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Two weeks into January, the director of a St. Paul child care center called a family to ask why their daughter had been absent on-and-off since late last year.

“We reached out to just see, ‘Hey, what’s going on? Is your child sick?’” said Angela Clair, whose child care center serves more than 70 children.

The girl’s mother answered the phone.

“ICE is in our neighborhood every single day, and I don’t want to leave the neighborhood to take her to school, because I’m afraid that myself or my husband will be taken,” Clair recalls the mother saying.

Clair called back a week later to check on them, but the family still didn’t feel safe bringing their child to school. The family relies on the Child Care Assistance Program, a federally-funded, state-managed program that subsidizes child care for low-income families. The family would no longer receive the subsidy if the child missed 10 days in a row or more than 25 days of school in a calendar year.

With the girl’s absences creeping towards 25, Clair had to un-enroll her.

“It’s just unfortunate because mom does not want her to not be in school,” Clair said. “But also knows it’s just not safe right now.”

Minnesota is entering the third month of “Operation Metro Surge,” in which thousands of immigration agents are sweeping the state, arresting immigrants — including many who are in the U.S.........

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