‘Kids literally disappeared’: Minnesota schools lost at least 1,700 students following Operation Metro Surge

One January night, 13-year-old Alessandro, his parents and his two younger sisters slipped out of their St. Paul home. They brought only diapers for the baby and a small suitcase of clothes they grabbed in a hurry, leaving everything else behind.
Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had come to Minnesota as part of an aggressive campaign to arrest as many immigrants as possible. For two months, the Honduran immigrant family hadn’t left their home even to buy groceries, w