While fire drills are a commonplace occurrence in schools nationwide, one professor at the University of Minnesota has identified an even greater threat—Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—and decided to prepare her students accordingly.
Professor Blanca Caldas Chumbes is an assistant professor in Multilingual Education and Elementary Education at the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota.
The professor has made no attempt to hide her far-left ideological leanings. Her PhD dissertation received an award from the Activist Research Grant Initiative Award which is partially sponsored by the Social Justice Institute. But her recent actions forcing her students to participate in an “ICE drill” designed to impede federal immigration officers in the unlikely event that they visit her classroom may have finally been a step too far.
A brave student whistleblower brought the potentially criminal attempt to hinder immigration enforcement to public attention by exposing the so-called “ICE drill” in an interview with media outlet Alpha News.
Identified only by the pseudonym “Angela” to protect herself from retaliation, the student explained how Professor Caldas Chumbes introduced the topic of the “ICE drill” in her “Culture, Power, and Education” class—a required course for those majoring in elementary education and seeking to be future teachers.
First the professor displayed “an image on the screen of the specific steps that we are supposed to take in the event that ICE were to appear at our classroom door.” Then the class was forced to rehearse the actions their professor dictated.
Angela described what happened next:
[Professor Caldas Chumbes] then had us stand up and move to the farthest corner away from the door and began by acting out her own role during a specific scenario, which is to talk to the agent and attempt to gain more information.
Then, she came back to us in the back corner and told us … that we are to use our own bodies to cover up and shield specific individuals within our classroom that appear to be targets, and then finally 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.
I immediately knew that it was very wrong essentially because she was saying that because I am white, because I am a white student, that I essentially need to act as a human shield and interfere with federal agents. As a future educator, I would never ever instruct my own students to put their own safety on the line.
According to Angela, many students appeared disturbed by the professor’s instructions but were hesitant to raise objections. “The class was very quiet and essentially went along with what she was telling us to do, so similar to me, many others were uncomfortable,” she described.
Angela reported the incident to her parents who then contacted the college Dean’s office to lodge a complaint, but the professor claimed she had conducted no such drill.
“We actually received an answer from them stating that they were able to speak with my professor in which she actually denied ever encouraging ICE interference within our classroom,” Angela explained. “We were also informed that this would be addressed in the next class meeting but unfortunately, this was never addressed.”
Despite the professor’s denials, it is clear that she is now under scrutiny by the university administration. When Alpha News reached out to the university for comment, the university stated that they are aware of the situation and are investigating. Professor Caldas Chumbes’ biography also appears to have been scrubbed from the university’s website.
By instructing her students to hinder federal law enforcement operations, Professor Caldas Chumbes encouraged illegal behavior and put them at risk of physical harm. Furthermore, the professor’s insistence that white students shield those whose country of origin might make them targets of immigration enforcement could be a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act which forbids discrimination based on race or national origin.
According to Angela, this racism also extended to the course material which included a visual pyramid displaying “overt” and “covert” forms of “white supremacy.” Examples of “overt” white supremacy include “lynching,” the “KKK” and “racial slurs” whereas “covert” white supremacy is expressed by “denial of white privilege,” “Make America Great Again,” “mass incarceration,” “colorblindness,” and “white silence.” This blatantly racist and politicized course material was presented in a mandatory course for future educators.
Angela, thankfully, seems poised to be a much better teacher than her professor. “I also want to advocate for change within classrooms as such hateful and negative opinions and actions such as these ICE drills should not be carried out in the classroom,” she said. “There is absolutely no place for it.”