Staff Reports
Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have swept through major American cities this past weekend, from Minneapolis and Portland to Los Angeles, New York City, and Tucson, as demonstrators rail against federal efforts to secure the nation’s borders. Sparked by recent high-profile incidents, including a fatal shooting by an ICE agent in Minneapolis and a Border Patrol confrontation in Portland, these gatherings have drawn crowds chanting for the agency’s abolition and broader immigration overhauls. What began as targeted outrage has ballooned into a nationwide spectacle, with protesters blocking streets, vandalizing property, and clashing with law enforcement, underscoring a growing resistance to President Trump’s renewed push for strict enforcement.
Amid the chaos, a disturbing pattern has emerged: parents dragging schoolchildren, even those from elementary and middle schools, into the fray. Reports from Minneapolis highlight students walking out of classes, waving signs denouncing ICE as they echo adult slogans learned at home or in activist-led sessions. In freezing conditions outside government buildings, kids as young as grade-school age have been spotted front and center, their presence turning what should be adult debates into exploitative photo ops for social media. This isn’t youthful rebellion—it’s calculated recruitment, where impressionable minds are fed a steady diet of anti-law-enforcement rhetoric that paints border agents as villains rather than protectors.
The involvement of children crosses a dangerous line, prioritizing political theater over safety and innocence. In Portland, one young girl was exposed to pepper spray during an anti-ICE march, a grim reminder of the risks when volatile protests become family outings. Schools, meant for math and reading, are morphing into organizing hubs, with some teachers turning classrooms into echo chambers that glorify law-breaking over civic duty. Parents who cheer this on aren’t raising informed citizens; they’re engineering pint-sized activists, using their own kids as props to amplify a radical agenda that undermines national sovereignty and the rule of law.
These spectacles echo darker chapters of history, where regimes weaponized youth against authority, fostering division within families and communities. When children are taught to vilify ICE—the very agency upholding immigration statutes enacted by Congress—they’re not learning critical thinking but blind animosity toward those enforcing order. This trend threatens to erode parental authority, pitting kids against moms and dads who dare support secure borders, all while real threats like gang violence from unchecked migration go ignored. True compassion would focus on legal pathways, not endangering the next generation in street brawls.
As these protests persist, Americans must reclaim common sense: free speech doesn’t extend to child endangerment or sabotaging the homeland security that President Trump champions. Families deserve protection from both illegal crossings and the manipulative activism that exploits the vulnerable. The real battle isn’t in the streets—it’s in homes and schools, where parents must shield their children from being pawns in a losing war against lawful governance. Until that line is held, expect more unrest, more arrests, and more innocents caught in the crossfire.
