Esmeralda, Kevin and Carlos have stopped going to school -- at least physically -- in the weeks since US immigration agents surged into the Midwestern city. "If I go out, it's only outside in the hallway," Kevin, 12, told AFP. Like many immigrant children in Minneapolis, Kevin is taking his classes online -- a practice school thought they had left behind after the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Online learning has once again become a necessity for some in the community as people remain indoors, seeking to avoid President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign.

After a raid on Esmeralda's high school about a month ago, her mother Abril decided none of her children would leave the home. She has no idea when they will step outside again. Like all members of the family, Abril spoke to AFP under a pseudonym. The family came to the United States from Mexico a year and half ago to seek asylum, and they are still waiting on a legal decision. People with such cases have been targeted by immigration officials after the Trump administration launched a review of the legal status of the approximately 5,600 refugees in Minnesota who have not yet been given green cards. A federal judge temporarily blocked the administration late last month from detaining refugees awaiting permanent resident status in the state. On a recent February morning, the children woke up for classes. "And then, more classes and more classes. Then we have lunch and we stay here on the computer for a while longer, doing more work and homework," 14-year-old Esmeralda told AFP, headphones on in the middle of a lesson about fossils. Turning their table into a classroom and their home into a bunker is "weird," "stressful" and "boring," she said. (Bssnews)