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The Ten News, News For Curious Kids
The Ten News Deep Dive: ICE, Student Impact, and What Happens Next
00:21:46
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A
Foreign.
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B
So the surge is ending?
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C
That's what officials are saying.
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B
The big ICE operation in Minnesota, the one with thousands of agents, it's just done?
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C
Yes. The federal government says they're starting to pull back the extra agents that they sent into Minnesota.
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B
Okay, that is huge. We need to talk about this and what's been happening with ice.
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C
Let's get into it. I'm Pamela Kirkland.
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B
I'm Ryan Willard.
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C
This is a 10News deep dive.
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10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
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C
We have a lot to cover today, but first, let's start off with a quick history lesson.
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B
Yeah. Because ICE isn't really new, but their tactics have changed significantly.
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C
First, we go back to 2001. After the 911 terrorist attacks, the United States created a new government agency called the Department of Homeland Security, or dhs. Its job is to help protect the country from terrorism, secure borders, enforce immigration laws, and respond to natural disasters. A couple of Years later, in 2003, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, was created. Under DHS, ICE focuses on enforcing immigration immigration laws, including the removal of unauthorized people in the U.S. and to stop border crossing migrants. At the time, ICE's budget was more than $3 billion.
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B
All right, quick vocabulary check. A migrant is someone who moves from one place to another. It could be within a country or across international borders. One might migrate for work, education, or better living conditions. An immigrant is someone who moves to a new country and plans on settling there permanently. All immigrants are migrants, but not all migrants are immigrants.
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Since 2003, ICE has operated under several different presidents. And over time, its budget has steadily increased. For example, in 2015, during President Obama's administration, Congress approved nearly $6 billion for ICE. In 2018, during President Trump's first term, that number grew to about $7.54 billion. And in 2024, under President Biden, ICE's budget reached $9.8 billion.
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And then a big change came in 2025. In the first year of President Trump's second term, he and Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Under the Big Beautiful Bill act, the ICE budget went from around $10 billion to $85 billion. What?
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C
No way.
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That's right. $85 billion. That's a 750% increase. The $85 billion budget makes ICE the highest funded US law enforcement agency.
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The number of ICE agents increased in size by 120%, from 10,000 ICE agents to 22,000 ICE agents. This growth was part of President Trump's immigration crackdown. ICE agents were deployed all over the country in greater numbers than ever before.
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And their tactics have changed. ICE officers started wearing masks and covering their faces, randomly stopping and questioning people and detaining them without signed warrants from judges. Typically, in any type of arrest or removal, a signed warrant, a legal piece of paper authorizing the action, is needed.
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As concerns around ICE agents actions increased and the public started protesting, President Trump doubled down and in January of 2026 deployed over 3,000 ICE agents to Minneapolis, Minnesota to car the largest immigration operation ever.
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It became chaotic as protesters stood against the masked ICE agents. It resulted in immigrants and US Citizens being stopped and detained without warrants. And eventually, two different US Citizens, Renee Goode and Alex Preddy, were shot and killed. And it was all captured on camera by spectators.
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The response from the Trump administration was upsetting and frightening for many people. Kristi Noem, who leads the Department of Homeland Security Security, called both good and pretty, quote, domestic terrorists and said her department supported the agent's actions. But others, including some people in the military and in law enforcement, criticized what happened. They said the use of force was extreme and should not have taken place.
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And the public spoke out. There was a national walkout on Friday, January 20, that was mostly led by students. Congress was bombarded with phone calls from US Citizens pushing their representatives to do something and vote to block ICE from receiving even more money.
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That brings us to today. Democrats in Congress say they will not vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless there are new rules and limits, sometimes called guardrails, on how ICE operates. Because of that disagreement, DHS is currently in a partial shutdown until lawmakers hold a vote. For now, the department can continue operating using its previously approved 2025 funding, so it's not in immediate danger of running out of money. And like we said at the beginning of the episode, Tom Holman, the administration's border czar, has said the recent surge is over and that many agents are being pulled back.
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B
But even with the ICE agents leaving, families and students are still living with the fear and stress of what happened. Yeah, this has been really intense. I'm still feeling all the feels about this.
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C
Okay, first off, Rye, it's okay to feel all of those things.
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B
Thanks, Pam. I appreciate that.
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C
Sasha, our 10News intern, is here to share what we've heard from a few of our tenors.
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B
Sasha, what do you got?
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D
All right, we've got some letters from our tenors that wanted to express how they're feeling and share their point of view. And we also got a letter from Tupelo.
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B
Wait, Tupelo Tupelo. The Tupelo who did a tenor takeover with Everett?
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The one and only. Here's what she Here is how I, a student at a bilingual school in Minnesota, is impacted. 1. A lot of my classmates are doing the online school option. 2. We've had three lockouts so far. 3. We had no school on Thursday and Friday last week.
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4.
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I am paranoid. 5. We've done a few deliveries to people who are afraid to leave their houses. 6. At my elementary school, ICE has shown up twice.
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Wow. Thank you for sharing, Tupelo.
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We also heard from a few other tenors. Claire says, I live in Chicago and it's really scary to hear what ICE is doing to people. It's also scary when my friends and I hear the helicopters over our school. And steidle 4510 wrote on our podcast page, I really hate ice and I don't want them to come to my hometown because I'm really scared of them hurting my family.
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C
Thank you Sasha, and thank you tenors for writing and letting us know how you feel.
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B
Wait, Sasha, what about you? What's been going on at your school?
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D
Yeah, it's been a really big discussion at my school. There's a lot of students that are talking about it. I've seen posters a lot. And about two weeks ago there was a citywide walkout of all the high schools and some middle schools in San Francisco where students from across the city chose to walk out of their classes and their schools at around lunchtime. And we all marched to meet in this big park called Dolores park, kind of near the center of the city. And it was really crazy to be a part of because me and my whole school, we walked together. It was about a 45 minute walk and everyone made posters protesting ICE and all the things that have been happening in Minnesota. There were songs, there was music, there was people dancing, and there was big speeches and just all different types of people across all different ages. It wasn't just schools, but it was a lot of schools. And it ended with a march towards the downtown part of our city.
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Not everyone can participate in a walkout. How did you make the decision to do it?
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It was definitely a choice that I had to make with my family and that every person had to make. Just like my parents wanted to make sure that first of all that I was in it for the right reasons, that I wanted to be there because I want to use my voice and not just because all my friends are doing it or that kind of thing, but also that I'M aware that missing school, of course, has consequences. I miss my science class and am I gonna be able to catch up? And obviously, it's very important to stand up for what you believe in and stand up for what you think is right. But also things have real life consequences. So I think that was a big impact for a lot of the kids in my community, too, to make sure that, oh, maybe I won't be able to miss class. Maybe I have a test or something important that has to do with what else can I do that's like standing up for what I believe in. Can I talk to my family? Can I say something online? Can I spread awareness? Can I donate money, that kind of thing? Because, like, protests aren't the only thing, and obviously they're not accessible to everyone.
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What would you want and what do you want to see from elected officials right now?
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I mean, honestly, it would be really important, I think, for, like, all a lot of young people to get that kind of recognition of, like, we see you and like, we see all the work that you're putting into getting yourself heard and just like that understanding. But also we're gonna try to make things better because this isn't fair to young people. Whether you're in Minnesota or not Minnesota, it's a really hard time to be a student. So definitely just that understanding that it's a hard time to be a kid right now.
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B
What do you do when you're feeling scared?
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I mean, when I'm feeling scared, I remind myself of all the good things that I have in my life. The friends that I have to back me up or my family, and that I'm not alone, but also that everybody's trying to make the world a better place. And, like, you're not alone in the fight to try to make your world better. And it's a scary time, but it's not always going to be like this.
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I can't stop thinking about the families that are going through all this. What does support look like for those families?
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I'm so glad you asked, Ry. Schools aren't just places for math and reading. They're also places where kids need to feel emotionally safe. So I talked with the school social worker, Cynthia Hernandez, about her experiences supporting students right now.
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Hi, my name is Cynthia, and I currently work as a district school social worker down in Southern California.
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Thank you so much for joining us. Cynthia, what does a typical day look like for you?
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Yeah, so what my day looks like is that I kind of work with four different schools in my school district. I Focus on elementary and middle school students. So a lot of my work looks like if there's a kid who is having a rough day, I might talk to them. We might do different activities together. Like maybe we'll take a walk outside, maybe we'll do some art together. I also work closely with a lot of your teachers and principals and assistant principals to kind of learn how to build systems and just how to create better support for our students and families, like, attend our schools.
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What is your community like and what's been your experience?
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We actually have a pretty diverse community here. We're a kind of like smaller, medium sized school district. So our whole district is made up of 23 schools total. And yeah, socioeconomically our families are kind of all across the range. Yeah. So my schools, my district, we've created an immigration task force, which I'm part of. So what that kind of looks like is that we meet fairly regularly to kind of just create. Like, how do we want our schools to respond to this new event that is really impacting our families? We've come up with like a framework of like, as a school site, this is what you do. If ICE comes to your school site, we gotta look for warrants. We gotta make sure that we're protecting our students. Safety first. Family safety first. We've created trainings for various school staff, which we've presented quite a few times to across all of the schools in our district. That looks like, as a teacher, what can you do to support your students and families? As a principal, what can you do as just front office staff? Like, what can you do to support our students and families? We've also partnered with various grassroots organizations in our community because they're really the ones doing a lot of like, the boots on the ground work. And we want to make sure that we have a partnership with them so that we're in alignment. And very often we're working with the same students and families as well. So that's just a little bit of what our district has done.
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C
So what are your thoughts on what is happening?
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I'd say we're in a very interesting time where, I mean, looking at social media, for example, it's like you see videos of people being kidnapped, people being detained, this like, like horrible violence. And then the next video is like someone doing a dance challenge. So it's a very like, I feel like a lot of the emotions are just all over the spectrum. Like you can go from having, you know, having trouble sleeping because of everything that's happening. The way it may be Impacting you yourself personally, or just the way it's impacting people in your community to then the next day, just being really worried about the tests that you have in second period. So it's a very interesting time for. For our teens and students. I think they're. I think they're handling the best they can, but there's definitely a lot of, like, worries and anxieties and I think just, like, mental exhaustion from everything that's going on. And I think. And at the same time, it's normal to also worry about what's going on in your immediate life, like the math test or, you know, friendship problems or, you know, what's being served in the cafeteria that day. We need to live our lives. We can't also just live frozen in fear forever.
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What advice would you have for parents for how to engage with their kids about having a conversation and just understanding what they're feeling?
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I mean, I feel like first, I would say, like, take a deep breath. It sits in charted territory for everyone. No one has a handbook of, like, how to guide your child through this. That doesn't exist, unfortunately. So, yeah, taking a deep breath. And I think recognizing that, like, not talking about it doesn't make it go away. I think the feelings are there regardless. And I always tell kids it's better for those feelings to be out than in. I'll compare it sometimes to a volcano of, like, we keep it in, we keep it in, we keep it in, and then eventually something's gonna explode. I would just encourage parents kind of guiding the cons conversation, especially if they are on social media. It's like, oh, I'm curious, like, what have you heard about this? What have you seen on social media? Have you talked to your friends about it? Have you heard anything about this at school? What are your thoughts on it? It's okay to acknowledge that you yourself may be scared and worried about everything about anything else. I think kids actually feel very comforted to know that they're not the only ones feeling this way. Lots of kids who I've talked to, sometimes they feel like they're the only ones in their family that cares about this and that feels some type of way about it, and that can really increase their feelings of loneliness. So knowing, like, showing that you yourself are a safe adult, that you can have these conversations with your kids and not invalidate their fears or their thoughts, I think can go a long way in just providing some comfort to kids. We don't have to provide specific answers. We don't have the answers to Everything but just knowing that, like, oh, someone's here with me, someone's in my corner can go a really long way in making someone feel better.
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C
I'd love to hear how different families in your district are dealing with the situation.
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Yeah, I think a lot of kids, some of them are just trying really hard to keep themselves informed about with everything that's going on. Understandably. So some of their parents may not want to talk about it or the reality of their situations that they don't have time to talk about it. Like they're busy working, they're busy trying to pay rent, pay their bills, pay everything. So some of the students that I've talked to are doing their best to. They've kind of taken on the role of, kind of being the informed one in their families. So when they hear information, they're like, oh, I'm going to tell my mom about this, I'm going to tell my uncle about this, I'm going to tell my cousins about this. And they sort of become this like, little, like liaison within their family of like outside resources, community resources, and bringing that into their family and just keeping, you know, helping keep their family safe from everything.
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C
Any last pieces of advice for our listeners?
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Yeah, I mean, again, it's. It's okay to feel scared. It's okay to feel worried. I think a lot of people are. But being kind to one another, building friendships, building community, I think a lot of that is going to take us a really long way. And surviving these couple of years and surviving this year and these skills that we're learning and things like that, they'll really help us in the long run. Just not being alone, always reaching out a hand to the people who need it and just being willing and open to learn about each other so we can make sure that this doesn't happen again in the future.
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C
Thank you, Cynthia. I hope your school district knows how lucky they are to have you. And thank you for joining us today.
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A
Today, of course. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
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B
So even though ice is ending the surge in Minnesota, the impact doesn't just disappear overnight.
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C
Exactly. And if you're feeling scared or confused or overwhelmed, that's okay. Talk to someone you trust, a parent, a teacher, a counselor.
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And keep writing to us tenors. We are always listening.
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C
Here's a quick note for the grown ups.
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B
It's time for 10 new snaps.
- [18:17]
C
A tenor named Elemental Master commented and said, I want an episode on space. Okay. We'll definitely put that on the list to explore. And a tenor named Zuri555 gave us an Apple review with 1 million stars and said, can you make more episodes on video games? Um, I'm sure Ryan will be happy to.
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B
Of course I will. Also, a tenor named Archie said you might remember me from August. I love the Ten News but I wish they came out on Thursdays and Fridays. Keep up the good work and I love the gaming episodes. Thank you so much Archie. I don't know if you know, but our deep dives come out once a month and usually drop on Fridays. So once a month we do have episodes on a Thursday and a Friday.
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C
And two extra notes for the grown ups. You can now get ad free versions of our episodes when you join the Tenor Club on our website.
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B
If you want to Help support the 10News, you can make a tax deductible donation at the link in our show notes. The whole team thanks you for your support.
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C
The 10News is a co production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcast and part of the Airwave Podcast Network.
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The 10News Creative team is sending our love and support to all the families that are affected by the ice storm and includes Tracy Nada Crooks, Adam the Great, Bam Bino, Bernard Brian Not Ryan Douglas and Carson not so Harry Potter. Big thanks to Owen. Not slowing down for anybody.
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Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright. Albright Albright. And show creator Tracy takes the leads. Kaplan. I'm Pamela Kirkland.
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And I'm Ryan Willard. Thanks for listening to the 10 news.
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Sam.