A couple who arrived in St. Paul from Nicaragua under refugee status in 2023 say their children missed going to school.

Their three students took part in St. Paul Public Schools’ temporary virtual learning program due to fears over federal immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota, which U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials called the largest immigration crackdown in its history. Their oldest child, a son, who worried about his declining academic performance while at home, recently returned to his high school.

He was greeted with hugs and teachers shouting his name, welcoming him back, according to his mother. The couple’s second-oldest child has also returned to school. They say they won’t forget the support the district provided — including connecting the couple with an attorney when the father was detained and sent to Texas as well as the box lunches for their children.

“I feel like they’re my family,” said the mother, who asked to be identified only by the initial M. due to fear of being targeted for detainment, in Spanish through an interpreter. “We don’t have family here; it’s only five of us. We feel very grateful and supported by all of them.”

The woman and her husband are in the U.S. as refugees and in the process of getting green cards.

Cristy Gaffney picks up the son of immigrants to drive him to school in St. Paul on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Gaffney drives him each day as his family fears they will be targeted by federal immigration agents if they leave their home. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

About 7,900 students enrolled in St. Paul’s virtual learning

When St. Paul Public Schools introduced the temporary virtual learning option starting Jan. 22, about 7,900 of the district’s approximately 33,260 students signed up. As of late February, the number has dropped to around 3,700. Federal officials on Feb. 12 announced a drawdown of immigration agents.

Virtual learning, as well as the district’s other responses to the surge — including delivering box lunches for students — have cost approximately $905,000, according to SPPS officials.

Among the costs to the district, around $460,000 is in the form of lost nutrition revenue due to fewer students eating school meals. Technology for virtual learning has cost about $328,000 — from extra iPads and chargers to Wi-Fi hotspots for students. Another $62,000 is for meal delivery and $42,000 has gone to lesson creation costs. Those costs are expected to continue to grow, according to the district.

Initially, as many as half of SPPS students at some schools were enrolled in the temporary virtual option, Superintendent Stacie Stanley said at a school board meeting in February.

Elementary students have the option to opt back into in-person learning every three weeks, with March 6 being the next deadline for students wanting to return the next week. High school and middle school students can request to return to in-person learning at any point.

‘A school-wide effect’

SPPS math teacher Michael Houston said in February that his classes have seemed emptier and quieter since the immigration enforcement began.

He said it reminds him of school before a long break with families traveling out of town. In some of his classes, he estimates around 10% to 15% of his students have been absent. In one of his classes, it’s been around 50% of students, though some of it could be attributed to general absenteeism, he said.

To adjust to temporary virtual learning, some teachers in the district switched to the role of an online teacher, with the students in their in-person classes being split between other teachers. Other adjustments have also been needed for staff concerned about coming to school during the surge.

Students attending school and those learning virtually are both impacted by the change, said Quentin Wathum-Ocama, who teaches kindergarten in the district.

“I think that gets lost a little bit when we talk about these virtual options, that it is really a school-wide effect,” Wathum-Ocama said.

A day of learning virtually

At Groveland Park Elementary School, there’s a morning check-in with students enrolled in virtual learning, said Principal Sarah Lightner, allowing them to stay somewhat connected.

That has included students passing around a tablet so a student at home can talk with classmates and share how their day is going, she said.

“And then they have meetings, there’s literacy groups and math groups with the online teacher during the day for about a half-hour each. And then at the end of the day, they were able to meet with their specialist teacher. So that’s science, P.E., art and music,” Lightner said. “So they might have some specific projects to work on with them, with things at home, but also just maintaining that connection with those teachers that they are used to seeing regularly at Groveland.”

Lightner compares it to a one-room schoolhouse model in some ways because the online teacher is working with kindergarten through fifth grade.

Online teachers meet with students in small groups and in-person teachers help maintain connections in the morning, Lightner said. While students are still able to receive lessons for literacy and math, other classes have not been available to some grades if teachers are not available.

Lightner has had conversations with her staff about their safety coming into work, whether that’s having carpools available or parent patrols in place near where staff park.

“It touched every part of our community and there were certainly — I mean at Groveland, about 50% of our students are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) and every part of that community was touched,” she said.

Arriving from Nicaragua

Meanwhile, the couple from Nicaragua says they are pleased their children have returned to school in St. Paul. But their experience of having the father detained and flown to Texas has left painful memories.

The mother, M., worked as a lawyer in Nicaragua, which often involved her in areas of social and political work, she said. Because she was receiving threats for her work, the family decided to move for their safety.

“It was a very hard decision to leave behind our city, our country, our family. But our life was in danger, simply for having a different opinion from the government,” M. said.

They first moved to Costa Rica, where their two youngest children were born, before they resettled in Minnesota. When they arrived to the state, they saw it as an opportunity to live somewhere safer and with more opportunities, said the father.

“We felt very safe, content, happy. We felt that we connected with the community, with our children’s school, with the people that we had met,” she said. “But everything has changed as a result of ICE.”

A knock at the door

One day in mid-January, as M. prepared to leave for work, the couple heard a knock at the door. It was two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, insisting they open the door.

The couple had never seen ICE agents in person before and the agents showed the couple a photo of the husband they had on a phone.

“So, the officer says, ‘Open the door if you don’t want us to knock down the door,’” said the husband, in Spanish through an interpreter. “The first thing that came to my mind is my girls, like about how traumatic it could be, they see ICE knocking the door down.”

The agents didn’t show a warrant, the couple said, and it was unclear how they knew the husband was there.

The husband was taken to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling. The husband said the only thing he could think at the time was that the agents didn’t care about his documents and were just going to deport him.

A staff person at their son’s school was able to connect M. with an attorney. Also, the day her husband was detained, the family tracked his phone location, which showed him at the airport around 10 p.m.

“We realized what time he left from here, when he went on the plane, when he arrived in El Paso, Texas,” M. said. “And the entire night, because all of this started at 9 in the morning, the whole day, the night, we didn’t sleep.”

Held in Texas

Upon arriving in Texas, M.’s husband and other detainees were taken to a building that was nothing more than a roof and an area enclosed with mesh, he said. Their chains were removed and the weather was very cold. After one day and night in El Paso, the husband and a group of other detainees were put on a bus to Houston.

Eight days after he was detained, the husband was released with several other detainees. His brother, who also lives in the U.S., was able to pick him up before M. purchased him a ticket to fly home. Several days before his release, a law firm hired by M. had filed a writ of habeas corpus, which can be used to determine if an imprisonment is legal.

It’s difficult for the couple to talk about his detainment, they said. And, they still don’t feel safe. A community member brings their son to school and their life is mainly just leaving home for work.

That agents can detain someone without providing documentation and without caring about the harm they cause to that person and their family is very sad, the husband said.

“Because they caused trauma,” M. added. “And the worst part is that it’s unjustified.”

Refugee rights groups sued the federal government in January after the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services launched what they call Operation Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening, or Operation PARRIS, in mid-December, according to the Associated Press.

The program targets refugees in the state who have not yet secured permanent resident status, such as a green card, with the purpose of reexamining their legal status. The lawsuit alleges that under the program, ICE officers went door to door arresting refugees and sending them to Texas detention centers, without access to attorneys. Some, like M.’s husband, were later released and left to figure out how to return to Minnesota on their own.

Alongside that operation has been Operation Metro Surge, which launched in December and, according to the Trump administration, exists to investigate allegations of fraud within Minnesota’s Somali community and “target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in the Minneapolis area.”

Back at school

As students gradually return to school, and some remain online, teachers and administrators said they have mixed feelings.

“Honestly, I’m just looking forward to having that classroom community that I’m so used to having,” said Houston, the math teacher. “Having a classroom full of students and we’re all learning math, laughing, joking, bantering. You know, the reason why I got into teaching. So that’s what I’m looking forward to when all of our students can feel safe enough to come back through our doors.”

Lightner said the experience has been a heavy load for the entire community and an added stress for teachers.

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“I think we want to see the drawdown truly happen and see how that is changing in our families,” she said, “but I think the fear that people have been living with is going to be continuing. And so, ICE might be leaving our community, but the fear is going to be left in our community. And so, how do we create confidence in our security systems and our care for others so that they know that they’re safe to come back to school and safe to be out and about and in the community again?”

It is a team that will be remembered for being ravaged by injury, with those still left standing forced to play an ungodly amount of minutes.

But this Gophers men’s basketball team also has exhibited a flair for the dramatic.

Having already knocked off the likes of Indiana, Iowa and Michigan State — all NCAA Tournament teams — the Gophers (20-9 overall, 12-6 Big Ten) did it again on Saturday, beating UCLA 78-73 before a spirited and appreciative crowd of 9,811 at Williams Arena.

“I told our team this after practice yesterday,” Gophers head coach Niko Medved said. “Tomorrow it’s March, and as a player, as a coach, it’s the best time of year. We’ve all been in seasons where teams have already checked out at this point.

“This team has done the opposite. As a coach I’m so grateful to be with a group of guys who love that you love going to practice with. They love being around each other.

“They have a great spirit about them and you’re playing meaningful games. I told them the team, really appreciate it. Be where your feet are. Enjoy what you’re doing, enjoy each other.

“I’ll go to war with this group any day, because they exemplify everything I believe in in coaching.”

Bobby Durkin led the Gophers with 23 points, including seven 3s. Langston Reynolds and Cade Tyson each scored 21. UCLA was led by center Tyler Bilodeau with 32 points.

The Bruins (19-10, 11-7), playing at Williams Arena for the first time since 1969, came into the game having won their last two — including an overtime win against Illinois — and four of their last six.

They had their hands full all afternoon with a group that is small in number but big in effort and heart.

“We’ve just got a really connected group,” Medved said. “They’re moving the ball, they’re patient when they need to. Twenty-four assists to three turnovers is just phenomenal. Obviously, it helps when shots go in.”

As for where the Gophers are getting the energy to not only compete, but to win, Reynolds said it comes down to playing for each other.

“We’ve got guys down, but they’re there cheering for us. They’re there every day at practice. We know how much they want to be out there, so it just motivates us to want to do more.”

The Gophers were clicking offensively from the start of the game as they took an early lead. Back-to-back 3s by Durkin gave the Gophers a 24-15 lead.

UCLA responded with a pair of 3s to cut into the Gophers’ lead. The Gophers held a 27-24 lead midway through the first half before the Bruins went on a run.

They tied the game on a 3 from Jamar Brown. Bilodeau scored the next five points to give UCLA a 32-27 lead. The Bruins stretched their lead to 36-29, leading to Medved calling a timeout.

The Bruins led 39-31 with five minutes to play in the half, but the Gophers closed the half strong. A Durkin 3 pulled the Gophers to within 1 with one minute, 47 seconds to play. The teams went to the locker room with UCLA ahead 41-40.

The Gophers took their first lead of the second half at 54-53 on a 3 by Tyson with 13 minutes to play. The lead grew to six at 67-61 with just over six minutes to play.

A 3 by Durkin put the Gophers up 76-70 with two minutes to play. A three-point play by Bilodeau cut the Gophers’ lead in half 10 seconds later.

A missed free throw on the front end of a one and one gave the Bruins a chance to tie with just over a minute to play, but Bilodeau missed a 3.

After a Durkin miss, UCLA had the ball with 30 seconds to play. Following a timeout, Donovan Dent missed a 3 with 12.8 seconds to play.

Durkin then put the game away for the Gophers with a pair of free throws.

“What a great day,” Medved said. “It’s what you live for as a coach, as a player. High, high level basketball game. A lot of shot making a lot of plays. We just found a way to make a couple more than they did down the stretch.”

Briefly

The Gophers play at Indiana on Wednesday before closing out the regular season at home against Northwestern on Saturday.

By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief condemned the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran and called for an immediate return to negotiations “to pull the region, and our world, back from the brink.”

Secretary-General António Guterres told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Saturday that everything must be done to prevent further escalation. “The alternative,” he warned, “is a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.”

Guterres also condemned Iran’s retaliatory attacks for violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon, speaking to reporters before the meeting, said it was “hypocrisy” to condemn the airstrikes. He said Iran is responsible for the actions of its proxies in the Middle East and for its nuclear and missile programs, and Israel and the U.S. acted “to prevent an irreversible and immediate threat.”

The attack on Iran killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, The Associated Press has reported. The assassination of the second leader of the Islamic Republic, who had no designated successor, raised the prospects of a protracted conflict given Iranian threats of retaliation. President Donald Trump on social media called his passing “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a letter to the secretary-general, accused the United States and Israel of “flagrantly” violating Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the U.N. Charter. He said Iran was exercising its right to self-defense under the charter in response.

He urged the council members “to take the necessary and immediate measures to halt this unlawful use of force and to ensure accountability.” And he called for an unequivocal condemnation of “this act of aggression … as it undoubtedly poses an unprecedented threat to regional as well as global peace and security.”

Five council members — Bahrain, which is the Arab representative on the council, France, Russia, China and Colombia — called for the emergency meeting.

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In a joint statement, the leaders of Britain and France — both veto-wielding members of the council — along with Germany’s chancellor called for a resumption of U.S.-Iranian talks on Tehran’s nuclear program. The three countries, part of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, have led efforts to reach a negotiated solution. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018.

The three European leaders strongly condemned Iranian airstrikes in the region — not the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes — and urged Iran’s leaders to seek a negotiated solution, saying: “Ultimately, the Iranian people must be allowed to determine their future.”

The Security Council meeting is taking place on the last day of the United Kingdom’s presidency and a day before the United States takes over the rotating presidency for the month of March.

LOS ANGELES — Baz Luhrmann’s startling new movie about Elvis Presley began, the director says, with an accident.

As he was making 2022’s “Elvis” — his Oscar-nominated biopic starring Austin Butler as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and an outlandishly accented Tom Hanks as Presley’s domineering manager, Colonel Tom Parker — Luhrmann’s researchers happened upon dozens of half-century-old film reels stored in an underground salt mine in Kansas. The footage, which MGM shot for a pair of Elvis concert movies in the early ’70s, showed Presley onstage and in rehearsal for the residency at Las Vegas’ International Hotel that marked his return to live performance after years of working in Hollywood.

Luhrmann didn’t end up using the archived material in “Elvis.” But the discovery left him with a choice, he says: “I had the power and the muscle to either put it back into the vault and let it rot or do something with it.”

What he did with it is “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” which opened last week in IMAX theaters and will expand to wide release Friday.

Part concert film and part documentary, “EPiC” traces Presley’s journey to the International’s gilded showroom — a gig Luhrmann says only happened because Parker was “a super-addicted gambler” — and on to his first tour since the late ’50s. Like all of Lurhmann’s movies — among them 2013’s “The Great Gatsby” and 2001’s “Moulin Rouge!” — it’s an ornate visual spectacle, with wild colors and frenzied editing (the latter by Luhrmann’s longtime collaborator Jonathan Redmond).

But the real attraction is Elvis himself: the perfect hair, the bedazzled jumpsuit, the dark eyes beaming pure sex. Given the increasingly crummy movies on which he’d been squandering his talent, it’s a revelation to see how electric he could still be when he got in front of an audience, the force of his charisma razing everything in his blast radius. “EPiC” wisely forgoes talking heads in favor of keeping the camera’s gaze on Elvis, though the film is narrated with excerpts from a previously unheard interview in which Presley discusses his life and career.

As an intimate and immersive cinematic experience, the result is up there with Brett Morgen’s trippy 2022 David Bowie doc “Moonage Daydream” and “Get Back,” the Emmy-winning 2021 Beatles docuseries by Peter Jackson (who lent Luhrmann a hand in restoring MGM’s footage from “Elvis: That’s the Way It Is” and “Elvis on Tour”).

“It’s a bit like a dreamscape,” Luhrmann, 63, says of the movie as he sits in a suite at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills near the end of a recent press junket. Wearing aviator shades and an Elvis T-shirt under a velvety jacket, the director has been answering questions about “EPiC” all day; after our chat, he’ll head to the TCL Chinese Theatre to answer still more at the film’s Los Angeles premiere. Yet he seems genuinely psyched to be talking — talking yet again — about the King, whom he reckons was in something of a bubble by the time he got to Vegas in 1969.

“He was the highest-paid actor in Hollywood and he felt he reigned supreme,” Luhrmann says. “He didn’t realize the world was passing him by.” While Presley was filming “Tickle Me” and “Clambake,” the Beatles and Bob Dylan had happened; now one of rock ‘n’ roll’s architects was at risk of looking passé compared to the countless younger acts he’d inspired.

The performances in “EPiC” challenge that idea: Accompanied by the TCB Band and the background singers of the Sweet Inspirations, Presley’s voice soars through a richly melodramatic “You’ve Lost That Feeling Loving” then burns with attitude in a mash-up of “Little Sister” and the Beatles’ “Get Back”; “Suspicious Minds” drives toward an ecstatic climax, Presley and drummer Ronnie Tutt egging each other on as the song’s groove keeps picking up steam.

As thrilling as “EPiC” is, this is more or less the same period of Presley’s career covered by last year’s “Sunset Boulevard” box set, which included hours of rehearsal tape from the singer’s preparation for the Vegas residency. “Sunset Boulevard” itself followed two recent docs on his so-called ’68 comeback special, Sofia Coppola’s movie about Presley’s ex-wife Priscilla and the latest book by Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick (not to mention Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” which raked in more than $280 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo).

Does is it ever feel — nearly 49 years after Presley’s death at age 42 — as though there’s simply too much Elvis content out there?

“Not to the fans,” Luhrmann says. What about to him? The director says he wouldn’t want to comment on that. “There’s good stuff and there’s quick knock-off stuff,” he says. “I think it’s about the quality of the stuff, isn’t it?”

In Lurhmann’s view, what distinguishes “EPiC” is that it centers the singer in his own voice. “Elvis stuff is always somebody telling you about him,” he says. “The colonel was always trying to restrain him from speaking.” Here, in contrast, “Elvis comes to you and he tells you his story,” he says. “He sings you his story.”

Luhrmann took some creative liberties to achieve a kind of emotional truth. In a funky rendition of “Oh Happy Day,” for instance, the director augments the Sweet Inspirations’ original backing vocals with the newly recorded voices of a gospel choir from Nashville.

“When Elvis was a kid, he used to sneak into East Trigg [Baptist Church in Memphis] and watch Mahalia Jackson with a Black gospel choir,” Luhrmann says. “So that was a bit of fantasy. We’re fulfilling Elvis’ dream.”

That said, the director points out that “there’s not a frame of AI in this film.” He’s not afraid of the technology. “AI has its function. But what AI does is perfection, and human beings are imperfect,” he says. “When you see Elvis in this film — the way he moves, the vibrations of him, the fact that no one knew what he was gonna do onstage — it’s his imperfection that makes him so compelling.”

Part of what’s empowered Luhrmann to make important decisions about Presley’s legacy is his close relationship with the singer’s family, including Priscilla; her and Elvis’ daughter, Lisa Marie (who tragically died just two days after attending the 2023 Golden Globes in support of Lurhmann’s biopic); and Lisa Marie’s daughter, Riley Keough.

Still, he denies feeling territorial in any way about the singer. He’s heard people joke that “I’m the Colonel Tom Parker that Elvis should’ve had,” he says with a laugh. “I’m not sure about that. I feel like I’m a curator of the material, but I can’t wait to train up someone younger and say, ‘You go and take this.’”

The thing about icons, he adds, is that their lives and work are endlessly interpretable by any number of inheritors. “The point is that you’ll never get rid of it,” he says. “Average artists sort of get forgotten but iconic artists transcend time and place.”

Who’s the closest thing we have to Elvis right now?

Luhrmann smiles. “I’m not gonna say who’s the closest, but if Taylor [Swift] puts on a show, she really puts on a show,” he says. “Harry [Styles] is about to go out again, and Harry really puts on a show.”

Having spent years thinking about Elvis, Luhrmann has mostly moved on to another larger-than-life figure in Joan of Arc, about whom he’s making a movie for which he’s “building medieval France,” as he told Variety this week. (“It’s gonna take time,” he added.)

Yet even now he’s not quite finished with the King. Luhrmann says he’d like to put “EPiC” in Las Vegas’ Sphere, just a mile or so from where Elvis triumphed at the International. He’s even started to ponder how the movie could be expanded to fit the venue’s enormous wraparound screen à la Sphere’s theme-park-like take on “The Wizard of Oz.”

Says the director: “I don’t think there’s a screen too big for Elvis.”

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