School leaders continue to review and update policies on immigration enforcement as immigration-related arrests occur closer to school campuses.
In January, the Trump administration rescinded a longstanding U.S. Department of Homeland Security policy memo that outlined how schools are protected from immigration enforcement activity.
Following that rescission, and further directives from President Donald Trump ordering increased immigration arrests and deportations, K-12 educators have reported increased fear from families, higher levels of absenteeism, and more instances of immigration-related arrests close to school sites.
Immigration arrests have taken place two blocks away from a school, near a school drop-off line, and most recently, outside of a Los Angeles high school, where a 15-year-old student was allegedly detained at gunpoint and later released, according to district and state officials.
“When children witness peers, parents, or other individuals detained, the image is not easily erased,” said Alberto M. Carvalho, superintendent of the Los Angeles unified school district, in a statement. “These moments imprint on young minds, distracting them from academic lessons and replacing intellectual curiosity with worry.”
Though educators and advocates have yet to report instances of immigration officers entering school buildings to conduct arrests or interrogations, they say now is a critical time for schools to review their immigration enforcement protocols and legal rights to address mounting community fears.
“The reason [immigration officers] haven’t gone into schools is not because they haven’t tried. It’s because schools know that you can’t come in without a valid judicial warrant,” said Luma Mufleh, founder of Fugees Family, an organization training schools to serve newcomer immigrant students.
Schools create immigration emergency funds, safe zones
Mufleh recalls that under the Obama administration, increased immigration raids across the country shook school communities when students’ parents and relatives were detained.
But under the second Trump administration, Mufleh said schools themselves have become more of a magnet for immigration enforcement activity near their campuses.
Compared to prior administrations, Mufleh has also noticed more immigration arrests affecting people protected from deportation.
The Fugees Family provides a public charter school in Georgia, and districts in Kentucky and Ohio with training to support newcomers.
This summer, a former student from one of those partner programs was detained by immigration officers even though he possessed documents protecting him from deportation, Mufleh said. He was later released with the help of legal counsel.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, did not respond to a request for comment on operations near schools.
In an interview this summer with The Daily news podcast, Tom Homan, the White House border czar, was asked about seemingly more aggressive tactics used by ICE officers recently, including a New York mayoral candidate getting arrested at an immigration courthouse.
“I don’t agree with the term ‘aggressive tactics.’ They’re doing the same tactics that I’ve done starting in 1984,” Homan responded.
More broadly, this year the Trump administration delayed the release of federal dollars that schools rely on for supplemental services for English learners and immigrant students, and rescinded a 2015 Dear Colleague letter emphasizing schools’ responsibilities to uphold English learners and immigrant students’ rights.
To help their partner schools, Fugees Family created an emergency fund built by community donations to cover costs to secure the release of detained students.
Other education leaders across the country have taken creative steps to support families fearing immigration raids near schools.
The Los Angeles district is working with local law enforcement to expand “safe zones” at and around schools. According to local reports, police officers will “alert parents along walking routes if [immigration] agents are in the area.”
More broadly, the district launched a campaign earlier this year with numerous resources for families in the school district, including weekly workshops on legal rights for immigrants.
An elementary and middle school in Maryland brought representatives from Mexican and Guatemalan embassies to help families obtain passports for their children, the school principal said. He asked that he and his school remain anonymous out of concern of being targeted by immigration officials.
While the children at the Maryland school are U.S. citizens, their parents of varying immigration statuses want to get all documentation ready in case they are forced to leave the country as a family or are deported and wish to avoid family separation, the principal said.
Advocates stress the importance of school protocols, trainings
The baseline work that advocates recommend schools do to ease families’ concerns is to review existing protocols on how to respond to immigration enforcement near schools, and, if those policies do not already exist, establish new ones.
Alejandra Vasquez Baur, co-founder of the National Newcomer Network advocacy group, urges school leaders to talk to their legal counsel about what is considered school property and thus where immigration officers need permission to enter or conduct arrests.
This definition can vary from just the space near the front office to the edge of a city sidewalk. But as immigration arrests move closer to schools, this distinction is key, Baur said.
She also reminds school leaders to prioritize training all staff on immigration enforcement protocols, and to update those protocols as needed.
Mufleh with Fugees Family added that district leaders don’t have to wait until one of their students, or a family member, is in custody to advocate for students’ legal rights to attend school.
“How many students are not showing up because they’re scared to come to school, or they’re registering online?” Mufleh said.
“I think superintendents have that responsibility to paint that picture.”