasekera “remains in ICE custody pending further immigration proceedings.” DHS spokespeople didn’t respond to Inside Higher Ed’s questions Monday about whether he’s still being held and where.

    The DHS release says that, in 1998, “a criminal court in Brampton, Ontario convicted Gunasekera for utter threat to cause death or bodily harm and sexual interference and sentenced him to 1 month of incarceration and 1 year of probation.” Anita Sharma, group leader at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton, told Inside Higher Ed the case has been archived, so she couldn’t provide further details Monday.

    DHS’s release says “the convictions in Canada” rendered Gunasekera “ineligible for legal status in the United States.” Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, said in the release that “it’s sickening that a sex offender was working as a professor on an American college campus and was given access to vulnerable students to potentially victimize them. Thanks to the brave ICE law enforcement officers, this sicko is behind bars and no longer able to prey on Americans.”

    Inside Higher Ed was unable to reach Gunasekera for comment.

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  • ICE Detains Oklahoma Professor With H-1B Visa

    ICE Detains Oklahoma Professor With H-1B Visa

    Abedini’s detention makes real the fears of many foreign and American academics who are rethinking or boycotting travel to academic conferences in the U.S.

    Peter Zay/AFP/Getty Images

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained a University of Oklahoma professor Saturday while he was on his way to a conference.

    Vahid Abedini, a professor of Iranian Studies, was stopped and detained while he was boarding his flight to attend the Middle East Studies Association conference in Washington, D.C. He was released Monday night, according to a LinkedIn post.

    “I’m relieved to share that I was released from custody tonight. It was a deeply distressing experience, especially seeing those without the support I had,” Abedini wrote on LinkedIn early Tuesday morning. “My sincere thanks to my friends and colleagues at the University of Oklahoma, the Middle East Studies Association, and the wider Iran studies and political science community for helping resolve this.”

    Abedini did not respond to Inside Higher Ed’s request for comment. According to Joshua Landis, Abedini’s colleague and co-director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, Abedini has an H-1B visa.

    “ICE arrested our beloved professor Vahid Abedini,” Landis wrote on X Monday. “He has been wrongfully detained because he has a valid H-1B visa—a non-immigrant work visa granted to individuals in ‘specialty occupations,’ including higher education faculty. We are praying for his swift release.”

    Reached for comment, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed: “This Iranian national was detained for standard questioning. He’s been released.”

    Abedini’s detention makes real the fears of many foreign and American academics who are rethinking or boycotting travel to academic conferences in the U.S. due to concerns about wrongful arrests by immigration enforcement.

    In a statement, the MESA Board of Directors said they were “disturbed” to learn of Abedini’s detention and “deeply concerned” about the circumstances. The University of Oklahoma declined to comment on the situation.

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  • Nearby ICE Raids Stoke Fear on North Carolina Campuses

    Nearby ICE Raids Stoke Fear on North Carolina Campuses

    North Carolina campus leaders are urging international students and staff to take precautions and promising to protect student privacy amid a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte areas. But some students and employees fear campuses aren’t doing enough to protect them after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security boasted upwards of 250 arrests in and around Charlotte on Wednesday.

    North Carolina State University’s executive vice chancellor and provost, Warwick Arden, sent a memo to deans and department heads on Tuesday, offering guidance on how to handle any brushes with federal and state agents in Raleigh.

    He stressed that the university follows all federal laws—including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, so administrators shouldn’t release information about students or staff without consulting the Office of General Counsel. He also advised all international students, faculty and staff to “carry evidence of their immigration status with them at all times,” including their passports if they leave the Raleigh area.

    “I want to assure you that we are closely monitoring developments that may impact our community,” Arden wrote in the memo.

    Duke University administrators sent a similar message to students and staff on Wednesday, recommending that international students and employees carry travel documents “at all times” and promising to safeguard student privacy in accordance with federal law. They also told employees to call Duke police if federal agents requested information or sought to enter nonpublic areas.

    Sharon L. Gaber, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, released a memo on Monday, which was updated Thursday, reminding students and employees of the university’s protocols if they encounter anyone who identifies themselves as federal law enforcement. She urged them to call campus police, who “will work with the Office of Legal Affairs to review and verify any subpoenas or warrants that may be presented.”

    The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s interim executive vice chancellor and provost, James W. Dean Jr., also put out a message to students and staff on Tuesday, acknowledging “anxiety” caused by the presence of ICE officials and encouraging students and employees “to learn more about their rights and available resources.”

    Dean emphasized that the university “complies with all federal and state laws and guidance”; ICE has the right to approach individuals in public spaces, he said, but they need a warrant to access classrooms, offices or dorms.

    He also said that while FERPA prevents the university from sharing a student’s class schedule and immigration status, their name, address and phone number are public information unless a student previously told the registrar not to share such details. He directed concerned students to the dean of students for “individual supports and services.”

    Fears and Concerns

    Nearby raids have heightened fear and anxiety among students.

    Rumors have been swirling on social media about U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and vehicles sighted near North Carolina State and UNC Charlotte, with students and nearby residents alerting each other about unrecognized cars near campus. Ojo Obrero, an ICE activity tracker created by the Latino and immigrant advocacy organization Siembra NC, showed several sightings of CBP agents and vehicles reported within two miles of UNC Charlotte.

    “The University has been monitoring available information since Customs and Border Protection arrived in Charlotte and had no confirmed reports of CBP on campus; however, they have been in the area,” Christy Jackson, deputy chief communications officer at UNC Charlotte, said in a statement to Inside Higher Ed.

    North Carolina State Police have likewise found “no credible sightings of federal agents on campus” at North Carolina State, Mick Kulikowski, the university’s director of strategic communications and media relations, wrote to Inside Higher Ed.

    Despite memos and reassurances, students and staff expressed frustration that campus leaders’ statements didn’t make a stronger commitment to resisting federal immigration enforcement efforts.

    A joint statement from the American Association of University Professors chapter at UNC Chapel Hill, UE Local 150 and the student organization transparUNCy slammed their administration’s response as “tepid” and “inadequate to meet the moment of fear and uncertainty.” The groups called on university leaders to “do all in their power to deny CBP access to our community,” because “example after example has shown that CBP is acting above the law.”

    Administrators have “instead taken the cowardly approach of saying they’re just going to follow the law,” said Michael Palm, president of the UNC Chapel Hill AAUP chapter. “Everyone that I know who works or studies at UNC understands that we have to protect ourselves, because no one in the administration will help with that.”

    Palm said he and other faculty members are allowing fearful students to attend class remotely after some of his colleagues found them “afraid to come to class, afraid to leave home, if they’re on campus, afraid to leave their dorms.”

    “There has been a real network effort of mutual care to make sure that those students are not just not punished for missing class or excluded from class but also to make sure that they’re getting food, medicine and other supplies,” he said, “and human contact and support so they don’t feel even more isolated and afraid than they already, understandably, do.”

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  • Indiana AG sues Indianapolis Public Schools for hindering ICE efforts

    Indiana AG sues Indianapolis Public Schools for hindering ICE efforts

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    Dive Brief:

    • Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita alleges Indianapolis Public Schools has multiple policies that violate state laws by prohibiting local government entities from limiting or restricting federal immigration enforcement.
    • In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Rokita claims the 30,000-student district has policies barring federal immigration officers from accessing nonpublic areas on school property without a judicial warrant, and that these policies are illegal under Indiana law and pose “grave risks to public safety.”
    • Rokita’s lawsuit also cited an incident on Jan. 8, 2025, in which IPS’ policies “directly contributed to the failure” of federal immigration officers attempting to deport an undocumented Honduran man.

    Dive Insight:

    The IPS Board of School Commissioners said in a Thursday statement that Rokita’s lawsuit is a “heavy burden” and “silly litigation and political posturing” that impacts students, families and taxpayers. 

    “Every dollar spent on defensive legal posture is a dollar not spent on instructional support, teacher development, student services, or enrichment,” the board said. “In this case, Mr. Rokita prefers those dollars go to fight gratuitous political battles, as has too often been the case.”

    The board emphasized that it has always upheld the law and will continue to do so while ensuring “safe, supportive, and welcoming learning environments for all students.”

    Beyond denying access to immigration enforcement officers to school property without a judicial warrant, IPS also requires its employees to not assist immigration efforts unless legally required and authorized by the superintendent, according to Rokita’s lawsuit. The other IPS policy challenged in the complaint is that district staff are prohibited from collecting, maintaining or sharing information about the immigration status of a student, their parents or a school employee.  

    The IPS Board of School Commissioners said it has been “actively collaborating” with Rokita’s office to go over relevant policies of concern. The board said, however, that Rokita only gave the district five business days to review and respond to his opinion on the policies.

    “Yet, these important issues deserve thoughtful, deliberative weighing of important legal rights — not impulsive, superficial efforts for political gain,” the board said.

    The IPS policies being challenged, however, are a common practice in other school districts looking to protect students affected by the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration enforcement in communities nationwide this year.

    In fact, immigration lawyers have advised districts across the country to train their principals and teachers to know that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers cannot enter school property without a warrant signed by a judge.

    Immigration advocates have also pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1982 decision in Plyler v. Doe, which ruled that states cannot constitutionally deny students a free public education based on their immigration status. Additionally, other state and local guidance has reminded school administrators this year that districts must maintain the confidentiality of all personally identifiable information in education records related to students under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

    As ICE efforts go on near school communities, some district leaders — most recently at Chicago Public Schools — are calling for virtual schooling for students and families living in fear of federal immigration enforcement presence. Educators, advocates and child psychology experts are continuing to sound the alarm on the traumatic impacts immigration enforcement has on students, including school avoidance and stress.

    But in Indiana, Attorney General Rokita said in a Thursday statement that sanctuary policies like those in place at IPS “are bad in any context, but they are especially troubling in our schools.” He added that, “schools across the country are vulnerable to infiltration by criminal illegal aliens — it’s happened in many other states — and it is essential that ICE be able to take action when that occurs to help keep our kids safe.”

    Rokita’s lawsuit also alleged that in January, ICE’s efforts to deport an undocumented Honduran man living in Indiana were thwarted because IPS did not let the man’s son, who is an IPS student, reunite and leave the U.S. on a flight with his father, who volunteered to board. 

    “IPS took the position that it would not release the child to an ICE officer unless the officer had a judicial warrant or other court order,” the lawsuit said. “ICE responded that it simply was asking that the son be released to the father so that they could depart the country as the father had agreed to do and that such action did not require a court order.”

    Because the father was unable to get custody of his son to board the flight with him, the father missed his flight, and the voluntary departure order expired, according to the complaint. As a result, the lawsuit said that “an illegal alien who should have departed the United States — who had voluntarily agreed to depart the United States — therefore remained in the United States because of IPS’s actions.”

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  • Educators push for virtual schooling in response to ICE raids

    Educators push for virtual schooling in response to ICE raids

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    Educators are pushing for virtual schooling as an option for students and families who are living in fear of the increasing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement presence in and around school communities nationwide. 

    “This is an emergency,” said Chicago Board of Education member Anusha Thotakura during a public board meeting on Oct. 23. “Although the safest place for kids is at school, even if there is something that we can do to prevent one family being separated or one child coming back home to see that their parents are not there, we need to explore those avenues.”

    The Chicago area, including its schools and students, has been hit hard in recent weeks by the federal government’s immigration crackdown. There have been multiple individuals apprehended by ICE on or near school grounds, including near elementary schools. 

    The Trump administration said the increased enforcement is needed to reduce illegal immigration and is important for national security and safety. Changes issued in January to Department of Homeland Security policy no longer protect schools from enforcement raids. Since then, schools have witnessed apprehensions during drop-off and pick-up hours. 

    In an effort to resist, school communities in Chicago —  including oftentimes their teachers and education leaders — have formed school patrols and walking school buses, are providing families with groceries, and are also taking part in neighborhood watches by blowing whistles to alert community members when enforcement agents are nearby, Chicago education leaders have said. 

    However, travel to and from school is the main concern, said board member Emma Lozano during Thursday’s board meeting. 

    “Safe passage does not exist right now, they are all over the street,” Lozano said, saying that community members were being apprehended as recently as Thursday morning, leaving children frightened that they’d return to an empty house after school. “Our parents are asking for remote learning if possible.” 

    However, such a decision would likely require Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to declare a state of emergency, board members said.

    Chicago Teacher’s Union President Stacy Davis Gates also pushed the district earlier this week, saying to K-12 Dive that while a virtual academy already exists, it is not yet available to all students. In the meantime, educators are being as flexible and creative as possible to ensure students can still complete their assignments, she said.

    Chicago wouldn’t be the first to float the idea of a virtual academy as a way to ensure both the safety and academic continuation for children of immigrants and immigrant children. In August, the Los Angeles Unified School District emphasized its virtual school option after a 15-year-old LAUSD student with disabilities was detained outside of a district high school at gunpoint. 

    In March, the New York State Education Department also told superintendents across the state that school districts were allowed to offer virtual learning “to individual students who may be unable or averse to attending school, including during times of political uncertainty.” Those students could include English Language Learners, immigrant and migrant students, as well as “others who may be affected and reluctant to attend school in person due to concerns about their personal safety and security,” said the letter.

    The option for remote schooling comes as recent immigration enforcement policies under the Trump administration — including vagueness surrounding who will be arrested and how long they may be detained — is causing chronic anxiety in students. These federal immigration enforcement policies have been linked to absenteeism, classroom disengagement and heightened emotional distress, according to a July report released by psychiatric researchers at University of California, Riverside and New York University. This, the researchers wrote, has led students “to avoid school or withdraw from public life.”

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  • ICE Fears Put Pregnant Immigrants and Their Babies at Risk – The 74

    ICE Fears Put Pregnant Immigrants and Their Babies at Risk – The 74

    In the lead up to her son’s birth, Jacqueline made plans to call 911 for an ambulance to pick her up from her North Florida home and transport her to a hospital about an hour away.

    The second-time mom and Guatemalan immigrant, who has lived in the country for a decade, would have relied on her husband to drive her to the hospital. But a few months ago he was deported, leaving Jacqueline and her daughter without the family’s primary source of income, transportation and support.

    One morning in March, Jacqueline said, her partner was pulled over on his way to work when law enforcement officials discovered he didn’t have a valid driver’s license. Jacqueline’s pregnancy was in its early stages. Her husband fought his case from detention for three months before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed him to Guatemala.

    “He was deported and I was left behind, thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’” said Jacqueline, who requested that her last name not be published because she lacks permanent legal status. The couple shares an 8-year-old daughter who was born in, and is a citizen of, the United States.

    This summer, as she entered the later stages of this pregnancy amid the Trump administration’s turbocharged immigration enforcement, Jacqueline found herself so fearful of being detained that she avoided leaving her home. Her husband’s car sits in the driveway, but there are no signs of him in the small room Jacqueline shares with her daughter. His belongings — tools, clothes, even personal photos — are with him in Guatemala. The only family pictures Jacqueline has are on her phone.

    Her partner was the family’s main provider, rotating between picking strawberries or watermelon and packing pine needles for mulch, depending on the season.

    Jacqueline struggled to get the most basic items to welcome a baby: Someone gifted her a used carseat and crib, which sit in the packed room along with onesies and other clothing items she’s collected inside a large plastic bag. She’s hoping that a federal assistance program will cover the cost of formula. A baby tub is still on her list.

    Medical care in her rural area has been possible only because a small nonprofit organization nearby that provides prenatal care services offered to pay for Ubers so she could continue regular check-ups. Even if she wasn’t behind the wheel, Jacqueline says that just the act of leaving her home feels risky since her husband’s deportation.

    “Things got really complicated. He paid our rent — he paid for everything,” she said. “Now, I’m always worried.”

    At her home in North Florida, Jacqueline looks at a photo of her husband and daughter on her phone. The only family pictures she has are on her phone; her husband’s belongings — tools, clothes, even personal photos — are with him in Guatemala. (Michelle Bruzzese for The 19th)

    Medical care and support essential to a healthy pregnancy have become harder for people like Jacqueline to obtain following President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Many patients — nervous about encountering immigration officials if they leave their homes, drive on public roads or visit a medical clinic — are skipping virtually all of their pregnancy-related health care. Some are opting to give birth at home with the help of midwives because of the possible presence of ICE at hospitals.

    Across the country, medical providers who serve immigrant communities said fewer patients are coming in for prenatal or other pregnancy-related care. As a result, patients are experiencing dangerous complications, advocates and health care providers told The 19th.

    “Fear of ICE is pushing my patients and their families away from the very systems meant to protect their health and their pregnancies,” said Dr. Josie Urbina, an OB-GYN in San Francisco.

    In January, Trump rescinded a federal policy that protected designated areas including hospitals, health clinics and doctors’ offices from immigration raids. ICE has recently targeted patients in hospital maternity wards and on their way home from prenatal visits.

    A majority of Americans believe ICE should not be carrying out immigration enforcement at health centers. A new poll from The 19th and SurveyMonkey conducted in mid-September found that most Americans don’t think ICE should be allowed to detain immigrants at hospitals, their workplace, domestic violence shelters, schools or churches.

    Women are more likely to oppose enforcement in these spaces than men. More than two-thirds of women said ICE shouldn’t be allowed to detain immigrants in hospital settings.

    Enforcement is only expected to grow as the administration works to meet its ambitious deportation goals. The federal government is pouring more than $170 billion over the next four years into expanding immigration enforcement, the result of Trump’s signature tax-and-spending bill. About $45 billion has been directed to expanding detention facilities; $29.9 billion is to increase ICE activity.

    That expansion could put even more births at risk. Approximately 250,000 babies are born every year to immigrants without permanent legal status. Already, research has shown these immigrants, who have higher uninsured rates, are less likely to seek prenatal care and are at risk of worse birth outcomes.

    Major medical groups, including the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend regular prenatal and postpartum care as a key tool to combat pregnancy-related death and infant mortality.

    According to the federal Office of Women’s Health, infants born to parents who received no prenatal care are three times more likely to have a low birth weight and five times more likely to die than those born to parents who received regular care.

    A CDC analysis published last year found infant mortality rates went up the later families began prenatal care: 4.54 deaths per 100,000 live births for families whose prenatal care began in the first trimester, compared with 10.75 in families whose prenatal care began in the third trimester or who did not receive any at all.

    “A lot of patients aren’t going to get help,” said Yenny James, the founder and CEO of Paradigm Doulas in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro.

    A pregnant woman stands in silhouette inside a dark doorway, holding her belly and looking outside toward the sunlight and trees.
    After her husband’s deportation, Jacqueline became so fearful of being detained that she avoided leaving her home. “He was deported and I was left behind, thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’” she said. (Michelle Bruzzese for The 19th)

    James said she’s seeing an increasing number of emergency cesarean sections  because of untreated gestational diabetes, or preeclampsia — a deadly pregnancy complication — that went unnoticed because of lacking prenatal care.

    In Denver, OB-GYN Dr. Rebecca Cohen has delivered multiple babies this year for women who have told her that, because they fear endangering themselves or their families, they have received no prenatal care. Several have given birth to babies with fatal fetal anomalies that were never diagnosed because the women did not receive prenatal ultrasounds.

    “They were willing to forgo care — their own health care — but to find out that something was devastatingly wrong with their child is when they feel like maybe they should have risked it,” Cohen said. “There’s a sound of a mother’s wail that anybody who has worked labor and delivery has known, and it will haunt you for the rest of your life. To hear that when it could have been prevented, it is just absolutely devastating.”

    Early in her pregnancy, Jacqueline received free care at a local clinic. Shortly after her husband’s detention, she called the office to let them know she likely wouldn’t make her next appointment.

    “I told them that I probably wouldn’t be able to make my appointments anymore, well, because I’m really afraid given what happened to my husband. And they offered to help,” she said.

    Jacqueline and the nonprofit clinic worked out an arrangement: The day of her appointments, someone at the clinic called an Uber to her home, paid for by the clinic, and let her know when it would arrive so she could be ready.

    Many people in her small town have come to rely on a single person who does have a valid driver’s license for transportation. That driver recently brought Jacqueline to an appointment with the local office that manages the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which she is relying on for baby formula and food. There were no guarantees that this driver would be available to take her in whenever she goes into labor.

    The Biden administration directed ICE not to detain, arrest or take into custody pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding people simply for breaking immigration laws, except under “exceptional circumstances.” The Trump administration has not formally reversed that policy. But despite the directive, reports from across the country confirm that ICE has detained numerous pregnant immigrants since Trump took office.

    James said that until the Biden guidance is formally rescinded, she will continue to encourage pregnant immigrants to print it out and carry it with them.

    “I told my doulas — have them print out this ICE directive, have them keep it with them, so that they know and these agents know that we know our rights, our clients know their rights,” James said.

    A pregnant woman bends over a bed, sorting through baby items in a small, crowded bedroom with blue-painted door frames.
    Jacqueline prepares for the birth of her second child in the room she shares with her daughter. Someone gifted her a used car seat and crib, which sit among the few items she’s collected inside a plastic bag to welcome the baby. (Michelle Bruzzese for The 19th)

    It’s unclear exactly how many pregnant immigrants are being detained by ICE, or have been arrested by the agency. A May report from the office of Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin found 14 pregnant women in a single Louisiana detention facility at the time of staff’s visit.

    Another report out of the office of Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff published in late July found 14 credible reports of mistreatment of pregnant women in immigrant detention. The report cited an anonymous agency official who said they saw pregnant women sleeping on floors in overcrowded intake cells. The partner of a pregnant woman in federal custody said that she bled for days before she was taken to a hospital, where she miscarried alone. A pregnant detainee who spoke to Ossoff’s office said she repeatedly asked for medical attention and was told to “just drink water.” The office received several reports of clients waiting weeks to see a doctor, and that sometimes scheduled appointments were canceled. ICE has disputed the report.

    “Pregnant women receive regular prenatal visits, mental health services, nutritional support, and accommodations aligned with community standards of care. Detention of pregnant women is rare and has elevated oversight and review. No pregnant woman has been forced to sleep on the floor,” ICE said in a statement posted on their website.

    ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

    Fear of being detained is a major contributor of stress for pregnant immigrants. Research shows that even when pregnant patients do receive medical care, prenatal stress puts many at greater risk of complicated births and poor outcomes, including premature birth and low infant birth weight. Babies born after an immigration raid are at a 24 percent higher risk of low birth weight, according to one study.

    Monica, 38, is expecting her fourth child in November. The Tucson resident, who requested that her last name not be published out of fear of being detained, has lived in the United States for two decades but has no legal immigration status.

    This pregnancy has been unlike the others, she said: While Monica has continued with her prenatal care appointments, her anxiety levels about her immigration situation have colored her experience. Her other children, who are in their teens, are U.S. citizens but grappling with the stress of their parents’ situation. Her husband also doesn’t have authorization to live in the country.

    “We try to be out and about much less, and to take precautions,” she said. “Whenever we do leave the house, we have it in the back of our minds.”

    Monica said she has seen reports of ICE being allowed inside hospitals, and she is worried about facing immigration officers while or following her birth. Her plan is to have her partner and a group of friends at the hospital to make sure she’s never alone.

    “My biggest fear is going to the hospital,” she said.

    Stress like Monica’s makes pregnancy more dangerous.

    A close-up of a hand holding a white bottle labeled “Prenatal Tablets” over a bag filled with baby bottles and other supplies.
    Jacqueline holds a bottle of prenatal vitamins at her home in North Florida. A small nonprofit clinic nearby has been paying for Ubers so she can continue her prenatal check-ups. (Michelle Bruzzese for The 19th)

    “In our hospital, every doctor I’ve talked to — and these are doctors that have been there 20 years — all are saying these past six months they’ve seen worse obstetrics outcomes than ever in their career,” Dr. Parker Duncan Diaz, a family physician in Santa Rosa, California, whose clinic mostly cares for Latinx patients. That’s included more preterm labor and more pregnant patients with severe hypertension.

    “I don’t know what’s causing it, but my bias is that it is the impact of this horribly toxic stress environment,” he added, specifically noting the stress caused by the threat of immigration enforcement.

    In recent months, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indiana-based OB-GYN, has seen a number of pregnant patients seeking emergency attention who have not received any prenatal health care. One was 31 weeks, approaching the end of her pregnancy. Another was more than 20 weeks pregnant when she came to Bernard’s office, having developed complications from a molar pregnancy — a rare condition that means a healthy birth is impossible and that without early treatment can result in vaginal bleeding, thyroid problems and even cancer.

    “Anytime you’re not able to access that early prenatal care, we do see complications with that,” she said. “And many of these things can absolutely be life-threatening for both the moms and the babies.”

    Dr. Daisy Leon-Martinez, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in San Francisco, said she now regularly cares for patients in her labor and delivery ward who have been transferred to her hospital because of newly developed pregnancy complications. These are often their first doctors’ visits since becoming pregnant. Many of those patients have told her that they did not want to seek prenatal care for fear of encountering immigration officials.

    During regular visits, she added, she has advised people with pregnancy complications that they would be best served by a hospital stay — only to be told that her patients no longer feel safe going to the hospital.

    The current enforcement environment is challenging immigrant advocates, who are continuing to encourage immigrants to seek appropriate medical care while acknowledging that doing so is increasingly risky.

    Lupe Rodríguez, the executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, said her organization is urging pregnant immigrants to seek the health care that they need, and to be proactive about making plans for themselves and their families in the event that they are detained.

    “We can’t know for certain about any given [health care center] whether or not it’s going to be safe. One of the things that we’ve been seeing is leadership at some of these health centers — big hospitals and clinics — have said that they will provide the kind of protection that folks need, that they don’t want folks to be afraid of care,” Rodriguez said.

    While those statements signal the intentions of a hospital’s leadership, Rodriguez said, “we still know that there are individuals within some of those care centers that are part of the reporting mechanism or are intimidating people.”

    A pregnant woman sits in a red folding chair outdoors near a blue truck, with a chicken walking in the foreground and trees around her.
    Outside her home in North Florida, Jacqueline sits in a red chair as a chicken wanders nearby. (Michelle Bruzzese for The 19th)

    Jacqueline approached the last days of her pregnancy hopeful that the place she had chosen — a large university hospital that workers at her local clinic recommended — would be a safe place for her to give birth.

    One night at the end of September, when labor pains grew too intense, she called for an ambulance and made it to the hospital. When she got there, she asked her providers if there were any ICE agents near the building. She had heard of a man at a local hospital being detained after having surgery. They told her there were none they were aware of.

    She went on to deliver her baby under general anesthesia after a long, difficult labor. “I didn’t even hear him cry when they pulled him out,” she said. Her only relative left in the area was taking care of her daughter, so she recovered alone at the hospital for five days before heading home in an Uber that a social worker procured for her and her son.

    “If my husband was here, he would have been there with me at the hospital,” Jacqueline said while recovering at home. “He would be here taking care of me, of us. I wouldn’t be worried about the things I still want to get for the baby.”

    This story was originally reported by Mel Leonor Barclay and Shefali Luthra of The 19th. Meet Mel and Shefali and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.


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