How childcare workers in Minnesota are protesting ICE

"Since the Trump administration deployed 2,000 immigration officers to Minneapolis a few weeks ago, childcare workers have been on high alert. Immigration officers have shown up at childcare centers across Minnesota, leaving many childcare workers scared to show up for work. Childcare providers, who have long faced funding challenges and staffing shortages, are now being forced to figure out how to protect their workers while continuing to provide an essential service to families."

"For childcare workers, there is a lot on the line: A viral YouTube video that made the rounds in December put a target on their backs, alleging that Somali-run daycares were committing fraud and misusing public funding. The video has since been debunked, but the damage was done: The Trump administration issued a freeze on $10 billion in federal funding for childcare and social services in Minnesota, along with four other states."

""From the beginning, childcare and the ICE operation were very closely tied," says Meredith Loomis Quinlan, the director of childcare at advocacy group Community Change. "There's threats of these frozen funds, and at the same time their colleagues are getting targeted by ICE. These childcare providers have really stood together-and the childcare movement of parents and providers are a really core [part] of what's happening right now in Minnesota.""

The Trump administration deployed 2,000 immigration officers to Minneapolis, prompting childcare workers across Minnesota to be on high alert after officers appeared at centers. Providers face longstanding funding shortfalls and staffing shortages while trying to protect workers and continue serving families. At least 50 childcare centers closed for a statewide economic blackout called the Day of Truth and Freedom to protest ICE's presence. A viral YouTube video falsely accused Somali-run daycares of fraud and led to a federal freeze of $10 billion in childcare and social services funding in five states; a judge temporarily blocked the freeze and the states filed suit.

Read at Fast Company