The Teenage Brothers Tracking ICE (Advanced Lesson)

ESL/EFL Level: C1/C2 (Advanced)
Lesson Topics: immigration enforcement, breaking the law
Skill Focus: Listening, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: ice-immigrant-raids-boys-advanced-102025.docx

  • The lesson begins with warm-up questions about community and the immigration raids in the United States.
  • Next, students watch a 4-minute video (TikTok or Reddit link provided) about two home-schooled teenagers from Chicago who volunteer every day to track ICE agents in their community. The teenagers explain their motivation for protecting these citizens whom they feel are valuable parts of their community and the value of documenting the arrests. Overall, the video is critical of the ICE raids.
  • The video is followed by comprehension questions.
  • For vocabulary, students match 11 terms from the video to definitions and then use them to create discussion questions to ask a partner.
  • The lesson has two debate topics about migration.
  • The lesson has one roleplay scenario, set as a court hearing between Ben, one of the teenagers, and an immigration judge. Ben must convince the judge to allow a man who entered the country illegally twenty years ago to stay in the country.
  • Next, stepping away from immigration specifically, students review a list of illegal behavior that citizens might do, either for moral or immoral reasons. They must order the items on the list from acceptable to unacceptable.
  • After famous quotations on immigration, students use images and the lesson's vocabulary to describe how they would organize and execute a crackdown to solve one of their country's biggest problems.
  • As the lesson draws to a close, students review the key vocabulary and collocations. Finally, the lesson ends with some final discussion questions.

ICE raid handcuffing an immigrant

ADVANCED (C1/C2) Lesson on Citizenship & Illegal Immigration

Warm-up Questions

  1. How would you describe the community where you live?
  2. When you were in high school, did you do anything to benefit your community?
  3. What do you know about the immigration raids currently happening in the U.S.?

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This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. ChatGPT was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.

Comprehension Question Answer Key

  1. Students’ summaries should include that two teenage brothers, Ben and Sam, track ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in West Chicago, documenting arrests and helping immigrant families affected by recent raids under Operation Midway Blitz.
  2. Why their mother got them involved: She wanted them to take action after learning that ICE was operating nearby and arresting people in their community; she believed it was important to respond and protect their neighbors.
  3. Operation Midway Blitz: A major immigration crackdown launched by the Trump administration in Illinois. Officially aimed at violent criminals, but the boys argue that it targets ordinary undocumented families instead.
  4. Vehicles searched for: They look for clean, newer SUVs or trucks with out-of-state license plates, which ICE agents often use during raids.
  5. Supreme Court ruling: It allowed ICE agents in Los Angeles to stop people based on race or accent, which has increased fear among immigrants in the boys’ community.
  6. Value of documentation: It helps make arrests public, ensures accountability, and prevents people from disappearing without record—especially if no one knows who was taken.
  7. Educational value: Their involvement gives them real-world experience with civic engagement, social justice, and media documentation—valuable lessons beyond traditional schooling.

Vocabulary answer key: 1-f, 2-d, 3-a, 4-g, 5-k, 6-h, 7-c, 8-i, 9-b, 10-j, 11-e
Collocations: 1-b, 2-f, 3-e, 4-a, 5-c, 6-d,

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