Immigration concerns grow as Trump administration eases school arrest rules

As President Donald Trump cracks down on immigrants in the U.S. illegally, some families are wondering if it is safe to send their children to school.

In many districts, educators have sought to reassure immigrant parents that schools are safe places for their kids, despite the president’s campaign pledge to carry out mass deportations. But fears intensified for some when the Trump administration announced Tuesday it would allow federal immigration agencies to make arrests at schools, churches and hospitals, ending a decades-old policy.

“Oh, dear God! I can’t imagine why they would do that,” said Carmen, an immigrant from Mexico, after hearing that the Trump administration had rescinded the policy against arrests in “sensitive locations.”

She plans to take her two grandchildren, ages 6 and 4, to their school Wednesday in the San Francisco Bay Area unless she hears from school officials it is not safe.

“What has helped calm my nerves is knowing that the school stands with us and promised to inform us if it’s not safe at school,” said Carmen, who spoke on condition that only her first name be used, out of fear she could be targeted by immigration officials.

Immigrants across the country have been anxious about Trump’s pledge to deport millions of people. While fears of raids did not come to pass on the administration’s first day, rapid changes on immigration policy have left many confused and uncertain about their future.

At a time when many migrant families — even those in the country legally — are assessing whether and how to go about in public, many school systems are watching for effects on student attendance. Several schools said they were fielding calls from worried parents about rumors that immigration agents would try to enter schools, but it was too early to tell whether large numbers of families are keeping their children home.

Tuesday’s move to clear the way for arrests at schools reverses guidance that restricted two federal agencies — Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection — from carrying out enforcement in sensitive locations. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said: “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.”

Daniela Anello, who heads D.C. Bilingual Public Charter School in the nation’s capital, said she was shocked by the announcement.

“It’s horrific,” Anello said. “There’s no such thing as hiding anyone. It doesn’t happen, hasn’t happened. … It’s ridiculous.”

An estimated 733,000 school-aged children are in the U.S. illegally, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Many more have U.S. citizenship but have parents who are in the country illegally.

What about the kids in Aurora?

Federal laws prohibit public schools from discriminating against students because of their national origin. That keeps classrooms and other benefits such as free lunches and social services open to immigrant children. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials historically have treated schools — like hospitals and places of worship — as safe spaces, and has avoided raiding them. 

Migrant fears that would change in Trump’s second term were realized when the new administration relaxed guidelines on where immigrants arrests can and cannot take place.

“God forbid,” said Frida Nuños, a Venezuelan mother of four living in northwest Aurora who, since the election, has cried every time she drops her two eldest at school.

Eight years ago, local school districts and community groups were less concerned about raids at schools than workplace sweeps that would lock up parents, leaving nobody to pick up or care for their children. ICE’s arrest of 273 workers during a 2006 raid on a Swift meat-packing plant in Greeley left families panicked not just in that community, but as far away as Aurora where some of the workers lived. As the Denver Post reported, more than 200 students throughout the Front Range came home that day to find one or more of their parents gone. 

In 2017, Aurora Public Schools pioneered a policy delaying ICE agents from entering schools except in “extremely rare situations.” At the urging of RISE Colorado — an education-centered nonprofit that organized immigrant students to persuade school boards — APS passed a resolution ensuring the district doesn’t collect information about the legal status of students or their families. The resolution also prodded APS leadership to create a system for parents to let teachers know who would be taking care of their kids in the event that an ICE action prevents them from picking them up after school.

The district has not made public any new or changed policies.

Educators who have experienced immigration raids in their communities say that keeping accurate and up-to-date emergency contact records is the single most critical step they can take on behalf of immigrant families.

In Cherry Creek School District, where at least 30,000 students from Aurora are enrolled, district officials said late last year they were starting to have conversations to plan for a variety of immigration-related scenarios now materializing.

“We remain fully committed to protecting our students and schools and ensuring all students have equal access to quality public education,” said Abbe Smith, Director of Communications.

Schools work to reassure parents

Education officials in some states and districts have vowed to stand up for immigrant students, including their right to a public education. In California, for one, officials have offered guidance to schools on state law limiting local participation in immigration enforcement.

A resolution passed by Chicago Public Schools’ Board of Education in November said schools would not assist ICE in enforcing immigration law. Agents would not be allowed into schools without a criminal warrant, it said. And New York City principals last month were reminded by the district of policies including one against collecting information on a student’s immigration status.

That’s not the case everywhere. Many districts have not offered any reassurances for immigrant families.

Educators at Georgia Fugees Academy Charter School have learned even students and families in the country legally are intimidated by Trump’s wide-ranging proposals to deport millions of immigrants and roll back non-citizens’ rights.

“They’re not even at risk of deportation and they’re still scared,” Chief Operating Officer Luma Mufleh said. Officials at the small Atlanta charter school focused on serving refugees and immigrants expected so many students to miss school the day after Trump took office that educators accelerated the school’s exam schedule so students wouldn’t miss important tests.

Asked on Tuesday for attendance data, school officials did not feel comfortable sharing it. “We don’t want our school to be targeted,” Mufleh said.

The new policy on immigration enforcement at schools likely will prompt some immigrant parents who fear deportation to keep their children home, even if they face little risk, said Michael Lukens, executive director for the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. He said he believes it’s part of the administration’s goal to make life so untenable that immigrants eventually leave the United States on their own.

Some parents see school as one of the last safe places

For Iris Gonzalez in Boston, schools seem like just about the only safe place for her to go as someone in the country illegally. She’s had children in Boston schools for nearly a decade and she doesn’t expect anyone there to bother her or her daughters for proof they’re here legally. So her children will keep going to school. “Education is important,” she said in Spanish.

Gonzalez, who came to the U.S. from Guatemala illegally 14 years ago, does worry about entering a courthouse or driving, even though she has a license. “What if they stop me?” she wonders.

“I don’t sleep,” she said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about how to look for work, whether to keep driving and what’s going to change.”

Carmen, the Mexican grandmother who now lives in California, said returning home is not an option for her family, which faced threats after her son-in-law was kidnapped two years from their home in Michoacan state, an area overrun with drug trafficking gangs.

Her family arrived two years ago under former President Joe Biden’s program allowing asylum-seekers to enter the U.S. and then apply for permission to stay. Following his inauguration Monday, Trump promptly shut down the CBP One app that processed these and other arrivals and has promised to “end asylum” during his presidency.

Carmen has had several hearings on her asylum request, which has not yet been granted.

“My biggest fear is that we don’t have anywhere to go back to,” she said. “It’s about saving our lives. And protecting our children.”

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