The University of Minnesota is reportedly investigating accounts that an education professor ran an “ICE drill” in class. According to Alpha News, Professor Blanca Caldas used her “Culture, Power, and Education” class to have students practice shielding other students from ICE.
The fact that it is a required course for those seeking a degree in elementary education only magnifies the concerns about a professor pressuring students into such a politically charged demonstration.
According to a student, Caldas had students stand up and move to a corner of the room as she acted out the trauma of ICE appearing in the classroom. She allegedly pretended to confront an ICE agent and then joined the students to tell them that they had to use their bodies to shield other students being sought by ICE. Then, “she ended the drill by having us look around our peers and our fellow students within the classroom and identify specifically the people that would appear to be the targets.”
The student objected to the racial element of the drill and said that many felt “uncomfortable,” but “essentially went along,” with Caldas’ instructions, she added.
Caldas’s bio page appears to have been locked from public view. However, College Fix was able to review the page and reported that “her PhD dissertation ‘Performing the Advocate Bilingual Teacher: Drama-based Interventions for Future Story-making’ was given the Activist Research Grant Initiative Award sponsored in part by the Social Justice Institute and the U. Texas at Austin Center for Gender and Women’s Studies.”
If the account is accurate, I would view the demonstration as entirely inappropriate, particularly for a required course. If a professor had held a demonstration in helping ICE agents, there would have been mass demonstrations at the University of Minnesota.
Even if this course is designed for such political demonstrations, the question remains: why was it approved by the department as a required course?
So what are you going to do with a degree in Culture, Power and Education? I suppose you might minor in defrauding the tax payers out of billions of dollars.
“Even if this course is designed for such political demonstrations, the question remains: why was it approved by the department as a required course?”
The Professor poses a truly rhetorical question…
Teaching students to commit crimes is certainly inappropriate and probably illegal.
If “Culture, Power, and Education” is a required course – why would we be surprised at how poor education has become.
Whatever you think about culture and power – they have absolutely nothing to do with improving the likelyhood that Johnny can read.
Aside from my concerns about what might ACTUALLY be taught in such a class,
I do not even want schools to teach History until they have demonstrated that they can successfully teach the 3 R’s.
And history for more important that culture.
The POS Caldas is not, as people were led to believe, a teacher.
A teacher ellicits the best arguments from all of the parties and positions and stimulates a vibrant discussion. The discussion is part of the process of teaching the students to listen and to think.
She is an idiot. Probably blindly La Raza.
Just in the news…
The documents include a previously unreported 2019 FBI interview summary with former Palm Beach police chief Michael Reiter. Trump had contacted the department shortly after reports of Epstein’s criminal sex investigation became public.
The future president contacted Reiter to express relief that authorities were finally acting, suggesting his associates in New York had described Epstein’s behaviors as “disgusting,” and advised investigators to focus on Ghislaine Maxwell, whom he described as “evil.”
The Miami Herald first reported on the development.
when did Reiter say Trump contacted him.
The date you are giving is the FBI’s interview of Reiter – note Trump’s contact with reiter.
Typical. Really, we are going to have to fumigate universities to address this. Do it with dollars – stop sending your kids, and stop giving your alma mater money – grow up and let your college days go; I sure hope your life has made you into a well-rounded enough person it doesn’t matter anymore.
It’s the only language they understand, and the only one they can’t attempt to sue for. Stop. Sending. Your. Kids. And, stop. Sending. Them. Money. Accept that there is no such thing as a sane or pragmatically useful university experience anywhere in 2026, because there isn’t, no matter how conservative the place.
James,
I agree.
I would add to get your children out of public education. Charter school, private school, home school.
. It moves more to third world conditions everyday
Children not attending schools are uneducated or attending bad schools ill educated. Either way it’s a loss to the US.
Clean out schools within 1 year. Lives are being wasted. Is Minneapolis running mandatory classes about ripping off welfare programs? DIY training with networks?
Just great kemo sabe.
Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, admits that his agency uses the same tactics as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing today, it was pointed out that ICE agents were “asking people walking on the streets of America to show proof of citizenship.”
He was asked, “Do you know what other regimes in the 20th century required people to produce similar proof of citizenship while walking down the street?”
Lyons: “Sir, there were various nefarious regimes that did that,”
Question: “Is Nazi Germany one of them?”
Lyons: “Yes”
Question: “Is the Soviet Union one of them?”
Lyons: “Yes”
Question: “You said in your opening statement that references to ICE as the Gestapo or the secret police encourage threats against ICE agents. The problem is you have it backwards, sir. People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are un-American and outright fascist. If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one. But people are simply just saying what they are seeing. And that’s why people are making those comments.”
ATS – this is just stupid.
Did the Gestapo arrest people ? Yes
Did the Gestopo wear Uniforms ? Yes
Did the Gestapo carry guns ? Yes
ICE does the same thing that ALL law enforcement does.
In the US any police officer can stop anyone on the street and question them.
BUT you are NOT required to answer or stay, UNLESS the officer has reasonable suspicion.
If he can meet that standard – he can detain you. SCOTUS has said that RACE can be used to establish reasonable suspicion, but it CAN NOT be the sole basis.
Regardless, if a LEO has reasonable suspicion – they can detain you – it is called a “Terry Stop”,
Every single traffic stop ever is a “Terry Stop”.
A Terry stop allows an officer to detain you, ask for ID and ask you question.
If an officer has reasonable suspicion then you must provide ID.
You are not obligated to answer their questions, but they are free to ask.
Their inquiry is limited to questions realated to their reasonable suspicion and obtaining ID.
If during the stop, either from your answers or their observations they get probably cause – they can arrest you.
During a “Terry Stop” you are NOT “free to go” and if you try to leave – you are resisting arrest and will be arrested.
Further even if an officer does NOT have reasonable suspicion there are orders they can give you that You MUST comply with.
“Move to the sidewalk” – “Turn left”, “stay off this road” “Stand back.” …
YOU do not get to 2nd guess the officer or debate them. You do what you are told.
If you do not you may be arrsested.
You get to argue that their order was improper LATER in court.
Officers are NOT obligated to explain to you WHY they issued an order.
The assumption is their order is legal.
John Say the Stupid.
At least you agree that ICE is acting like the Gestapo.
That is at least a start.
The rest of your comment is just stupid, irrelevant, incoherent, nonsensical rambling that further confirms your profound mental illness and your complete inability to organize your thoughts into anything remotely resembling a cogent argument.
Despite this, you at least acknowledge that ICE is acting like the Gestapo.
That tells me everything I need to know about your worldview, and that you have no problems with living under an authoritarian regime that has no respect for the rule of law.
– The Nazi SS wore uniforms designed by Hugo Boss. Bill Clinton wore suits designed by Hugo Boss. Therefore Bill Clinton is just like the Nazi SS.
– Hilter was a vegetarian. Therefore all vegetarians are like Hitler.
– Mussolini made the trains run on time. Therefore anyone who advocates for good civil infrastructure is just advocating for fascism.
Your formulation of “Gestapo arrests people, ICE arrests people, therefore ICE is just like the Gestapo” is absurd. The problem with the gestapo was not that they arrested people but WHY they arrested people. The Gestapo arrested people for political wrongthink. ICE arrests people who are in the country illegally. Deporting people who are here illegally is just and proper.
One more example of political indoctrination posing as education.
It is interesting, at a minimum, to note that the American Founders would not have admitted Professor Blanca Caldas to become a citizen.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Naturalization Acts of 1790, 1795, 1798, 1802 (four iterations and perpetuation as law to 1868 for clarity)
United States Congress, “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” March 26, 1790
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof….
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If America is expected to continue the Constitution of 1789, America must continue the intent of the Founders of 1790, which persisted until the illicit amendment-by-force of the Constitution in 1868.
Rather, the “Black Robed Dictatorship of the Juristocracy” has disagreed with the Constitution and Freedom since 1860.
What happened to America?
What happened to American Freedom?
. The United States? It doesn’t exist in h€ll apparently which speaks well of it.
This is classic obstruction and interfering with law enforcement.
Where is the DOJ?
WHY HAVEN’T WE SEEN A PLETHORA OF INDICTMENTS and ARRESTS ????
This is what they are teaching in a required course for elementary school teachers and we wonder why so many teachers are wearing nose rings, blue hair and screaming at protests.
They are doing the same at J Schools, Law Schools and even Med Schools. We saw them taking over the schools, we did nothing and we have lost. The next generation can’t think, use logic, argue a point or cope with every day issues. All I can say is that I am glad I am older and I hopefully won’t see the worst of this once they completely take over. It’ll be a world full of idiots like the one particular Anonymous that snipes at everyone every day and every issue.
PS. This one particular Anonymous creep is why me, and many others, almost beg for this great site to require some sort of name rather than just “Anonymous”.
PSS. If you are one of the legitimate commenters that for some reason can’t create a name do the decent thing and sign off on your comment so we can differentiate you from the idiot.
HullBobby,
Gets worse. Gen Z — the first generation officially dubbed dumber than the last
““They’re the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized academic tests than the one before it,” Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, 43, told The Post. “And to make matters worse, most of these young people are overconfident about how smart they are. The smarter people think they are, the dumber they actually are.”
https://nypost.com/2026/02/07/us-news/gen-z-the-first-generation-officially-dubbed-dumber-than-the-last/
Kinda reflects the one anonymous comments, dont you think?
That is very interesting Upstate. Kind of ironic that it comes as per student costs are higher than they have ever been too. I would sarcastically add that I doubt the teachers unions have anything to do with this sad result/!??!??
. . . her PhD dissertation, ‘Performing the Advocate Bilingual Teacher: Drama-based Interventions for Future Story-making,’ was given the Activist Research Grant Initiative Award sponsored in part by the Social Justice Institute and the U. Texas at Austin Center for Gender and Women’s Studies.
Sounds like parody. How many hackneyed Marxist phrases can we get into a single line of a bio?
OldManFromKS,
Parody is right. One would think they were reading something from the Bee, but no, it really exists. Thing is, by mandating these required classes, they have a captive audience and it also enables more of these so-called “professors” degrees in non-sense but jobs. I highly doubt she could get a job anywhere else other than in academia. Perhaps some non-sense non-profit. I know a woman who got a degree in women’s studies. She confesses it was a total waste of time and money. She is a cabinet maker now and does pretty well for herself.
I use “a degree in advanced underwater basket weaving” as a joke from my days as GA Tech in the late 70’s.
Funny how parody becomes reality.
And here is an example of additional indoctrination we are seeing but in public education.
Schools Teach Kids To Hate ICE Before Teaching Them To Spell ICE
Mitchell Elementary in Ann Arbor today. It’s not cool they can’t even spell. Communist parents want their kids trained by good strong communist teechers. Get it? pic.twitter.com/CiFbajYrzZ
— Matt Maddock (@matthewmaddock) February 5, 2026
https://dailycaller.com/2026/02/09/schools-teach-kids-to-hate-ice-before-teaching-them-to-spell-ice/
Reminds me of the videos of kids being taught to hate Jews in Gaza. Teach them hate before teaching them how to read, write or do math.
Upstate, From a systems perspective, the key question is whether this is an outlier or the norm.
If it’s a one-off incident, that’s a special cause problem. If we keep seeing the same pattern across schools, districts, and states, then it’s common cause variation. That means the system itself is producing the outcome.
Persistent outcomes don’t happen by accident. They tell us what the system is designed to do.
OLLY,
Well, based off of other reporting, we have seen activism invade public education with things like LBGTQ+, pro-Hamas, DEI etc. Meanwhile, while teaching activism, they are failing to teach the basics. There are several cities that spend the most money in America on education per student and those students cannot read at grade level or do math. It is a system that by intention is producing lower educated students.
Upstate, I’m curious about your take on this.
Do you agree that a republic rises or falls on the citizen’s capacity for self-government? And if so, do you think education still has a clearly defined output tied to forming that capacity, or are we mostly arguing over symptoms without a shared standard?
OLLY,
I think the standard has been changed. In their desire to make everything seem better and not to hurt anyone’s feelings, it started off with “participation” trophies. Then, the lowering of standards so no one gets an “F” and everyone passes. Then it went really stupid with CRT “grades are racist.” “Math is racist.” Dividing students into oppressed and oppressor groups, which leads to hate. Now we have activism being taught in public education. Yes, those are the symptoms of a changed standard. As a result, we are seeing the symptoms of parents wanting school choice and a increase in charter schools and homeschooling for a better standard. But the underlying standards in public education have changed and not for the better. The leftists do not want a educated, self-reliant, citizen capable of self-government. They want a uneducated, indoctrinated, dependent on the government serf. Where did this idea of socialism is better that is attracting so many young people come from? We have seen academia shift radically left and the purge of conservative professors from faculty in colleges and universities. These left leaning professors then indoctrinate their students who then go on to become teachers in public education and introduce leftist ideology in the very young, as early as they can. Case in point, the Mitchell Elementary school mentioned above. We seem to have two differing standards. One, what I would call traditional standard, reading, writing, math, history, civics, science. The other, teaching children to “hate ICE,” question their gender before they even understand the concept, dividing student into the oppressed and the oppressors.
I do believe it is by design and intentional for this leftist standard.
I agree Upstate, the outcomes are real. We don’t need to prove intent to identify design. When standards shift and the same results repeat, the system is telling us what it now values.
If that output is antithetical to forming citizens with the capacity for self-government, then we face a simple choice. Either accept the new standards and resign ourselves to treating symptoms forever, or redesign the system to produce the output a republic actually requires.
It’s insurrection.
There use to be nuclear bombing drills by hiding under your desk also.
Yes. That drill was to, hopefully, save your life.
This drill is to obstruct and interfere with LEOs carrying out their Congress delegated duties to enforce immigration laws.
Re: there used to be nuclear bomb drills: hiding under the desk was deemed a lost cause with the advent of thermonuclear weapons.
Trapped
🤡
Award for the Day!
So, this is a required course for elementary education majors at the University of Minnesota? If elementary school teachers are taking up classroom teaching time with this nonsense in which they were indoctrinated when in college, no wonder Jane and John are unable to read or do math at grade level.
I hope this teacher is also going to teach these student how to put their hands behind their backs as they get arrested for interfering with Federal law enforcement activities
As for making this required, shame on the professor and the school for allowing this activity. I can only imagine if there was a class forcing students to point out to ICE officials “here they are”.
The part that makes me shake my head is that the message is mistreating because fully half the country does not agree with this activism, yet they double down.
I don’t understand this. If a person is in the country illegally, they need to be removed from the country. If you don’t want to be deported, then don’t illegally travel to another country. If ICE is coming for a student, then they are also in the process of deporting the parent, and they should be deported together. This professor’s policy is literally to separate children from their parents.
There is no racial element to this. I don’t care if the person illegally entered from Canada or Mexico, China or Somalia. If you don’t have citizenship or some form of visa, you need to leave. As an example, we have many legal Indian immigrants that do extremely well in this country. But we’re also finding Indians who entered illegally and somehow obtained truck driver licenses and are now killing people on our highways. The people that came here illegally need to leave. The people that came legally are welcome to stay.
The Dem-o-rats don’t care. They need voters.
Look how the protesters are being funded.
People that are here legally are being removed. Whereas your forebears just stole land and a language, leaving you with a room temperature IQ.
^ Chinese Communist Party troll. Ignore. ^
– People that are here legally are being removed.
Can you give me a name? I’ve not heard of a single one. Every instance of someone being removed that I’ve heard of is an illegal alien. There was once instance of a guy that was briefly detained due to mistaken identity, but he was certainly not deported. (They went to arrest a specific individual, and the guy did resemble him pretty closely, but the mistake was cleared up quickly, these things happen in law enforcement) There have also been communists that were arrested for obstructing law enforcement, but these people were, unfortunately, not deported.
– Whereas your forebears just stole land and a language, leaving you with a room temperature IQ.
My forebears did no such thing. The land under the United States was either purchased or conquered. (One of my favorite things recently was a “land acknowledgment” at Columbia University, but Manhattan island was legally purchased, we literally have the receipt) And I have no idea what you mean by a stolen “language”. English certainly isn’t stolen, and that’s not how language works anyway.
Re: people that are here illegally: The veterans among us in these pages have learned what comments are worth responding to. Yours was a valiant effort, but you could’ve found better things to do with your day.
Idiot. Before any Whiteman ever saw this continent the natives continually took land from each other. Beyond that, what is your genius solution to ” stolen land” . Im waiting with baited breath.
Out of approximately 1M detentions – that is ICE stops ranging from questioning on the street to arresting to deport,
170 people have been stopped and detained who were NOT illegal aliens.
Of those the average time being detained – as citizenship or legal right to be in the US was verify was less than 45 minutes.
Please tell me what police force in the world makes 1M stops and only briefly detains 0.017% of people in error ?
“Whereas your forebears just stole land”
For nearly all of the 900,000 years of existance that has been true.
There is not a “native american” tribe that did not steal the land they occupied from another murdering or enslaving those who previously posessed that land.
And the indians that one tribe stole the land from – obtained it by stealing it from another. and on and on.