When Civics Is Taught by Soldiers Instead of Teachers

In a tense classroom, students try to focus on their studies while watching federal agents antagonize parents outside. (Google ImageFx)

This week, Chicago became ground zero for Operation Midway Blitz, a federal enforcement campaign targeting so-called “undocumented individuals with criminal histories.” The administration has dangled the threat of National Guard deployment, though not yet on the ground. Maybe you think this has nothing to do with you. Maybe you’re not undocumented, or you don’t know anyone who is. But here’s the truth: when a city is flooded with armed agents, this isn’t just immigration policy. For young people in Chicago, it feels like their first civics lesson of the year—delivered not by teachers in classrooms, but by soldiers in the streets.

Across Chicago, immigrant families are keeping children home. Not because they don’t value education, but because they don’t want their kids caught in the crossfire. Schools that were once safe havens now feel like potential raid sites. California saw this. During earlier crackdowns in Los Angeles, kids stopped showing up to class and teachers were left trying to teach multiplication to students who couldn’t stop staring at the door. You can’t expect a 10-year-old to focus on fractions when they’re wondering if their parents will be home at the end of the day.

Interim CPS CEO Macquline King tried to reassure families, saying the district has “strong protocols in place” to protect students and insisting that “school is still the best, safest place for students, especially in these early weeks of the year.” That’s the official line. It’s hard for parents to believe in “safe spaces” when ICE vans are circling neighborhoods and the federal government is floating troop deployments. A hallway poster that says You Belong Here doesn’t stand a chance against the sight of armed agents.

Mayor Brandon Johnson has ordered that Chicago police will not cooperate with federal troops or ICE agents. That’s resistance, yes. But what does that mean for kids on the ground? It’s a reminder that local institutions can’t or won’t step in to protect them. In California, when local police worked with ICE, immigrant teens learned that uniforms were not to be trusted. Will Chicago’s youth who attend protest be forced to wonder who is on their side, really?

Protests are often a teenager’s first taste of civic power. But in Chicago, that empowerment is colliding with fear. Recently, Thousands marched downtown against raids and militarized enforcement. For young people, the don't question whether to raise their voice, they question if raising their voice will might brand them or their families as targets.

When the National Guard patrolled streets in Washington, D.C.during racial justice protests, teenagers quickly realized the government would rather line monuments with rifles than listen to them. Chicago youth are being handed the same civics lesson, and it’s not the one you’ll find in a textbook.

Every raid, every checkpoint, every military threat drills the same lesson into young people: you are not safe, and you are not heard. That message doesn’t fade when the headlines fade. It will burrow into classrooms, into neighborhoods, into the way kids understand democracy in itself. We like to call young people “our future,” but what kind of future are we handing them if their first civics lesson isn’t from teachers in classrooms, but from soldiers on corners and ICE vans outside their schools?

Immigration enforcement is no longer confined to border checkpoints or detention centers. It’s no longer a distant story about someone else’s community. It has walked into classrooms, cafeterias, and hallways. While it remains unclear whether National Guard soldiers will be sent into the city, as it has been done in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The message to is already loud and clear: this civics lesson isn’t about democracy or rights, it’s about fear. And fear is a terrible teacher.